Give Positive Feedback Just For Doing Their Job! - Part 2

Summary

Podcast Episode Summary
Manager Tools
"Give Positive Feedback Just For Doing Their Job! – Part 2"
Release Date: July 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Manager Tools continues its practical deep-dive into the power and practice of positive feedback. Hosts Mark Horstman and Sarah Hays argue that managers should give positive feedback for employees doing their jobs—not just for exceptional or above-and-beyond work. They discuss why managers miss opportunities to reinforce positive behavior, illustrate with memorable anecdotes, and provide an exhaustive list of every-day work behaviors worthy of feedback.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Managers Miss Positive Feedback Opportunities

• Learned Habits and Bad Models
  • Most managers emulate the behaviors of their own bosses, who may not have set the right example, especially if those examples focus predominantly on pointing out mistakes.
  • "Most managers learned how to manage by watching other managers... This is a terrible way to learn because A) most managers don't know what they're doing." (Sarah Hays, 01:17)
• Societal and Media Stereotypes
  • Comedic depictions of managers (e.g., in "The Office" and "Dilbert") highlight an apparent truth; managers are often shown as bumbling or absentee. Real-life managers mimic what they perceive is expected.
• Focus on Problems, Not Successes
  • Managers tend to focus on what went wrong, not what went right, analogous to media covering plane crashes and not uneventful safe flights.
  • "Your organization is a lot like airplane traffic. Lots and lots of uneventful... Notice. Uneventful good isn't interesting. That good is uneventful." (Sarah Hays, 04:40)

2. The Dancing Bear Metaphor: Seeing What You Look For

• The "awareness test" (dancing bear video) used as an analogy: when you're not looking for something, you won't see it—even if it's in plain sight. The same goes for positive behaviors in the workplace.
• "You're not looking for it. You’ve literally chalked it up. That’s just normal. They’re doing their job. But imagine a life where you actually got thanked and shown positive feedback for doing your job. You'd want to do your job more..." (Sarah Hays, 08:02)

3. The Case for Small Positive Feedback

• It’s Not Too Small
  • Managers should give positive feedback for basic, expected behaviors—being on time, meeting deadlines, updating status, etc.
  • Even seemingly minor acknowledgments build trust and encourage repetition.
• The Lasting Impact vs. Negative Feedback
  • Positive feedback has more enduring effects on morale and behavior than negative feedback.
  • "The effects of negative feedback have a much shorter lifespan in terms of encouraging the right behavior than positive feedback."
  • Examples from animal training and child psychology support this principle.

4. Practical, Everyday Behaviors Worth Feedback

The hosts build an explicit list—managers should look for these daily “standards” and praise them:

• Being on time to meetings
• Updating status regularly
• Commenting code (for devs)
• Notifying managers in advance about missed deadlines & offering new ones
• Delivering work early
• Volunteering for tough jobs
• Freely helping teammates
• Sharing expertise, including AI prompts and best practices
• Following meetings’ ground rules (no phones/laptops)
• Greet others politely
• Not interrupting; making space for quieter voices in meetings
• Publicly thanking colleagues
• Building good relationships; reducing conflict and delays
• Sharing company relationships/resources

Notable quote:
"Do you have all of these things happening on your team all the time? No, you don’t. In part because you’re looking for the exception, the mistake, the error. And your directs know you don’t value these things because you don’t reward them." (Mark Horstman, 21:50)

5. Personal Story: Impact of Unexpected Positive Feedback

• Mark recounts receiving feedback for showing up on time for an early meeting, a basic expectation but one that required extra effort while traveling:
  • "It's the only [piece of feedback] I remember. I literally remember where I was standing in the airport when I got the phone call…positive feedback for that. Like, yeah, yeah, it was pretty amazing." (Mark Horstman, 16:46)

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the dangers of focusing only on mistakes:
  "And you just kind of feel like it's probably written in the job description somewhere: point out people's mistakes. That's kind of the job." (Mark Horstman, 03:34)

• On positive feedback and conditioning:
  "Positive feedback encourages repetition of the good, but negative feedback encourages avoidance of negative feedback, but not necessarily the desired positive feedback." (Sarah Hays, 10:21)

• On the basics:
  "Be the manager you would want to have—the manager who rewards and appreciates the basics. Your team will love you for it. They'll go through walls for you." (Sarah Hays, 23:16)

