Those of you who have requested my 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Your Employees That Are Low or No Cost know that the first one on the list is “say thank you”.  It is the greatest motivator of all!  Today, however,  when my  weekly email from TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) arrived I heard of a new twist on the idea.  

 

Each week TED sends thoughtful and thought provoking videos from their annual conference. In this week’s issue came a 3 minute video by Laura Trice with a simple idea…ask for what you need to be praised for!  

 

As she appropriately points out there are risks to doing this, but the rewards can be bountiful. After all, you will make yourself vulnerable, people will know where you are insecure. They could use it against you, but they could give you what we need!  And let’s be clear, the greatest need we have as human beings is to be heard, understood and accepted for who we are. Yet haven’t we all grown up with the idea that it is better to praise than be praised. Wrong!  It is better to be both “praisor” and “praisee”!  

 

As I thought about how this would work for managers and supervisors in the workplace several things came to mind: 

 

 1.  Think about the people you directly supervise. What is an area you are pretty sure each of them feels insecure about.  Praise them for what they do right in that area. 

 

2.  Listen to the way your employees dismiss or trash themselves. Praise them in those areas whenever possible. 

 

3.  Watch for moments when you thank someone and the person says something self-diminishing like, “Oh it wasn’t a big deal”, or “It took me long enough!”, or “Just doing my job”. Make them stop for a moment while you say thanks again and add something specific about how much it means to you or to the team or how lucky we are to have someone does the job so well. This will help them to take the praise in, rather than dismissing it.  

 

Here is a link to the 3-minute video.  If you can think of other ideas on how to use this idea please come back and post a comment on this blog.   

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/laura_trice_suggests_we_all_say_thank_you.html.  If the link doesn’t work, go to TED.com and search for Laura Trice. 

 

 If you haven’t asked for a free copy of 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Employees That Are No or Low cost you can do so to the right on this page or go to www.keymanagementskills.com.) 

Tags: Communication, Management Skills, Rewards, Recognition, Training, Coaching //