Candidate Newsletter December 2007

How Am I Doing? A Question Every Leader Should Ask at Year-End
by David Bratton (Certified Management Consultant and President of Bratton Consulting Inc. in London.)

Taking stock of how we do things is an annual ritual for most of us. We look back on the year just past and think about the things we did, what we might have done differently and what we should do differently in the New Year. One stocktaking exercise that many leaders avoid is a review of their own behaviour as a leader.

You might think you are a good employer and that you communicate well with your employees but, every once in awhile, you need to check your own behaviour to determine if there is a gap between the way you think you behave and the way you actually behave. It is often quite a revelation when you get some honest and direct feedback that tells you that sometimes you don’t follow your own advice.

Based on some timely feedback, you might need to change your own behaviour in order to change the behaviour of one of your difficult employees. While change is difficult, you can modify your behaviour to fit the circumstances. Here are three examples of how you might modify your behaviour when dealing with employees.

Make Praise Specific

For example, most people will tell you that praising an employee for good work is a smart thing to do. However, a generalized, ‘Good job” is not nearly as effective as a specific compliment for a job well done. Telling someone they’ve done a good job just because you think that’s the thing to do just doesn’t cut it with employees. It’s much better to say something like, “Bringing in that new business from the XYZ Company was a really good thing. It sure helps us in our sales effort.” While it might sound hokey, it tells the employee that you: (a) appreciate his or her effort, and (b) that you know what and how well they are doing.

Similarly, complimenting someone on a new suit or something personal, while a nice thing to do, doesn’t improve performance or morale. Remember, the goal is to develop employees into excellent workers, not curry favour or make a friend.

Reward Desired Behaviour

Many managers manage “by the numbers” believing that numbers tell the whole story of an employee’s performance. Not so! There are many examples of measurement systems that measure the wrong things or are flawed in some way. If the reward system is based on that flawed system, there is a significant chance you will also reward the wrong behaviours. Consider, for example, an employee who concentrates on training and developing other employees. The developed employees may make their number and be rewarded while the person who trained them, not making his or her own numbers, is penalized. If your measurement and reward system penalizes the wrong employees, you have a problem!

Money Isn’t Everything

Study after study on worker motivation validates the fact that employees want, first and foremost, a satisfying job. They also want recognition for a job well done and money is often one source of recognition but not the only and sometimes not the most important source. Most employees understand that if they do a good job, they will be rewarded.

Creating highly-motivated employees, a goal that many managers and supervisors share, is not that difficult. It simply involves providing interesting work; giving employees an opportunity to meet some challenges and to demonstrate their ability to achieve and then providing appropriate recognition for a job well done.

Check your reward and recognition system and see if your employees understand the link between performance and reward. If they see the link clearly then your systems should produce extra-ordinary results from ordinary people.

David Bratton is a Certified Management Consultant and president of Bratton Consulting Inc. in London. He also represents Drake Beam Morin (DBM), one of Canada’s largest career counselling and outplacement firms. He can be contacted at (519) 679-2774 or by email: dbratton@brattonconsulting.com

Humour is an effective tool to help us cope with the increasing stress of our workday. It can also help us increase productivity and creativeness.

Don't be irreplaceable, if you can't be replaced, you can't be promoted.
It doesn't matter what you do, it only matters what you say you've done and what you're going to do.
Eat one live toad the first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.
When the bosses talk about improving productivity, they are never talking about themselves.
To err is human, to forgive is not our policy.
Keep your boss's boss off your boss's back.
If you are good, you will be assigned all the work. If you are really good, you will get out of it.
You are always doing something marginal when the boss drops by your desk.
People who go to conferences are the ones who shouldn't.
If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would get done.
At work, the authority of a person is inversely proportional to the number of pens that person is carrying.
When you don't know what to do, walk fast and look worried.
Following the rules will not get the job done.
Getting the job done is no excuse for not following the rules.
No matter how much you do, you never do enough.
The last person that quit or was fired will be held responsible for everything that goes wrong.

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How Am I Doing? A Question Every Leader Should Ask at Year-End by David Bratton (Certified Management Consultant and President of Bratton Consulting Inc. in London.)

How Am I Doing? A Question Every Leader Should Ask at Year-End
by David Bratton (Certified Management Consultant and President of Bratton Consulting Inc. in London.)