• The personal impact story:
  “…That moment of like, okay, yeah, yeah. And it's not like you’re really going above and beyond just to be on time for a meeting. In this case, you were a little bit, but I really kind of wasn't. It's kind of my job. Like, I really wasn't. It was an expectation, and I delivered upon an expectation.” (Mark Horstman, 16:32)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:00–00:39: Episode introduction; what questions the cast answers
• 01:16–03:07: How managers learn (bad) managerial behavior by imitation
• 04:20–05:23: Society’s bias towards focusing only on problems (airplane analogy)
• 06:20–08:02: The "Dancing Bear" awareness test—seeing what you're primed to see
• 08:34–11:55: Why positive feedback on “just doing the job” matters; examples begin
• 13:10–16:46: Mark’s story about the positive impact of feedback for a basic expectation
• 17:00–22:28: Extensive list of everyday behaviors managers can (and should) acknowledge
• 23:16–23:47: Summary and encouragement: “Be the manager you’d want to have”

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Actionable Takeaways

• Look for positives, not just negatives. Shift your attention to behaviors you want to see more of—even if they're the norm.
• Offer concise, sincere feedback regularly; it doesn’t need to be reserved for exceptional cases.
• Reinforce the behaviors you want to become the standard. What you praise gets repeated.
• Your recognition, especially for the basics, may be remembered for years.
• Be explicit with your team about the value you place on standard, helpful, and collegial behaviors.

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Episode Summary Statement

The best managers reinforce the right behaviors not just when they’re exceptional, but when they’re routine. Giving positive feedback for “just doing the job” builds trust, increases motivation, and, over time, creates the culture you wish for—one where every important behavior is seen, appreciated, and repeated.

Transcript

[Mark Horstman]

Welcome to Manager Tools.

[Sarah Hays]

This is Sarah and I'm Mark.

[Mark Horstman]

Today's podcast give positive feedback just for doing their job.

[Sarah Hays]

Part 2 of 2 as always, our content has been crafted by Humans Me and is now certified by Proudly Human. The questions this cast answers are what should I give positive feedback for? Does positive feedback require a special or unique contribution? No. Is there anything too small for positive feedback? Again, no.

[Mark Horstman]

If you want answers to these questions and more, keep listening.

[Ali Ozanne]

Hi everyone. Ali Ozanne here with the Manager Tools team. As a manager, your two main responsibilities are results and retention. Simply to say nearly impossible to deliver without the right tools. The Effective Manager conference teaches one on ones feedback, coaching and delegation. The four behaviors proven to get both. You won't just hear about them, you'll have the opportunity to practice them. [e-mail] emc

[Sarah Hays]

okay, so next topic. Most managers can't see this opportunity because they're not looking for for it. Okay, most managers learned how to manage by watching other managers. You're not going to get into class unless you're listening to us. You're not going to get specific. So basically your teachers are your bosses, usually your own boss. Because you get more info, you have more interaction with them than other bosses. This is a terrible way to learn because A most managers don't know what they're doing and B while these people are watching the manager, they didn't understand the role and incentives managers work within. Lacking any other input like Manager Tools, the newly promoted manager will tend to do what her boss did before her. Though it might be good. And we just recorded a cast called the Delta File. Keeping a Delta file about all the things you don't like so you won't repeat them. Folks, I mentioned this already. There's a reason why every comic book or cartoon character or entertainment we watch show the manager if there is a manager in the story. As a bumbling fool and as the basis for many of the jokes. The Office, the English version of the Office, Michael Scott, the US versions. Yeah, I love the man.

[Mark Horstman]

Well, even that guy with the pokey hair. What's his name? Dilbert.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, the pony haired boss. And you know the reason we cite those is because there's a famous quote in all humor Truth meaning humor isn't funny unless it's based somehow on some kernel of human truth. That's what makes it funny, because we understand it's real and it's pointing a humorous light on something that is inefficient or ineffective or disagreeable or whatever.

[Mark Horstman]

That's exactly It. And sadly, honestly, sadly, the most basic lesson that new managers learn from their bad bosses is it appears my job is to fix problems and point out mistakes, because that's what most bosses do without understanding that the road to negative feedback goes through positive feedback, because they themselves have never experienced that road.

[Ali Ozanne]

And.

[Mark Horstman]

And you just kind of feel like it's probably written in the job description somewhere. Like, point out people's mistakes. Right. That's kind of the job.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, exactly. And managers are always worried about mistakes, so they're looking for mistakes. So they see them. So we start looking for them. And when we do that, that's all we can see, mistakes.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, it's like the fish. Fish don't see the water.

