It’s amazing when you think about the correlation between encouragement and labour…
I don’t quite understand how this behavioural phenomenon works, but the results are always the same…
A person who feels appreciated, will always do more – this is true 100% of the time. My Mother would often say to me as a child that a little encouragement sweetens labour. Wise words from a woman who understood that the real intrinsic motivator lies in appreciating the effort of others…
This often came in the form of cooking lunch for a general contractor who was doing work around the house for us in addition to their regular monetary payment. She always went above and beyond, and some how that encouraged the people around her to do the same…
Business Leader – try recognizing the contributions of that employee with a lunch or a gift card for Amazon. If a gift card is not your thing, then a verbal acknowledgement has an equally positive impact on behaviour – “I saw the work you did for this project, and you did an excellent job – thank you!” (followed up with an Amazon gift card 😉)…
We’ve done a great job of normalizing excellence – let’s get back to openly recognizing the contributions of our employees and loved ones…
Leadership does not need to be treated like a mathematical equation…..this will challenge a lot of engineers!
