Transcripts

Chester Elton, author of the book The Carrot Principle, says today it's absolutely essential to have a recognition strategy. What does that mean?

We talk to managers about being really specific in their praise, purpose-driven recognition. Rewarded behavior gets repeated - if you reward zero defects in on-time delivery, that behavior gets repeated. General praise, which is a mistake a lot of managers make, has no impact - you can't just come in a room and say, "Hey everybody you're doing a great job!" It doesn't mean anything. Specificity, purpose-driven, that's the right way to do it, "Boy, I really appreciate you staying late last night and taking care of that customer even though you stayed past your shift time. You know we were short-staffed that day and he's really critical to our business. You could have said, hey my time is up and left, but you didn't."

If you doubt the power of recognition in the workplace…

Here's some interesting numbers for you: seventy-nine percent of people interviewed left their jobs not because they were underpaid, but because they were under-appreciated. Compensation and benefits get people in the door - it's the recognition and appreciation that keeps them there.

You can link to Chester's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net - I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.