Were you aware there’s a management theory that states you need to be very careful not to praise your employees too much?
That’s right – don’t give your employees too much praise. Don’t spend too much time pointing out the things they do well. It might give them big heads or cause them to start coasting or give them scurvy or something.
Evidently, you shouldn’t be overly critical nor should you be overly complimentary.
The catchphrase on the Lumberghian coffee mug would read:
“Never too high … Never too low …”
I’ve been thinking about this theory for close to 24 hours now, and I’ve come to the following conclusion:
If that’s not the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard, it’s at least in the conversation.
My friend, Beth Chapman, an incredibly successful owner of a long-standing, three-generation family business told me something years ago that’s, thankfully, stuck with me since:
As owners of a company, our most important customers are our employees. If we don’t treat our employees the best we possibly can, how can we expect them to treat the customers the best they possibly can?
Evidently, Beth wouldn’t think much of this other theory.
Thank God.
Have a great weekend.
You got it right. That’s what she’s always taught me. I like to think thats why we have some incredible employees.
My I echo this with a hearty AMEN! As co-owner of a small business I am constantly interfacing with my employees. I have always tried to empower them to make good decisions rather than asking permission for everything.
If you don’t give them feedback what is good and bad about what they do, they revert into a indecisive freeze.
I believe you should give big praise to something that is great. This sounds like Political Correctness being applied to a competitive environment. Ack!
I completely agree, not to mention the fact that your employees are constant spokes people for your brand or your store. If they hate going to work everyday, I as a potential customer will think twice about going there.
I can tell you that I have NEVER had that train wreck thought about employees while I’ve been in Management! I have found that rewarding with kind words and encouragement goes much farther than anything. And in areas of improvement we discuss and come up with a plan together to help. Seems to be working here!
Just one of the many lessons I’ve learned from your family.
Ack, indeed.
Preach it, sister.
I have to tell you when I first heard of it, I thought it was something from The Onion or The Daily Show. I thought it was actually a parody like Office Space, but it’s really true.
Tim,
I used to work for a consulting firm that helped hospitals raise their patient satisfaction scores. So you might think the first thing we worked on with clients was how to make their patients happier. But you’d be wrong. The first thing we worked on was how to make the nurses happier. Happy employees = Happy customers. The founder of our company got that from Southwest Airlines.
Do you think it’s a coincidence that all these very successful companies have the same concept of employee satisfaction?
I don’t…
– Jeff
I think this kind of relates to Isle Corp’s “See, Say, Smile” program. (http://islecorp.com/profile-seesaysmile.aspx) I’d like to think that the Isle is a good place to work, and they provide positive feedback outside this program, thus the success they have with this program. I know that every time we go there I am overly impressed with how nice all the employees are. I can’t imagine that the only reason Isle employees participate is because of the potential for reward.
Well, there goes YOUR chance of getting hired at this company I heard about yesterday, Mr. Happypants.
I toured Isle about six years ago, and it looked pretty fun behind the scenes. I haven’t been back since, but they really seemed to get it then.