How do I motivate them? The Obvious
So it looks like I've been wrong all this time...
One critical skill we teach in performance and leadership programs is the art and science of feedback. It is commonly seen as a 'Tell' mode of communication where one individual relays their observations about another person directly to them (and hopefully in a private and respectful manner). It is a powerful tool to guide people, keep them accountable, and to uphold standards. Over the years I have shared frameworks for having these conversations with hundreds of professionals, mostly in leadership roles. I usually emphasise giving constructive feedback, often called 'bad feedback' required when people do things that make you go 🤦♂️. I spend a lot of time and energy unpacking this as a lot of people find it to be uncomfortable. And, for good reason. People regularly say:
"I don't want to hurt their feelings"
"I don't want to make the situation worse"
"I don't want to ruin our relationship"
PRAISE HABITUALLY
I advocate the importance of improving the giving constructive feedback in all professional settings. It is a form of enhancing people's capability along with their confidence, and elevates eventual trust in the person giving the feedback. Let's face it - the person that leans over and quietly says, "hey man, you've got spinach in your teeth" immediately goes up in your internal trust rating. But, most interestingly, it is not the most impactful form of feedback. In fact, leaders that give high volumes of affirmative feedback, or 'positive feedback' tend to get significantly higher results than those which do not. Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman (Zenger Folkman) have performed tens-of-thousands of 360 degree reviews and their analysis of the data showed this trend. Their research showed that giving small amounts of praise or recognition did little to effect execution results. But, those leaders which did it frequently (the top 65% in this metric) were the ones which stood out in successful execution through their team's work.(4 Ways to Be More Effective at Execution, 2016)
How wrong have I been all these years, thinking that constructive feedback was much more important than affirmative feedback!!!
Those leaders able to praise and recognise people doing things well (as a habitual practice) powerfully drive motivation creating great team results. This is confirmed by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton's book Managing with Carrots, where they found organisations with Employee Recognition Strategies showed double the returns to shareholders that did not. They found there were four key areas of recognition which turned into low-cost-high-return activities:
• Day-to-day recognition - relentlessly recognising the small things people are doing well. This validates and helps people calibrate their actions to know they are on track. It constantly creates connection and sends a signal of care to team members and shows the leader is paying paying attention.
• Above and beyond recognition - Special efforts and those heroic acts our people are doing can come in many forms. People speaking up in meetings when they are usually shy. People contributing to problem solving in a different department or project. People covering for sick or absent team mates. People taking care to not only do the work, but do it in a way that represents the company in a shining light to external stakeholders. Shining a light on these acts is such a great recognition opportunity for leaders.
• Career recognition - finding ways to increase exposure, give learning opportunities, highlight career pathways, and of course, promote from within are all strong motivators. Reflect on the opposite of these and we'll easily conjure up images of demotivated individuals.
• Celebration events - one of the biggest opportunities in our modern workplaces. When was the last time you celebrated a work achievement in a meaningful way? How much budget is set aside in your business for celebrations? What do you do to celebrate the finishing of a project? Things like sending team members hand written letters/cards, sending gifts or a personal message on video can be enough. Or, going for drinks and saying some speeches, to holding a BBQ, or getting performers in for a show... if you can imagine it then it could be done (with some will and attention). Whatever is relevant to your culture, workflows, and budgets. But, the key element to this is to avoid rushing onto the next piece of work. A temptation most of us cannot resist and contributes to our shared feeling of general exhaustion.
SEE THE POTENTIAL
I always try and understand why something as simple as recognition is so much more powerful than a raise or incentive (see: The First Lever). I came across an interesting study done by Robert Rosenthal (Harvard Psychologist) in 1965. He approached a Californian primary school with a newly developed intelligence test called the Harvard Test of Inflected Acquisition. It could accurately predict which children would become brilliant academics. The school agreed to such a groundbreaking test and rolled it out across the school. All students in the school were tested for what Rosenthal called 'unusual potential for intellectual growth' with approximately 20% of the students coming back with 'high-potential'. Many had been poor or mediocre academic performers in the past, but all shared the metrics for great potential in the future. The students and teachers were informed and left to continue their curriculum as they see fit.
Rosenthal returned a year later and his predictions were found to be spot on. The top tier of students he identified as high potential had improved their IQ by 27 points, while the second-tier improved by 17 points. A significant difference to the average of the whole student body (12 IQ points). The curious thing is that these 'high potential' students also improved in other areas and were described by their teachers as happier, better adjusted, and more curious. Also, the teachers themselves found these students to be a joy to work with in the year past. The test had been a great success for all involved. The thing is, the test was a hoax...
The high potential students were in fact random selections. Rosenthal's real experiment was on the teachers and their relationship with the students. He had changed the perception of these students from 'average' to 'special'. The idea of the study was to test the change of behaviour in the teacher's towards these students with a new narrative. The results were drastic with Rosenthal finding four keystone shifts in how the teachers treated these students:
Warmth - teachers were kinder to these children and more attentive to their needs. When we are warmer in our approach to others they feel seen and safer.
Input - the teachers gave more instruction, guidance, and learning material. They thought about these students more and constantly hunted out resources to help these students.
Response-opportunity - teachers recognised these students more for contribution towards class activities and discussions. Like in our team meetings at work we can recognise certain people to share their perspective and give them a platform to voice their questions, concerns, and solutions. We are showing them respect which in turn increases their respect for themselves and builds confidence.
Feedback - the teachers simply gave more feedback more often (as per Zenger and Folkman's findings above). Giving both constructive and affirmative feedback on a consistent basis gave these students clarity of direction and the frequent dialogue propelled their performance forward. Teachers literally and figuratively saw them more than before. Teachers took time out to recognise what they were doing well and what they were not and spoke with them.
All of these are tools of recognition are staring us in the face and within reach for all of us. They are usually obvious low-to-no-cost activities to our business, but take deliberate effort from a leader. I love how the references above tend to speak to kindness towards to our team. To not jump on every error and mistake and scold, or worse, scamper away without saying anything at all. We can challenge ourselves to ask; how can we recognise our team members more often and in more meaningful ways? The connection we brew from this is not only great for business results, but also makes our working life more enjoyable (as the teachers experienced with the students). I also love how this is accessible for all of us. We can implement recognition into our own personal way of working immediately. It can be a part of our leadership brand and create sustainable habits for ourselves to build credibility and respect within our industries and communities. We can possibly turn our attention to how we breed this culturally into our organisations and structures within. How we promote and how we celebrate are some standard examples. If teachers can double the performance of students with these techniques, I wonder why we cannot increase the motivation of our team with them too.
