How come?
Only 39 percent of the Gen Y workers said their boss did a good job of recognizing and praising their accomplishments. And that’s what Gen Y workers want, according to a new study by Leadership IQ.
How little time and effort it takes to positively reinforce an employee. And the ensuing rewards – lower job turnover, more highly motivated employees, better production – are totally worthwhile.
It’s fine to have high expectations of your employees, but it’s not fine to have employees meet or exceed those expectations without a positive word.
I once worked for a C-level executive for several years (he’s now the President of a company with 9,000 employees). I worked hard for him – late evenings and many weekends.
He’d walk out of the office at 7 or 8pm on a Friday or Saturday night, walk over to where I was working and say, “Eric – you can take the rest of the weekend off.”
It was a small thing – he wasn’t given to extravagant praise. But in that one small sentence, he acknowledged how hard I was working and that he appreciated it.
A small thing – but 15 years later, I still remember it fondly.
Know what motivates your workers. You cannot motivate others – but you can find out what is their individual motivation and use that for the betterment of everyone.