- Excerpt from The Wisdom of the Flying Pig -
No one responds well to manipulation - no matter how cleverly or skillfully the manipulation is done.
The first principle of effective recognition: Provide recognition in an honest and authentic way.
Some managers think any recognition is good recognition. That's just not true. If your objective for giving praise is to get something in return - stop immediately. That's manipulation, and it is overwhelmingly likely to do more harm than good. People can spot manipulation a mile away, and they hate it. Recognition must always be attributable to honest efforts and/or successful results. Anything else undermines the manager's credibility and the employee's passion, loyalty and effectiveness.
Ideally, the manager creates a climate of support, achievement, and recognition that people recognize as genuine.
We learn a lot from managers we work with. One of these managers told us about the recognition techique that inspired the title of this blog and book. We'll let her tell you the story of the flying pig.
One of my favorite recognition tools is the "When Pigs Fly" award. I'm sure you're familiar with the expression"when pigs fly." That expression usually means something is impossible. Well, I was walking through an airpport, it was in Las Vegas I think, and I saw one of these silly flying pigs. I thought, WOW! That would be a perfect award when people do something really tough. So I brought one of the flying pigs home. Every so often we let our team decide who has accomplished the most impossible task and that person has the honor of displaying the coveted Flying Pig.
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Some years ago, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner wrote The Leadership Challenge, in my opinion one of the most important (and comprehensive) books on leadership ever written. While their new book, A Leader's Legacy falls far short of their previous work, it is still well worth reading.
In A Leader's Legacy, the authors remind us that, "the capacity to imagine exciting future possibilities is the defining competence of leaders ... It's imperative that we spend less time on daily operations and more time on future possibilities. This is one of the very few things that makes leadership different from other roles, and it's critical that we make it a priority."
I couldn't agree more AND I find that quite a challenge. When I'm in the office, I seemed to get sucked into the crush of the moment. It's only by completely disengaging from the daily grind that I seem to be able to take the advice of these very wise men. How about you?
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- Excerpt from The Wisdom of the Flying Pig -
"There are only two things people want more than sex and money - and that's recognition and praise." - Mary Kay Ash
I think Mary Kay's message is that recognition is an elemental force. It propels our achievement at work and profoundly impacts the satisfaction we experience in our lives. And research seems to prove the awesome power of recognition.
In their book, First, Break All the Rules, authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman reveal Gallup research that ties recognition to the the critical business outcomes of productivity, profitability, retention and customer satisfaction. In the largest study of its kind ever undertaken, Gallup discovered six questions with the strongest links to the most business outcomes. One of those six questions is:
In the last seven days have I received recognition or praise for good work?
Proper recognition can be a powerful buisness tool. But there's something else you should think about. When you praise people - when you tell them how much you apprciate them and what they do - they'll feel great and you'll feel great.
Management genius is the ability to see what's right with people.
A number of years ago I had the opportunity to work with a remarkable guy, Bill Erickson. Bill is vice chairman of Kenexa, a leading provider of talent acquisition and talent management solutions. He is also a fascinating storyteller with a unique ability to make the most arcase management research accessible through an entertaining tale. One of his stories was about some research conducted by the University of Nebraska.
In this particular project, "average people" were asked to stand on a street corner and record their observations of people walking by. When evaluated, the observations of average people were 70% negative. The study was then repeated, except this time outstanding managers were placed on the street corner. When the observations of great managers were evaluated, those observations turned out to be 70% positive.
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- New To Be A Leader Episode -
Learn the importance of the correlation between communication and productivity in this week's episode of To Be a Leader.
Watch the full episode.
Our company produces self-study training. Among the courses we've developed is a series called The Management Collection. I know I'm biased, but I am passionate about the principles we teach in The Management Collection. It is my absolute conviction that these principles can improve productivity and profit in organizations while increasing significance and satisfaction for all employees. And yet, more often than not - CEOs don't much care. They don't seem to understand that managers matter. That's why the following passage from A Leader's Legacy struck me as important:
"When at work - whether in the executive suite, the retail shop, the factory floor, the back room, a field operation, or the corporate headquarters - the person most likely to influence our performance, positively or negatively, is our most immediate manager."
Now, that's not exactly a new insight. Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman emphasized the same point with Gallup Research published in their 1999 book, First, Break All the Rules. But just because it isn't new, doesn't mean it isn't important. I'm not sure anything could be more important. Kouzes and Posner, the authors of A Leader's Legacy, also say:
"Longitudinal studies of corporate executives reveal that the single best predictor of career success is the relationship they had with their very first supervisor."
That means the quality and performance of your future workforce might rest in the hands of your first level supervisors - the people who usually receive very little in the way of training and resources. Sometimes leaders need to think about the big picture, we need to look out toward the future. But the success of our companies may be determined by how well we look in, by how well we support and prepare the lowest level supervisors. So I guess the answer is yes - managers do matter.
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- Excerpt from The Wisdom of the Flying Pig -
The deepest craving of human nature is to feel appreciated." William James
My friend, Greg Kirsch is a wonderful trainer and keynote speaker. As you might imagine, his work requires extensive travel. He told me this story of the road and recognition recently.
