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The Conscious Entrepreneur | