First, a disclaimer. I subscribe to the leadership philosophy that says leaders create conditions for people to succeed. Leaders need to show support for their people. Recognition for a job well done is a leadership mandate. Sounds okay, but do people really pay attention? Based on my experience, pain sells; positivism sits on the shelf.

So it was a delight and surprise to read “Ask Annie” by Fortune’s advice columnist Anne Fisher stating that recognition pays. Citing a study done by the The O.C. Tanner Company, Ms Fisher notes that “People will work harder and more enthusiastically for an appreciative boss, and companies that praise topnotch performance are more profitable than those who don’t.” This study, conducted by the Jackson Organization over a ten-year time frame involving more than 200,000 managers, concludes that companies that value recognition averaged a return on equity of 8.7 percent versus 2.4 percent for those which did not. Research like this supports the ideas behind The Carrot Principle, the newest book from Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.

Many managers “don’t believe in [positive recognition],” says Gostick who with Elton is a consultant for O.C. Tanner. “They’re always the ones in the back of the room at our seminars with their arms folded…” As Gostick told Fortune’s Anne Fisher, this resistance stems from lack of time, need to be “tough,” and simple lack of know-how.

So if you want to encourage your management team to get behind the recognition express, what can you do? Buy them a copy of The Carrot Principle, sure, but demonstrate the power of recognition yourself. Here’s how:

Find positives in other people’s work. At your next staff meeting, before you criticize, say something nice. Thank people for doing the research and doing the grunt work. Show some appreciation of effort.

Talk up the work of your team to the higher-ups. When you interact with senior executives, talk up the contributions of your team. Make specific mention of key contributions and contributors.

Compliment your boss on a task well-done. Find an opportunity to give your boss a pat on the back. Pick out something that she’s done well, such as overcome an obstacle, shown restraint in a crisis, or developed a key insight that benefits the entire time. Do this in private.

Be honest. Do not compliment for the sake of being nice, do it with meaning and conviction. When you criticize, be constructive. Being tough does not imply meanness. Sincerity counts because it adds depth to what you say when you are critiquing as well as when you are stroking.

“Give the person responsibility, a measurable task they can handle, and praise when they accomplish it, and they feel good,” says Carrot Principle co-author, Chester Elton. He told Fuel e-newsletter, “When you have an office full of people who generally feel good, you create a [positive] environment. Recognition, when it’s applied well, can absolutely transform people and the organizations they work for. I see it happen every day.”

By doing these things, could you be perceived as a brown-nosing, suck-up angling for the next promotion? Sure, but this knuckle-dragging behavior will be drowned out by the smiles and thank you’s you receive from your peers.

Will your corporate ROI triple? Maybe not, but you will make your work environment a more pleasant place. You may even encourage some higher-ups to follow your example. Most of all, you will have learned that carrots are better than sticks. But again even an ass could teach us that!

Sources:
“Why saying ‘Thank you’ is more than good manners” Anne Fisher Fortune 4.12.07; “Recognition Pays” O.C. Tanner with Research Data from The Jackson Organization May 25, 2005 www.octanner.com; Todd Wilkinson “One on One with Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton” Fuel May 2007

First published on FastCompany.com on May 2, 2007

Faced with a challenging issue in your workplace and need some good advice? The person who can help you best may be someone you already know well.
Peer coaching is process by which colleagues offer each other advice about issues each is facing in the workplace. The ground rules of peer coaching may vary but they typically revolve around a few key precepts. One, the advice given is straightforward and candid. Two, the peer coach offers advice that benefits the organization, that is, do what is best for the team rather than the individual. Three, peer coaches have one another’s best interests at heart. Therefore, they can be brutally honest.

Jodi Knox, Ph.D., an organizational consultant and executive coach, believes that peer coaching, “breaks the myth that you need a professional coach as the only vehicle of effectiveness for personal development. Instead, Knox, who has helped initiated many peer coaching programes says, you “have paired relationships where your peer coach is the “spotter” for your development.” The benefits, according to Knox, are “accountability, accelerated learning, and emphasis on using questions for personal development.” The peer coaching process is mutual and reciprocal; that is, peer coaches can switch roles, moving from coach to coachee, either for each other, or some other colleague. [It is a good idea, however, not to switch roles during a coaching session. That keeps roles distinct and focused.]

