The Five Blunders of Effective Employee Recognition:

1) Blunder ~ “Employee of the Month”

This quickly becomes a game of “Whose turn is it next?” thereby minimizing excellent performance. Check out a plaque sometime and note how often employees receive multiple commendations.

Fix ~ Immediate Praise
Give praise in real time, as close to the observation as possible. Employees are often blind to their own excellence. Providing a specific description for them creates an awareness, which leads to even greater performance.

2) Blunder ~ Asking Employees How They Want to be Recognized

Asking employees their preferred form of recognition will typically elicit a socially acceptable response, such as “I really don’t need anything more than a quick thanks.” People rarely acknowledge their need for recognition, let alone their honest desires for how they wish to be recognized.

Fix~ Ask Employees about the Best Recognition They’ve Ever Received
This will provide you with a much more accurate understanding of what the individual truly craves. While some employees will initially deny their needs, one of the first things cited by an unhappy employee is “no one seems to even notice what I do.”

3) Blunder ~ Use of General Statements

Never use “way to go,” “I appreciate your contributions,” “thanks for all you do here” and the like. Platitudes such as these feel good for about 30 minutes after which time, the employee is no more aware of her talents than before.

Fix ~ Specifically Describe Why the Recognition is Warranted
Employees want to hear exactly what they did that made a difference. It drives them to even greater levels of performance by helping them understand how their contribution really matters to others.

4) Blunder ~ Insincere Compliments

Sometimes, managers use recognition as a platform to let others know they’re in charge. Manipulation such as this is not easily disguised and will most definitely lead to a lack of trust between managers and employees.

Fix ~ Real and Authentic Comments
Everyone shows glimpses of excellence at work at one time or another. Look for those moments in your employees and share what you’ve witnessed. This type of authentic recognition will create loyalty and generate extraordinary performance.

5) Blunder ~ Only Recognizing “following the steps”

Excellence is rarely achieved by simply meeting the requirements, following the prescribed plan. When conformance becomes the desired result, employees understand that doing is more important that thinking.

Fix ~ Focus on Employees’ Ability to Exceed the Expected Outcomes
Rather than legislating the steps that must be followed, keep the focus on the purpose of the role. By doing so, you will unleash employees’ creativity, leading to greater effectiveness and efficiency.

New York Times bestselling author Curt Coffman and Dr. Kathleen Sorensen currently serve as a Senior Partners of The Coffman Organization. Both are the authors of their latest book “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch” due in the spring of 2012.

For more information on The Coffman Organization, go to http://coffmanorganization.com

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How do we burn thee?  Let us count the ways…

• In the hospital, when you are at your wife’s side during a pregnancy crisis…
• When you go out to lunch, and your boss calls your cell to say it’s NOT necessary to come back…
• When you pick up your messages and it’s the phone company calling to disconnect your business line…
• When everyone on the team already knows what you will find out after the meeting…

These are just a few of the ways some organizations demonstrate to people (and their colleagues still standing) that our human resources are our most important resources.  That we care.  Really, we do.

Is it really that inconvenient for your manager to talk to you first,  privately,  in person?

What is it about organizational life that provides permission to re-write the basic rules of human decency?  This is really not a “Miss Manners column,” but we are pretty shocked when being a leader means you can do anything from putting oranges in your pants (don’t let anyone ever tell you we don’t have balls here) to interrupting your child’s birth to announce that you have been terminated.

~Believe It Or Not~

One of the 3rd largest insurance companies in America,
an icon for “family values,” fired an employee via email at 11:50pm Sunday evening.

Indecent seems to be the right word to use when you are told to fire a 20+ year, valued employee because the $400 million dollar bonus the senior staff have divvied up leaves the company a bit too short to afford her $40,000 dollar salary.  Just email her. She’ll find some other job; after all, she knows every one of your clients by voice, and remembers all their spouse and children names and hobbies. That kind of memory will certainly serve her well in the new job market.

We are not big believers in developing classes in ethics, or coursework of that ilk.  After kindergarten, you know that hitting other people hurts them as much as when they hit you.  And you also know that what belongs to other people belongs to other people, the fine print not-with-standing.  Whether or not you choose to live your life by these values is another matter.  A class will only annoy the ethical and give the others an excuse that there is something to discuss.

Doing what is right has never been easy.  Ask a soldier or anyone over 60.  Or ask your children about the choices they are making at school every day.  It is not a generational thing.  It’s a human thing.  Encumbered with the burdens of our own lives we face a fork in the road and one of the paths appears to be downhill.

To that point, a leader we admire a great deal told us this story:
Just entering the shipping department late one afternoon, I interrupted a celebration, with high five hand slapping and people laughing.  The team members were so enthused, it looked like the group was about to hoist “Joe” onto their shoulders.

This is exactly the kind of scene you want to run into all over your organization – and I was eager to get in the moment with them.  I pressed them for the news:  what had happened – what was this success?

With urging from the group, Joe told his story.  It appeared that he had gone to Home Depot to pick up $1800 dollars worth of paint and the clerk forgot to charge him.  That was the cause of the celebration.

“Joe, get your ass back in the truck and go pay for the paint!”

How naturally and spontaneously we communicate our own values!  Without a moment’s hesitation, our leader sent an unequivocal message:  the misfortune of others does not count as our success.  In the chaos and confusion of mistakes and misinterpretations and an uncertain future, we find our way by always doing what is the right thing to do.

We know of an organization which employed a “travel expense review committee” to insure expenses were accurately reported.  Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?  Occasionally, reimbursement was requested for something that was not allowable, and that resulted in “savings” for the organization.

Unfortunately, this group found most of its satisfaction when employees could have claimed an expense (like parking) and forgot to note it on their expense report, even though they had enclosed the receipt.  This oversight was never brought to the employee’s attention and resulted in a win something akin to the paint celebration.

Doing what is right doesn’t imply doing what’s right for the organization over the individual, does it?  The more you find yourself qualifying what is right, the less right it is.

Shouldn’t people appointed to the “travel review committee” actually have traveled extensively themselves?  Those who are never asked to sacrifice for the organization by leaving their homes and families, and never miss a dinner meal or a child’s play at school should probably not be the ones in charge of evaluating the travel patterns of associates whose evenings are entirely dependent on the kindness of strangers.

Layoffs happen.  Economies and fortunes decline over night, sometimes through no fault of our own.  But the way in which we face these challenges speaks volumes about our character or lack thereof.

One organization called several hundred people into a meeting hall to discuss an impending layoff.  Upon leaving, each person would receive an envelope, only some of which contained a pink slip.

When it happens to you, how far down the hall will you walk to open your envelope?  What kind of regard will you have for those who engineered this low courage assault on your self-confidence and security?

When you get burned, the person who guided you, supported you and cared about you, should be there with you, helping you take the next steps just as he/she has been there coaching you for success.  It isn’t necessary for that person to have all the answers, but being there – showing up – is the right thing to do.

Personally, we know some admirable people, great managers, who took the uphill path in the face of these situations and left with the staff who had been wronged or discarded for a cheaper model.  Since their resignation never “saved” that person, we suspect that most took this route as much for themselves, as for their associates, to insure their own solid footing on the path…far away from the slippery slope of convenience.

It’s common knowledge that the essence

of patient loyalty is emotional commitment.

Once on that track, we come to the inevitable discussion of how to create it.

We agree that “WOW” moments make the difference. As an example, one hospital, upon discovering that the best nurses cried with their patients, leveraged this insight by providing the following list of trying:

• Take patient vitals
• Answer call light within 20 seconds
• Cry with each patient, once per week!

This hospital’s obsession with “how” completely obscured the “why.” We sympathize with the abject frustration of executives to create emotional commitment by legislating the steps of service excellence.

Employee Scripting and best practices certainly offer us insight regarding the “how’s” of patient care. They are expedient and easy to train. We can put them on a check list and monitor their progress.

But even the most complete checklist will never stack up against the impact of a simple touchpoint with a caregiver who authentically and passionately responds to the patient’s need.

Although they may be unable to articulate it as such, patient’s instinctively know the difference between a checkmark and an authentic human touchpoint. In our patient experience research, one mother wrote about angels when describing how a physician watched American Idol with her family.

At our most vulnerable moments, nothing less than authentic will do. Ironically, when the caregiver’s words and deeds are authentic, almost any will do. Authenticity is all about why we do what we do.

Why is the reason we would give up everything for our children.

Why is the reason we drop our defenses and to-do lists and give ourselves up to the moment, with a single, hurting child.

Why is the purpose, mission, and belief which give our life meaning.

For our best nurses, staff and physicians,

WHY is all about the patient and their family.

Perhaps we should stop telling them “how” and start asking them “why.”

“Mine! Mine!  Mine!  Mine!”

No, it’s not the seagulls from Finding Nemo, but the latest in self-centered leadership from executive compensation committees and their beneficiaries. Their actions have threatened to steal our hope.

We have long known that the variance within one workplace is greater than the variance among workplaces. The real quality of the work environment is determined by the local work team and their manager. In spite of what happens at the corporate level, the local manager either builds (or fails to build) an environment where people know they count.

In spite of these extraordinary times, the individual manager can still make a huge difference. Trust your best managers to make sure that every person knows the outcomes for which they are accountable and has a true, two-way relationship with their manager.

Only with that clarity and security, can we reach out to other people and teams to improvise, innovate, and improve the very way we work.

People need to utilize their unique strengths and see their contributions are valued. It is the manager who creates these opportunities for individual growth and action and the best managers create them around the customer.

Reflect back on the gallantry and unity of both crew and customers in the “unexpected water landing” of US air flight 1549. At a moment in time when all were threatened, the people amazed us by coming together with courage and concern for one another.

