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DECEMBER 19

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.”

— Oliver Wendell Holmes, American jurist

EXPAND THIER MINDS

Give people a recognition experience and the employee won’t go back to old habits. And neither will you as a manager.

DECEMBER 20

It’s a date!

PENCIL THEM IN

Set up a calendar with all the important recognition days on it: birthdays, weddings, holidays, Administrative Professional’s Day, the company picnic, service anniversaries and company anniversaries—you get the idea. It keeps important days at the forefront of your thoughts and makes it fun to plan something special.

DECEMBER 21

“I spent my first few years as CEO concentrating on budgets and strategy and personnel issues, until I realized that the most important thing I and every other leader in North America must do is create the atmosphere or culture in which people work.”

—Kent Murdock, CEO, O.C.Tanner

CREATE A CULTURAL EXPERIENCE

Disorientation. High anxiety. Feelings of alienation. Are your employees suffering from culture shock ? It happens when an employee finds herself in an organization where she feels unappreciated and unchallenged.

You can change that, of course. Because you, as their leader, create the culture.

In short, if the work environment is positive, people will stay, and will stay committed. They’ll drive your company forward. But if your workplace lacks employee satisfaction, you will experience turnover and a lack of productivity that will cost you money, ideas and time.

Says Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University in his book The Human Equation, “The returns from managing people in ways that build high commitment … are typically on the order of 30 to 50 percent.”

DECEMBER 22

In your eyes, the glass should be 80 percent full.

WHEN CORRECTION IS NECESSARY

While recognition can be difficult for some leaders , correction is usually even harder.

Here’s a simple formula that will make discussing performance enhancement much more positive and productive. Begin on a positive note by discussing specific areas where employee performance meets or exceeds expectations. In very precise terms, describe the one behavior that requires correction. (Resist the impulse to pile on by mentioning other failures.) Outline exactly what he is doing wrong. Then give him a detailed description of how it should be done to meet expectations. Be very explicit. End by once again expressing your appreciation for his contributions to the team.

REMEMBER:

When meeting to discuss performance issues, your discussion should be 80 percent positive and only 20 percent negative.

DECEMBER 23

Send them off in style.

END THE YEAR RIGHT

If employees reach milestones during the year, give them the week between Christmas and New Year’s off—without having to take vacation time.

DECEMBER 24

The first step is having realistic expectations.

THE MYTH OF THE WELL-ROUNDED PERSON

We’d bet you don’t believe in fairies or Santa Claus (hope we didn’t shatter anyone ’s false reality there) or the boogeyman. But there is one myth that still exists among managers: the well-rounded employee.

We sometimes want all of our people to be perfectly balanced and, frankly, it’s just not realistic. It’s much more productive to identify what an employee does best and turn them loose on it. Finding their niche and excelling there is good for the employee—who feels valued—as well as the company, which benefits from the employee’s expertise.

Now, repeat after us: different is good.

Buy on amazon.com >>

Gostick A., Elton Ch.

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