You want people to follow you?
Give ‘em extra credit. By that, I mean make sure you’re giving them lots of credit when they perform. More than you “think” they need.
I’ve actually had discussions with managers who say to me, “Why should I point out when my employee is doing the job correctly or well? It’s his (or her) job to do it that way!” Fortunately, this attitude is starting to disappear.
Let’s face it. Most of us work in jobs where we’re highly unlikely to ever get a standing ovation – let alone an Oscar or a Tony. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to hear that we’re doing well.
I’ve read that the typical employee gets 16 pieces of negative feedback on their performance for every ONE positive. Things like,
“Your report was 3 hours late.”
“You didn’t bring enough copies for everyone.”
“I noticed you seemed reluctant to embrace the new direction we’re taking on this project.”
“Don’t you think you said enough at that meeting today?”
Bring your ratio of negative to positive feedback from 16/1 down to 4/1.
Try that for a week and see what happens.
Good leaders take the blame, and (freely) give away the credit.
This article is part of a series of 26 posts for the month of April called “Blogging from A to Z,” an idea first suggested by Arlee Bird of Tossing It Out.