Our organizations and our customers are inextricably tied, out on the wing together. Lets reinvent the way we work together.

What do your customers need most from your business, right now?

Our latest research makes this so clear.

Our customers need us to:

• deliver exactly what they expect;
• make it easy for them; and
• help them get better in their own business.

Great managers know that when they match up engaged employees with their customers, both sides win! So lets depend on our best Managers and our best Customers to help us find the “North Star” for the course ahead.

We have long known that the variance within one workplace is greater than the variance among workplaces. The real quality of the work environment is determined by the local work team and their manager. In spite of what happens at the corporate level, the local manager either builds (or fails to build) an environment where people know they count.

In spite of these extraordinary times, the individual manager can still make a huge difference. Trust your best managers to make sure that every person knows the outcomes for which they are accountable and has a true, two-way relationship with their manager.

Only with that clarity and security, can we reach out to other people and teams to improvise, innovate, and improve the very way we work.

People need to utilize their unique strengths and see their contributions are valued. It is the manager who creates these opportunities for individual growth and action. The best managers create them around the customer.

Reflect back on the gallantry and unity of both crew and customers in the “unexpected water landing” of US air flight 1549. At a moment in time when all were threatened, the people amazed us by coming together with courage and concern for one another.

Our organizations and our customers are inextricably tied, out on the wing together. Lets reinvent the way we work together.

What do your customers need most from your business, right now?

Our latest research makes this so clear.

Our customers need us to:

• deliver exactly what they expect;
• make it easy for them; and
• help them get better in their own business.

Great managers know that when they match up engaged employees with their customers, both sides win! So lets depend on our best Managers and our best Customers to help us find the “North Star” for the course ahead.

We agree that “wow” moments make the difference. As an example, one hospital, upon discovering that the best nurses cried with their patients, leveraged this insight by providing the following list of trying:

• Take patient vitals
• Answer call light within 20 seconds
• Cry with each patient, once per week!

This hospital’s obsession with “how” completely obscured the “why.” We sympathize with the abject frustration of executives to create emotional commitment by legislating the steps of service excellence.

Employee scripting and best practices certainly offer us insight regarding the “how’s” of patient care. They are expedient and easy to train. We can put them on a check list and monitor their progress.

However, even the most complete checklist will never stack up against the impact of a simple touchpoint with a caregiver who authentically and passionately responds to the patient’s need.

Although they may be unable to articulate it as such, patient’s instinctively know the difference between a checkmark and an authentic human touchpoint. In our patient experience research, one mother wrote about angels when describing how a physician watched American Idol with her family.

At our most vulnerable moments, nothing less than authentic will do. Ironically, when the caregiver’s words and deeds are authentic, almost any will do. Authenticity is all about why we do what we do.

Why is the reason we would give up everything for our children.

Why is the reason we drop our defenses and to-do lists and give ourselves up to the moment, with a single, hurting child.

Why is the purpose, mission, and belief which give our life meaning.

For our best nurses, staff and physicians,

Why is all about the patient and their family.

Perhaps we should stop telling them “how” and start asking them “why.”

We are conditioned to be guided much more by what we do not want, than by what we do indeed want in a culture.

Why? The reason appears simple at first, fear always wins out over vision and hope.  However, while some suggest this is human nature, the history of people’s commitment to building great things demonstrates something surprisingly different.

It was our pioneering ancestors who struggled through countless hardships, but persevered because of a vision of what could be.  Their unwavering strength, stalwart capacity, and refusal to settle are directly attributable to their ambitious dreams for the future.  While at times, this pioneering spirit may seem dormant, it still exists.  You see, this spirit, the ability to see what could be and the motivation to build it, can only be produced through relationships with others.

What truly creates commitment and extraordinary achievement is a vision of what lies ahead in terms of opportunity and possibility.  Conversely, fear and an unending focus on potential problems render people helpless and unwilling to move beyond the status quo.  Great leaders, managers, coworkers, friends, and family members paint for us a vivid picture of what could be, thereby challenging us to go for what we want.

Face it, no one wakes up craving a struggle but here’s the irony:  Through extraordinary vision, we can confidently face significant challenge, setbacks, and momentary times of hopelessness.  Focus on what you want and let the power of that vision propel your course of action.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

This maxim from Quantum Physics sums up the sole purpose of The Coffman Report.  Our litmus test is not “do we” or “will they like it,” but, “will the article bring a fresh and relevant view to past and present thoughts around the human-side of enterprise and drive unprecedented growth and change in employees, managers, leaders, organizations, and most importantly, customers?”

Scrutinizing firmly held beliefs will not always be met with either cognitive or emotional agreement, but it will most certainly challenge our propensity to settle for the familiar and the security that accompanies it.

What to Expect From the Report

At The Coffman Organization, we strongly believe that true discovery and innovation comes to the humble and progressive mind.

Our promise is to consistently convey evidence-based challenges which beg further dissection, analysis, and most importantly, discussion.

Expect Things to Change