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MYTH: ONE-MINUTE REPRIMANDS - PUT PEOPLE IN THEIR PLACE

A lot of managers focus on weaknesses. And we all have them. I think that's a fundamental mistake. You have to look at the beauty spots. We all have those, too." So says my buddy Donald Keough, president of the terrifically successful Coca-Cola Company.

"When you do that, and let the person sense it," says Don, "then you get all the best that's in them. And they're not demeaned or destroyed by your constantly reaching in to find their weaknesses."

I agree. Feedback and reinforcement are two simple approaches you probably use in your personal life all the time, but I'll bet you overlook them in business dealings just as I once did in sports. Feedback lets someone know how you are reacting to his behavior. It tells him what effects his behavior is having on his performance and on the people around him. I don't know I am working too slowly on a project if someone doesn't tell me. I wouldn't know I was handing off the football too low on the beltline if my fullback  didn't  tell me.  That's feedback.

Reinforcement goes a step farther. Reinforcement is a way of trying to increase or decrease a certain behavior.  When you spank a baby for throwing his dinner on the floor, that's negative reinforcement. Positive reinforcement supports a person's good behavior. It gets him to do more of what we like, such as coming to work on time or catching difficult passes for long-yardage touchdowns.

There's a good reason for this. Harvard psychologist B. F. Skinner, the father of behavior modification, believes you can work only with what you can see, feel and touch - not with abstract theoretical constructs. He should have been a quarterback. Like him, I find the methods that work and the results you can see are what win games.

That's why, if you praise people for doing something, they are likely to do it again. For your reinforcement to work, it has to be specific, sincere, immediate, personal, individual and proportional to the behavior you are trying to reinforce.

I thought I did this all the time on the playing field. I thought I knew how to reinforce my offensive players properly. If Homer Jones ran a great pattern and caught one of my passes for good yardage, I might utter some masterful phrase such as "Good catch. Homer." Sometime later, I learned the right way to do it. When Homer got back into the huddle, I would say, "Homer, you're responsible for the yardage we got on that play because you ran a great pattern."

Homer already knew he'd run a great pattern, but he was now surprised and gratified to hear that I knew it, too!

I individualized the reinforcement - it was strictly to Homer, not to the whole offensive team. It was personal, coming directly from me. I was sincere. I was immediate - I told him right after the play, not at the end of the game or during the Monday films or sometime the next year. And I was specific - it was the pattern, not just the general act of catching a pass, that I reinforced. It was also proportional - I didn't mumble as if it were no big deal and didn't jump up and down as if we had just won the Super Bowl.  Anything disproportionate will not be taken seriously.

Here's the key: positive reinforcement is generally more effective than punishment. In fact, under ideal circumstances you would entirely ignore what a person is doing wrong and concentrate only on what he is doing right. Sometimes that person is so taken aback that his "right" behavior increases quickly and the "wrong" behavior is simply squeezed out without ever being attacked. Imagine if you warmly welcomed the chronically absent employee back to the workplace every time he was gone without even mentioning his absence. Concentrate on his presence and ignore his absence. What you want is more presence, not a battle royal over his absence. Remember, as in sports, you're playing a results-oriented game. You're not trying to win wars of principle, but simply to change behavior.

Praise can come directly or in other forms: memos of commendation, presentation of the results of someone's good work at a meeting, a notice or picture on the bulletin board (such as the "Employee of the Month" notice used by some companies), positive comments on the graph charts and even approaching an employee for his advice or opinion. Invite the employee to join you in a coffee break; send birthday or anniversary cards to his home; inquire about the welfare of his family.

The single greatest lesson I've learned is that people want to be cared about. People need attention, they need to know how they are doing, and not only the doffers and spinners working on the production line. Middle managers, top managers, even the chief executive officers and chairmen of the board need reminding of their beauty spots.

FACT: People don't want praise so much as attention - you gotta care!

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