[Sarah Hays]

That's right. Don't ask the fish about the water. That's exactly right. Even though most managers understand that good things are. Are happening around them. And, you know, if. If a manager goes through a week on Friday and he looks up, says, boy, that was actually a pretty good week, he's going to go, no crises this week. It's amazing because every other week that year will have crises and problems and mistakes.

[Mark Horstman]

Or being drawn quarter. What is that called? Well, being drawn quarter. Yeah. When managers like, you're being pulled in all these different directions, you're just like. It's frantic.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, it's actually like that meme that was out, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago on social media with the dog sitting at a table with the fire burning all around.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, yeah, this is fine.

[Sarah Hays]

Exactly. Yeah. So we start looking at mistakes. This is similar to the news we ingest. The vast majority of airplane flights are uneventful. They're boring, they're not worth commenting on, but we never hear about them because they're not worth commenting on. But because everything that happened was good, it met the standard, everything was safe. What we do hear about is the crashes, though. Your organization is a lot like airplane traffic. Lots and lots of uneventful. Notice. Uneventful good isn't interesting. That good is uneventful. Yeah, that just shows. I literally wrote this and I describe good as uneventful when in fact it's an event, just like a bad thing. It's not uneventful. It is eventful aspect.

[Mark Horstman]

It's eventful.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. So lots of uneventful good punctuated by some mishaps and tragedies that get all the attention.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sarah Hays]

And I'll just say, if you want proof of that, guys, Google the phrase awareness test. Dancing bear. Should I tell them what happens in it?

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, you might as well. You might as well. I think most people have watched, or many people who listen to us have, but we might have some new listeners.

[Sarah Hays]

So it's maybe one of my favorite advertisements of all time. It was a British TV advertisement. I think they call it advert there. We call them commercials here in the us I think advert is actually better than commercial because actually the way we call it commercial in the US is that's what's paying for the TV show. So it's the commercial part of the show. But in this advert, it was for cyclists. Cyclists safety on the roads in Britain, which, by the way, we need, because Sarah and I have driven on some of the small roads in Scotland and

[Mark Horstman]

the speed limits should not be as high as they are.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. And there's not room for two cars, let alone two cars or even one car and a cyclist. Basically what you see is at the start of the video, you see a group of guys, like four guys wearing black, black T shirts, black shorts, holding a basketball. And four guys, I think it's four. It might be five in white T shirts and white shorts. And they're. One of them is holding a basketball. So two basketballs, one white team, one black team. And the voiceover says, count the number of passes the team in white makes. They say, go. And these teams start moving in and around each other, passing the ball back. The white team passes to the white team and the black team passes the white team. And they're all moving in between each other, like a really complicated dance or something. And you're counting and you're counting and you're counting. And you end up seeing, I think 13 passes is the right answer. And it's not that hard if you really focus. And then it fades away. And then the commentator goes, the voiceover says, but did you see the dancing bear? And they run it back, they rewind the tape and they play it again. And now you're looking for the dancing bear. And partially the bear is black and you were looking at the team in white. But you are astounded. You will be shocked that right in the middle of this, these people passing these balls around from the right hand side of the frame, out walks a bear that's kind of dancing and doing some stuff with his arms. And then it turns sideways and does a little moonwalk right in the middle of everything. And you're like, no, no, no, they faked that.

[Mark Horstman]

So you watch the video again and

[Sarah Hays]

watch the first one.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah. Because you don't believe the playground.

[Sarah Hays]

You don't believe it. And there, there is the dancing bear. And to me, it's perfect. Cyclists, right, because you are not looking for them, so you don't see them. Same thing with positive feedback, guys. You're not looking for it. You've literally chalked it up. That's just normal. They're doing their job. But imagine a life where you actually got thanked and shown positive feedback and shown appreciation for doing your job. You'd want to do your job more and do it faster and do it better. Less problems, less mistakes and so on.

[Mark Horstman]

That's exactly it. All right, so that takes us then to looking for the small positives, that is your team members doing their jobs. So the solution to this, folks, is to be able to give negative feedback. And interestingly, improving morale is to give more small positive feedback about nothing more than your team members doing their jobs. And that means looking for positives. It's not too little to give feedback for people being on time, for people meeting their deadlines. Imagine again, a world where all of your directs met all of their deadlines and were on time for everything. It sounds amazing and maybe you've even wished for that and you've chided those who didn't. Or maybe you've given people who didn't meet those deadlines negative feedback. But has that changed things for the better? I guess not. Did people be more on time because you kept pointing out the fact that they were late?

