recognition

Catch Them Doing It Right

First published in the Management Chronicles of Better Software Magazine, January – February, 2008 issue. It’s also posted on the stickyminds website. <> A smile formed on Eleanor’s face as she saw me approach her doorway. She and I were meeting to discuss her views on recognizing and rewarding employees. She had been my manager [...]

Read the full article →

Appeal with Emotion, Confirm with Logic

A friend shook me up yesterday when he asked me, “Do you appeal to potential customers using emotion or logic?” I wanted to say both. But @#$!, the true answer was logic. Logic is a good thing. But when people make decisions, emotion trumps logic. What makes the heart pump faster for organizational decision makers? [...]

Read the full article →

Manager is Junior Engineering

My friend Mitch was telling me this morning more about how his company was losing hundreds of millions of dollars because they couldn’t execute their plans (see my earlier post Key Person Won’t Participate). He mentioned that he had a one-on-one meeting with his manager to discuss how his work would drastically alter one-third of [...]

Read the full article →

Catch Them Doing It Right

Rewards can be powerful management tools, but only if you implement them effectively. Discover how the right timing and getting to know your employees better can improve the impact of your recognition methods.  My article Catch Them Doing It Right was published in the January, 2008 issue of Better Software Magazine. Check out a copy [...]

Read the full article →

Reenergize Action with Appreciative Feedback

All work requires energy. Middle-managers who divert all energy to new actions fall into a common trap: They fail to reenergize existing actions, which may kill the success of new actions. Middle management success depends on fueling both new and existing actions. How can appreciative feedback help you discover existing, effective actions and preserve them? [...]

Read the full article →

Rethinking Employee Rewards, Part 1

I surveyed ten of my colleagues from different high-tech companies about the state of employee rewards programs at their company. One colleague told me about the outstanding reward programs where he works. The other nine colleagues told me something much different. Their feedback is easily summarized as follows: “Our reward programs are pathetic!” What’s the [...]

Read the full article →

Go Dark Loudly

The answer is “X has gone dark”. The question is “What frustrates me?” I don’t like feeling frustrated. As a member a geographic team, I communicate with my teammates by either email or phone. Sometimes teammates go dark—they completely stop communicating. Paul went dark recently. Attempts to contact him by email received no reply, calls [...]

Read the full article →