Motivating? Praise Works Best

Q. I want to keep my department’s morale high and my people motivated, but there’s almost no possibility of giving anyone a raise—at least not more than 2-3%. Are there other options? —Dan H.

A. Money helps, but only for short time. And once people get used to the new pay level, it stops being a motivator, and they go back to old behaviors. The motivator that works better—and lasts longer—is positive feedback: praise and recognition. Every study on motivation names these two actions as the top two that people want most. Yet praise and recognition are among the least used—even though they don’t cost a cent.

Suppose you had this choice: You can have a 3% raise in pay, or get honest, open feedback—praise and recognition—at least weekly for the next 12 months. Most people say they’d like both. But if it’s an either/or proposition, they’ll usually opt for feedback, praise, and recognition.

Use a 4:1 Ratio

Studies show that, for any successful relationship, it takes at least four positive messages to balance out one that’s negative. (If you’re in a good personal relationship, you probably know this it true.) But ask yourself if you’re getting four positive messages from your boss for every negative one. At least half the participants in my sessions tell me that the ratio is almost reversed at their workplace: they get four negatives for every positive. It’s no wonder there’s a morale problem in many workplaces.

Try this test: The next time your boss asks you for a meeting—with no indication of what it’s about, ask yourself what you feel when you hear this request. If you immediately feel upbeat and enthusiastic about the meeting, you’re probably fortunate to have a positive, motivating boss. But if your first reaction is negative (“What’s the problem now?”) you probably work in a largely negative environment, because you automatically expect a negative encounter.

Problem Teenagers Get Negative Messages

This balance of positive to negative interactions works in our personal lives as well.

A friend of mine is a psychologist who specializes in family counseling. He told me that when there’s a problem within a family, there’s usually a chronic negative environment in the home. He added that whenever he treats a teenager for alcohol or drug addition, the teenager has received mostly negative messages from parents. He said he can almost measure the increased emotional health of the family or teenager by knowing how closely they experience the 4:1 praise ratio in their lives.

Saying things like, “Nice job!” “Great report…thanks!”count as well as major praises. But once or twice a year you should call each employee in for a more intense recognition of good work, commitment, a positive attitude—whatever behavior you want to see more of. Major recognition is especially appropriate when one of three conditions take place: the employee’s performance exceeds… consistently meets…

or finally meets expectations. Here’s a simple four-step process to give concentrated recognition:

1. Make a general reference to the performance you liked.

"John, you're really dependable"

“Eleanor, you have terrific computer skills.”

2. Give specific examples.

“Last Tuesday you arrived early and stayed late to get the budget out on time.”

“You created an Excel spreadsheet to track errors twice a fast.”

3. Mention a few personal qualities.

“One quality you have that’s terrific is that you really want to do things right.”

“I like the way you look for opportunities to improve and grow continually.”

4. Show the resulting benefits.

“Because of your work, my boss said she really appreciated getting our budget on

time. Thanks to you, we cut our scrap rate by 14 percent.”

A final thought: If you’ve decided that you want to be a 4:1 praise motivator, it has to be something you do all the time—on and off the job. Otherwise, you won’t be consistent, and people will question your motives. And do what Tom Watson, the founder of IBM used to do: if you didn’t get a chance to thank someone who works for you for an especially good job, call that person at home and say so.

Imagine how you’d feel if you got a phone call tonight from your boss that went something like this: “Betty, I got so involved in things today I didn’t get a chance to tell you how much I appreciated the way you handled the ABX engineering problem. You really took a load off my shoulders. It’s a pleasure to have you in our department; you’re a key resource in my group. Thanks for your hard work.” You probably already know how this feels because you get calls like these from your boss all the time, don’t you?