[Ali Ozanne]

Nope.

[Sarah Hays]

Well, negative feedback does work, but only if you've built the trust and you've shown them with positive feedback that I will recognize you. Imagine giving somebody negative feedback for being late to a couple of meetings. And no big deal, they missed they were late for a couple of meetings. It does happen. We're going to forgive them. Forgiveness is an important part of negative feedback. Right. And then they change their behavior and they're on time. Now you can lock that in by saying, hey, can I give you some feedback? And they're like, what? I wasn't late. So, actually, no. What I was going to say is, when you're on time, I love the fact that you're on time, and I love the fact that I'm able to talk to you about stuff you can do better and you respond. So thank you. You made my day. I'm going to go home and tell my wife. I'm going to tell my husband about this. And it just made me feel good that we have a good enough relationship that I can talk to you and maybe you'll be willing to make a Change. Why is that, though? Why is it the positive so important? Because, folks, the effects of negative feedback have a much shorter lifespan in terms of encouraging the right behavior than positive feedback. Avoiding a future instance of negative feedback is not as compelling as seeking the positive feedback or more praise from our bosses. We hate to mention it, guys, because we're not animals per se, but it's fairly common knowledge among animal behavioral experts that positive feedback encourages repetition of the good, but negative feedback encourages avoidance of negative feedback, but not necessarily the desired positive feedback. In fact, someone wrote to me, some community member just wrote to me recently. We had a podcast about feedback and they made the point that his wife is a marine biologist and has worked with whales and dolphins, training them. And because they're not humans, but they're very smart, you have to talk to them. And many of them are child psychologists. And everything about child psychology says reward, give praise, encourage the positive. Encourage the positive. Encourage the positive.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, that's exactly it, folks. Think of what your life would be like if you gave short 10 second pieces of feedback that were positive for people updating status regularly. I mean, imagine if that happened all the time.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. If you always knew status. And we're just going to give you a list here, folks. We're going to take it down to the lowest possible level. Imagine what your life would be like if you gave positive feedback for your directs, commenting their code. You know what I mean? If you're a software development manager, imagine that you didn't have to hound them.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah. Or for directs who attend meetings and send a quick note to those involved about the outcome of the meeting.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, giving positive feedback to directs who show up on time every day. And you don't have to give them positive feedback every day. You can just notice it and comment on it.

[Mark Horstman]

Exactly. Or for directs who are on time for meetings all the time. Again, you don't have to give them feedback every time, but if it's a pattern of this positivity, why not?

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. And by the way, what if your direct's having a bad day and they show up on time for a meeting and you just say when they come in a minute before the call supposed to start, hey, thanks for being on time. It's great. Oh, no problem. They're going to remember that, folks. It feels good. They're awash in a sea of negatives. They're awash in their own head. Of all the stuff. I'm too fat. I, you know, I've got, you know, we don't have enough money. I don't like my house, I wish we had another car, all that stuff. It's a constant negative self talk for the vast majority of human beings in

[Mark Horstman]

the world, Mark, when we're on that topic, coming to meetings and doing so on time, the only like I, I, and I mean I'm, I've gotten tons of pieces of feedback, positive and negative in my career. The one that I remember more than anything else because I literally remember exactly where I was standing when I received it. Oh yeah, it was about being on time to a meeting. I was in la. And Mark, you'll remember this. This was back in the days when we used to start our Friday morning ops call at 6:00am Pacific.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah.

[Mark Horstman]

So the call started at 6:00am Pacific. I had presented the two days prior and because the meeting started at 6 and my flight was at like 8:00 clock or something.

[Sarah Hays]

And you were at an airport hotel or you were at the airport airport hotel. Yeah, yeah.

[Mark Horstman]

But in order to be at the 6am meeting on time, I had to have gotten up and gotten down to LAX through security into an airport lounge so I could be on a call starting at 6am and I did it begrudgingly. I mean I was like all morning I was like, I don't have enough coffee. This is the worst day ever. I can't believe I have to get up at this time to go to this stupid meeting.

[Sarah Hays]

And at this time you were living in Edmonton.