A trusted source
Peer coaching differs from manager to employee coaching for two reasons; one, it is colleague to colleague, title and rank are not issues; two, peer coaches can, but do not have to, work in the same department or function. Peer coaching also differs from executive coaching in another two ways: one, most executive coaches are external; they are not employees; two, executive coaches work on time frames, say three months, six months or a year to achieve specific behavioral goals. Peer coaching may be an ongoing process and may not have specific intentions, save for one thing: to help the peer succeed.

Peer coaching as a process is relatively new, but its roots come down to age old principles of observation and dialogue. Sometimes the peer coach is referred to as a spotter, that is, someone who is looking for what his colleague cannot see. The key to successful peer coaching is dialogue in its truest sense. “Focus on asking questions, not conversation,” says Knox gets the peer to concentrate on how he or she can better “execute your goals and action plan.”

Get down to basics
Sometimes peer coaching can be personal. Two colleagues of mine, both independent consultants, have been using each other as peer coaches. Due to work and travel, they missed a speaking to each other for about a month. One said that during that time he had gained weight. He had credited his peer coach with keeping him focused on diet and exercise.

Peer coaching is gaining popularity, and that’s a positive for organizational health. A good way to initiate peer coaching is to set up a workshop on the peer coaching with a consultant or coaching specializing in peer coaching. The workshop will be an opportunity to lay out the ground rule as well as to do role plays to give people practice on how to coach one another.

Simplicity is the rule. Do not try to do more than you can handle. That’s a good rule for coaching in general but for peer coaches especially. That is, have dialogue around pressing issues for which you can find ready solutions. For example, it is no good to spend time complaining about a nasty CEO or an unfair compensation plan. Choose to discuss topics for which one or the other can make changes.

Peer coaching may not be for everyone, but it is a good step for those who aspire to senior leadership roles within their company. They get experience in giving advice, but more importantly they get in the habit of taking advice and deciding whether to implement it or not. Peer coaching, says Knox, “affords clients the opportunity to drive leadership and personal development deeper in the organization, on a larger scale, in a more cost effective manner.” Making choices, often hard ones, is what distinguishes good leaders from the pack. And peer coaching is an opportunity to refine that practice and build skills and insights for the future.

[For more on peer coaching, please visit Alexcel Group]

First published on FastCompany.com April 11, 2007

Friends

Great news!

My Leadership at Work blog (Harvard Business Publishing) has been selected one of 10 finalists for the 2009 Best of Leadership Blogs competition hosted by the Kevin Eikenberry Group.

Nominees are:

Leading Blog by Michael McKinney

Great Leadership by Dan McCarthy

Seth Godin’s Blog by Seth Godin

Jon Gordon’s Blog by Jon Gordon

Leadership is a Verb by John Bishop

All Things Workplace by Steve Roesler

Work Matters by Bob Sutton

Leader Talk by Mountain State University

Next Level Blog by Scott Eblin

Leadership At Work by John Baldoni

It is an honor to be in their company.

If you are interested in voting for your favorite, please vote at Best Leadership Blog 2009 by July 31st.

Winner will be announced on August 3rd.

Stand and stretch and get your mind in gear. That’s right. When you want to stimulate your thinking, sometimes the best thing you can do is a little on the spot exercise.

Management is largely perceived as a cognitive exercise, one that utilizes the brain to deduce as well as create. But there is an affective aspect to management that emerges from interacting with others, making a connection. But you cannot connect unless you are attuned and alert. So here are three tips for maintain focus that I have learned from three faculty members at Banff Centre : Diana Theodores, Ph.D. and Cynthia Croker and Jack Langenhuizen of Motus-O .

Wiggle your fingers . Extend your arms either to the front or at the sides. Wiggle your fingers vigorously. You can even shake your hands. You will find a delightful tingling sensation.

Stretch fully. With arms akimbo, rock your upper body from a standing position. Gently rock your shoulders and then your arms. Stretch your arms upward and then relax them. You may shake them gently then bounce on your toes. Bend your elbows and push your arms back. There are many variations. Find a combination that suits you best.

Breathe deeply. Stand erect with your arms at your sides. From this position, extend your arms upward and outward. Inhale deeply as you do. Exhale as you bring your arms down. For deeper breathing, you can incorporate a bend and squat posture down to the floor and breathe out as you push your arms across your body and upward as you stand. This is quite invigorating.