When I checked into my hotel room, I had mixed emotions. Santa Fe is a striking city, and I was excited abou the group I was speaking to the next morning. But, I'd spent most of my Sunday traveling, and I missed spending that time with my family. I was feeling melancholy and more than a little lonely. When I opened my suitcase I discovered a note tucked into the corner. I recognized my daugher's handwriting immediately.
"Hey, Pop. I wanted to wish you good luck on your presentation. Thanks for all you do. We miss you. Luv ya, Erika. P.S. Luv ya again."
As you can imagine, that note made me feel great. My daughter's expression of appreciation and affection touched me deeply. I wasn't quite so sad. I wasn't quite so lonely. And the next morning I was inspired to do what turned out to be maybe the best performance of my life.
Recognition brings out the best in each of us. It energizes us. It causes us to stretch and to grow. when our efforts are recognized, we feel valued and our satisfaction surges. As our satisfaction grows, our loyalty grows. And one person at a time we build a strong and vital organization.
Two weeks ago, Snakes on a Plane, opened throughout America as one of the most-hyped movies since The Blair Witch Project. Like workplaces around the country, Snakes captured the imagination of most of the staff at Opus. So on opening day, we closed the office a couple of hours early and went to the movies.
The movie offered no redeeming social value (obviously). And I wasn't really thinking about any compelling business benefit. I just thought it would be fun. But then, I read Juicing the Orange, which quotes Harvard's Teresa Amabile, a leading thinker and researcher on creatvitiy in business culture. She says,
"A person's social environment can have a significant effect on that person's level of intrinsic motivation at any point in time; the level of intrinsic motivation can, in turn, have a significant effect on that person's creativity."
The authors of Juicing the Orange also say, "Our primary job as organizational leaders is to cultivate the environment and provide intrinsic rewards that inspire a higher level of creativity."
So I guess we weren't really playing hooky, we were pursuing our creative muse - at least that's how I'm telling the story.
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I've often had a sneaking suspicion that many companies have strong values - right up to the point that it costs them money. A story in Juicing the Orange tells quite another tale.
The authors, Pat Fallon and Fred Senn, are co-founders of the advertising agency established as Fallon McElligott Rice, now known as Fallon Worldwide. In 1997, the agency was about to be hired by Domino's Pizza - a piece of business worth in the neighborhood of $7,000,000. There was, however, one small glitch. Apparently, Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's didn't approve of Fallon's pro bono work on behalf of the Children's Defense Fund.
"Domino's gave us an ultimatum: resign CDF (for which we got paid nothing) and get Domino's business (for which we would have earned around $7 million a year in fee income ... Bill Westbrook, our president and creative director at the time said, 'I don't want it on my tombstone that He stopped helping kids so he could sell more pizza'. We declined the business."
Now that's what I call values. Nice call, Fallon.
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- Excerpt from The Wisdom of the Flying Pig -
There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed." - Albert Schweitzer
A couple of years ago, I was discussing the topic of leadership with my friend, Bob Shoop. Bob is a kind man, a brillant professor, a prolific author and the cofounder of the Leadership Studies program at Kansas State University. (His books Leadership Lessons from Bill Snyder and A University Renaissance, are must-reads for anyone interested in leadership.)
In that conversation, Bob spoke of leadership as a covenant. For some reason, the word covenant struck me as profound. I think of a covenant as a solemn - perhaps even a sacred - bond, a promise to work in harmony for the common good. To my mind, leadership simply cannot be separated from responsibility for the common good. When you accept the mantel of leadership, you assume responsibility for everyone your institution touches, from customers to employees to shareholders to members of the community.
The price of greatness is responsibility.
Here's something most leaders (including me) probably don't think about nearly enough. Employees spend around half of their waking hours at work. To a very large extent, the leader determines the nature of the environment at work. The workplace can be harsh and critical and cruel, or it can be kind and supportive and compassionate. Going to work can inspire dread, or it can instill hope. Your people can be lifted up by what they encounter in the environment, or they can be beaten down. They can go home happy and fulfilled and satisfied, or they can go home, growl at the kids and kick the cat.
You're the leader. You're responsible. It's up to you to determine what the work environment will be like. I hope you'll do it thoughtfully.
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The September issue of Fast Company has a compelling interview with Danny Meyer, restauranteur extraordinaire and leader of the Union Square Hospitality Group in NYC. In that interview, Danny says,
"Virtually nothing else is as important as how one is made to feel in any transaction."
Boy Howdy! That's why I won't darken the door of Wal-Mart. I could win the lottery and still feel cheap and tacky in a Wal-Mart store. And yet, I sometimes visit Target for fun. It's why one of the highlights of a trip to New York is a visit to the Apple store - but at the same time, a purchase of a Dell computer online (as good as the computer might well be) is a drudgery that leaves me vaguely unfulfilled and annoyed. And it's why my recent stay at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago was just so freakin' awesome - I felt cared for, and it doesn't get much better than that.
I have to believe that as leaders, we need to be actively engaged in understanding how our customers experience a transaction with our company - specifically, we need to understand how that transaction made the customer feel.
More posts on: Danny Meyer, Union Square Hospitality, Target, Wal-Mart, Ritz Carlton,
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