[Mark Horstman]

Yes, correct.

[Sarah Hays]

So yeah, 6:00am Pacific Time is early.

[Mark Horstman]

It is, it, it is pretty aggressive. For people that don't regularly get up at 2am it's pretty early.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah.

[Mark Horstman]

I remember being on that call and I was on the call and whatever. I had to be there. To be very clear, had I not been on that call or suggested something in the realm of I'm not going to come to the meeting because of my calendar, that would have been an opportunity for negative feedback. It would have been.

[Sarah Hays]

Right.

[Mark Horstman]

I mean I was leading part of the business. I, I'm sorry, what? You, you don't just be like, hey, I kind of don't want to come, it's real early. Like, I mean my, my role was a bit bigger than that. Right. Negative feedback would have been called for if I would have suggested I'm not going to come to the meeting because I'll be tired. But at the end of the call it ended again. I was like, finally got up for this stupid meeting. Wasn't even worth it. Right. Like, and you're just, you're just grumpy about it, right? And I got a call, and at this time, I worked for you. And you said, hey, quick, before you get on your plane, can I give some feedback? I was like, yeah, sure, you know? And I'm just like, what did I do now? You know? And he said, when you get up in the middle of the night to come to our ops call, we noticed. So thank you. And I was like, oh, man. You're welcome. And immediately, immediately I was like, this day that started up just garbage.

[Sarah Hays]

Like, I was the worst day ever

[Mark Horstman]

to a meeting that I had to be at. Not going wasn't even an option, but it was just like, this thing that I did that I had to spend. There was a lot of time and effort associated with doing it. It was just like, finally, like, I'm seen. Someone sees me. Someone recognizes that this isn't as easy as it looks like it might be. And it was just. It was that moment where I was like. And I, I. I mean, I'm not a late guy. I'm just not. So being at the meeting on time wasn't an oddity for me at all. It was just normal, standard practice. It was just like that moment of like, okay, yeah, yeah.

[Sarah Hays]

And it's not like you're really going above and beyond just to be on time for a meeting. In this case, you were a little

[Mark Horstman]

bit, but I really kind of wasn't. It's kind of my job. Like, I really wasn't. It was an expectation, and I delivered upon an expectation.

[Sarah Hays]

Well, I don't remember you ever mentioning this to me, so I'm really glad that I gave you that.

[Mark Horstman]

It's the only one I remember. I literally remember where I was standing in the airport when I got the phone call. Like, I literally remember because it was just like, that moment of, oh, my gosh, really, like, positive feedback for that. Like, yeah, yeah, it was. It was pretty amazing.

[Sarah Hays]

Good next for directs who build good relationships with colleagues. So projects aren't riven with conflicts and delays because we're arguing and skirmishing back and forth. Right. This one person on your team, just everybody likes, gets along with them. Right. And they work at that. They want to be liked, and they engage in small behaviors. And because of that, because they have the good relationships, people trust them and communicate with them and so on.

[Mark Horstman]

For directs who notify you in advance that they're going to miss a deadline and give you a new, reasonable deadline.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. Same thing applies for meetings, right? Somebody texts you five minutes before and says, my meeting is going to run along. I'm A couple of minutes late, no problem. It's no problem. But if it's been three minutes since the hour and nobody's there, you're like, I wonder. I wonder. They're going to. Coming do. They're going to ghost me. You got ghosted this morning, in fact.

[Mark Horstman]

Yes, I did.

[Sarah Hays]

At 8am on a Friday morning. For directs who get work product to you early before the deadline. Right. One less thing to worry about is the deadline approaches, five people owe me something, and one of them gets it to me two hours before it's due. Say, I finished this, you know, God dang. Don't wait till the deadline. I want more of that.

[Mark Horstman]

Right, Exactly. Oh, I love this one. For directs who volunteer for tough jobs that have to be done. I mean, imagine a world where your team members routinely say when you're like, hey, guys, I need help on this. Yep, I'll do it. No problem. I got this. Like, you know what I mean? Just like, yeah, no worries. People volunteering. Oh, every day, all the time. Love that.

[Sarah Hays]

Maggie on our team does that.

[Mark Horstman]

She does that.