You can apply these exercises at your next staff meeting. Yes, people will find it strange but once you make a habit of it, it will seem normal and perhaps even strange if you don’t do it. [Never compel anyone to participate; let them join at will.] You can do these exercises by yourself standing at your desk. Such tune-ups are great way to get your mind focused before you must write something important.

For generations, Asian (and more recently American) factory workers have done calisthenics prior to starting; not only do these exercises keep the body nimble but they also send blood flowing to the brain that, according to research, stimulates neurotransmitters that enable us to think more clearly. Regular exercise and yoga do the same. [Caution: put comfort first; do not do anything that will strain your limbs or back.]

As my colleages at Banff Centre emphasis, there is a definite physical aspect to management: movement. “The desk is a dangerous place from which to view the world,” writes novelist John LeCarre, in reference to altered perspectives that arise from those who work at headquarters and those who toil in the field.

It is precisely to avoid this discontinuity that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard of Hewlett Packard practiced “managing by walking around.” It gets the manager up out of her chair to see what people are doing as well as how they are performing. And if you are going to be walking around you need to keep your mind tuned and your body fit. So stand and stretch.

There is a saying among Detroit sports fans that the two most popular sports figures are the backup quarterback for the Lions and the backup goalie for the Red Wings. That is, fans are never pleased with the star players. Given that the Lions are perennial losers and the Wings perennial contenders, pressure on the goalie to succeed is enormous. No one has felt the pressure more than Chris Osgood. Despite the fact that he has three Stanley Cups to his name (two as starting goalie) and led his team to Game 7 finals in a quest for his fourth, many fans get uneasy whenever he is in goal. There is always the fear that some sure-skated forward will poke a quick one past him into the net.

But this is not a sports story per se; it’s one of perseverance. As so many of us find ourselves battling against the odds, either to keep our companies alive, or perhaps to find another job, Chris Osgood is a wonderful example of how to keep yourself straight and moving forward. For example:

Stand tough. Osgood is not a big man, two inches under six feet tall. What he lacks in height, he makes up for in grit. “To me, the best part of Ozzie,” says general manager Ken Holland “is his makeup. You won’t find anyone more mentally tough.” Despite his approachable demeanor, Holland adds, “there’s a passion burning in him.” Not all of us need the demeanor of goaltenders, but we can stoke our own passions so that we have the determination and the perseverance to continue in down times.

Take the long view. Life in hockey, like life itself, can be up and down. Osgood began his career with the Wings in 1993 but left to play for two others teams between 2001-05. When he returned he was not always a starter. Last year he replaced legendary goalie, Dominic Hasek, in the first round of the playoffs. That helped the Wings capture their fourth Cup in eleven years. But again this year his save percentage ranked among the lowest of all NHL goalies; that is, he was letting in a lot of goals and so the cries for him to leave grew louder. “I don’t care what people say. I’ve played 15 years so I know it’s no fluke.” In short, belief in one’s own abilities is crucial to dealing with setbacks and deriving happiness from success, too.

Shrug off a bad game. Osgood has been notorious for allowing “soft goals” and he has admitted that at times during the season he has had trouble maintain concentration. But he never quit on himself. “I don’t take myself as serious as I used to. You tend to think when you’re younger that the whole world is looking at you when really it isn’t.” He has been benched occasionally but he keeps his focus and does not give up on himself. That is essential when adversity strikes. Things are bad enough on the outside; you cannot it destroy you on the inside.

Derive energy from your team. After playing in his 100th playoff game with the Red Wings, Osgood said, “It’s cool to share with guys I’ve known my whole hockey career.” The Red Wings are an organization that stresses team first; it is a culture that has bred winning. When you commit to the work ethic and produce the team rewards you. That becomes a source of energy that can sustain you in tough times.

One final thing, enjoy what you do. When a sports reporter for CBC-TV asked Osgood about facing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Finals, the goalie smiled. He was full of praise for the opposition but let it be known that he viewed the upcoming match as something that was “fun.” Professional sports are a business so it’s nice when star players understand the game for what it is: entertainment.

Resilience is a necessary trait for all leaders, and sometimes we can learn the most from watching how athletes, especially the underdogs, respond to pressure and adversity. Those that succeed we call champions, and that’s a something we can all take a piece of us as we seek our own ways to battle the odds and win one or two for ourselves.