Chapter 6
The Manager’s Role in Recognizing Employees
In This Chapter
Closing the gap between what managers think is motivating and what actually is motivating
Implementing immediate recognition
Demonstrating the value of recognition
It’s difficult to overstate the impact a manager has on his or her employees. As Jim Moultrup of the Management Perspectives Group once said, “Continuous, supportive communication from managers, supervisors, and associates is too often underemphasized. It is a major, major motivator.”
As I explain in Chapter 4, recognition works. The principles of positive reinforcement and the use of recognition and rewards to reinforce desired behavior and performance are some of the most thoroughly proven concepts known in management today. In a survey of American workers, for example, 63 percent of respondents ranked “a pat on the back” as a meaningful incentive. And research conducted by leadership experts Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner found that 98 percent of respondents indicated that getting encouragement helps them perform at a higher level.
At work, the recognition that means the most to employees is that which comes from their immediate managers. Studies have ...
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