[Sarah Hays]

It just. It just buoys. It buoys my heart and my soul. Like, oh, thank you, Maggie. Our new team member, Allie. Oh, yeah. Same way. She's like, yeah, okay, I'll do Amanda. Amanda's Amanda is particularly bubbly. Yep, I'll do it. I think you asked her once, will you take over marketing? She's like, yeah, sure. And then she says, yeah, I don't know anything about marketing. Well, neither do we, so.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, exactly. Neither do we.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. But it just makes you feel like, wow, what a great teammate.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah, exactly.

[Sarah Hays]

Okay. For directs who freely help others even before they ask for it. Right?

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah.

[Sarah Hays]

Just say, hey, do you need some help with that? That's just classy. And it's common. There's all kinds of corporate websites that say, you know, we're a team and we work together, and that's the kind of thing that's a behavior about working together. But it's. So it's just their job. It's just the culture we want. And yet it's wonderful when it happens, and it's a problem when it doesn't. So let's reward the. When it does.

[Mark Horstman]

Exactly. For direct. To share with others what they're doing with AI and share their prompts so that other people don't have to learn through trial and error themselves. Spend all that effort, time, energy.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, I love what you guys have been doing where people come to the ops meeting every Friday and talk about what they're Doing with AI Because I hear people talking about it, like, oh, I never even thought about that. I never even did. I never did. Yeah. Yeah. For directs who follow the ground rules in meetings and stay off their phones and laptops. Right. I'm amazed. We go. We go through ground rules. We're doing a public conference. Go to ground rules. No laptops, no phones, and within 10 minutes, somebody's on their laptop.

[Mark Horstman]

Oh, absolutely. Sometimes you don't even close them until 10 minutes later, when I have the time to walk over to them and ask them quietly to close your laptop.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mark Horstman]

Know who you are.

[Sarah Hays]

For direct.

[Mark Horstman]

Who share their relationships elsewhere in the company with their teammates. Right. I got somebody that could help. I know somebody over there in procurement. Maybe they could help.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah. For directs who freely offer their expertise to someone else on the team who wants to learn it. I'll help you learn that.

[Mark Horstman]

Exactly. Or for even just. For directs, folks who greet others politely in meetings. I mean, hi, good morning. How are you?

[Sarah Hays]

They don't walk in with a. With a sour look on their face and sit down and say, wait. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Directs who compliment their teammates for their ideas. Hey, that's a really good idea. I hadn't thought about that. You just lift that person up a little bit.

[Mark Horstman]

Yeah. For directs who don't interrupt others in meetings or. The way I think about that one is make room for others, like, oh, yeah. They say something like, sorry, just a minute. It looks like Margaret has something to say. Margaret, do you have something right? Because you can kind of make that space.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, I really like that one. Yeah. For directs, you publicly thank a colleague for the help they offered him. Hey, I just want to mention Maggie reached out to me and really helped me on this thing, so I'd appreciate if everybody give Maggie a round of applause or whatever. So then you take Amanda aside and you say, hey, can I give you some feedback? When you thank Maggie publicly, it gets us closer as a team, and it shows me you're a classy person.

[Mark Horstman]

Exactly. And, folks, you can just like. Just like the Dancing Bear video, you're welcome to go back and listen to this list all over again. What you will notice is these are all normal work behaviors, just basic expectations. But do you have all of these things happening on your team all the time? No, you don't. In part because you're looking for the exception, the mistake, the error. And your directs know you don't value these things because you don't reward them. I say this all the time. If you say it's important, but you never talk about it. It's not that important.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah.

[Mark Horstman]

So addressing the opposite of something you want is not the same as honoring that thing that you do want.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, that's good.

[Ali Ozanne]

The transition from managing people to managing managers is one of the most demanding in any leader's career, and you shouldn't have to travel to get help navigating it. The Effective Senior Manager Conference is available virtually delivering the full skip level, Team one and talent managing curriculum in a live format built for busy senior leaders. Next session starts August 25th. [e-mail] ESMC

[Sarah Hays]

so I'm going to summarize. Be the manager you would want to have the manager who rewards and appreciates the basics. Your team will love you for it. They'll go through walls for you. They will become much more willing to hear your request for change, which is negative feedback. That's all it is because you focus on the small positive. Because you said, I see you, I hear you, I acknowledge you. It proves to them that you see all of their work.

[Mark Horstman]

I love that one. That was a good one, Mark. Thank you.

[Sarah Hays]

Yeah, fun.

[Mark Horstman]

Thanks folks. We hope this one helped you. Now help us, help others and tell your friends. And of course follow rate and review our podcast. And remember, five stars only. Please.