Many managers don’t realize that they make their job harder than it needs to be. Here are a few ways they do that and what to do instead.

1. Give more work to good employees and give poor performers a free ride – It is easy for a manager to take advantage of the employees who are easier to motivate and deal with by getting them to do more work. This eventually causes resentment in the good employee. In the meantime, the less driven employee gets away with doing less – this is especially aggravating when both employees are paid the same.

What should the manager do – give praise to the good employees and correct the performance of poor performers – the goal is not to punish the poor performer, just to correct their performance.

2. Give everyone the same job assignments – the boss can take the easy way out by giving everyone the same job tasks day in and day out. The manager is creating future problems for themselves because if the person who they normally ask to do a certain job is absent, then the manager is stuck when he or she needs to give the job to someone else. And the employees get bored which decreases their motivation and productivity and it becomes just a job. Managers should spread around the duties as much as possible to give everyone a new challenge to keep things fresh and build flexibility.

3. Make decisions the employees can make – the boss that needs everyone to bring them every little decision will quickly become overstressed and burned out, plus the employees are not accountable. In most organizations the decisions are made one or two levels higher than they need to be, often by managers who are too far away from the situation to make the best call every time. Instead, managers should coach employees to make decisions on their own. Initially the manager can begin by asking for employee input on decisions and then coach them through thinking about the consequences of their suggestion. As the employee shows the capacity to make the right call, the manager can release decision making authority to the employees.

I want to begin with an observation about how people seem to be unable to receive praise for a job well done – I want people to get better at receiving thanks and praise with grace – if someone offers you a compliment, rather than making light of it, or deflecting the praise – say “Thank you, I appreciate that!” You honor the other person and make yourself feel good.

1. Showing appreciation to staff – managers should provide 10 times the amount of positive feedback for every 1 corrective or negative comment. Since most people want attention, they will behave negatively if that is what will get the attention of their manager. Even though people are paid to be at work, the manager should say thank you for a job well done.

2. Showing appreciation to coworkers – with so much of our lives spent at work, let’s go out of our way to say thank you when other people help us out. It will reinforce those positive behaviours.

3. Showing appreciation to your boss – You’ve heard the saying its lonely at the top. If you think you don’t receive enough praise, it gets even worse in management. When your boss does something you appreciate, tell him or her about it and you will get more of the same.

4. Appreciate your customers – this seems like common sense and yet people often complain about their customers – the customer is why you get a paycheck – let’s be appreciative to our customers and for the opportunity to solve their problems.

5. Appreciate your suppliers – lately, many companies have been beating up their suppliers when they should be appreciating them more. Suppliers are a crucial part of your company’s success and saying thank you will maintain a positive working relationship.

6. Appreciate your family and friends – reinforce the kinds of behaviours you want to see in your family and friends and you will attract more positives into your life.

We love it when listeners send us a question or issue – and I was happy to respond with specifics directly to the listener – and I thought this issue would be of interest to many other listeners…

The question is – Is it a good idea to have an employee of the month recognition program.

The general answer is “no” – an employee of the month type of recognition is generally not a good recognition program for a number of reasons:

1. It only recognizes one person – we know that recognition is a powerful motivator so why save it for only one person – in most organizations there are a few employees who stand out above the others anyway – so sometimes the same people win the prize over and over and the other employees give up hope in ever being able to win.

2. It can create unhealthy competition – for those who covet the recognition, it may cause them to compete with their co-worker – I caution organizations not to create a competitive spirit within their organization – compete with outside competitor, not between people and departments within.

3. It can make managers lazy in terms of other more regular forms of recognition – the kind that they give out on a day to day basis when people do a good job.

4. It can cause resentment – the listener who wrote in on this issue said that her daughter was becoming demotivated because, despite doing the things she thought would earn her the recognition – she was overlooked and wondered if she should even bother trying. So it can make some good performers demotivated if they aren’t recognized.

Some possible solutions:

1. Recognition is important – managers should steer away from from formalized programs until they master the art of giving people verbal feedback on a regular basis. Leaders not to give people positive reinforcement when they do a good job.

2. If you are going to create a program, make it so that a number of people can win by achieving a certain threshold or target. Make the target high enough that it is an accomplishment but not so high that it is impossible.

3. Give people a choice of recognition – different people want different things – so perhaps offer a family oriented gift for those with families, a gift certificate so a person can buy themselves something nice, etc.

4. Change it up to keep it fresh – Recognition programs can become stale – so reenergize them to keep them fresh – track something different or offer different prizes.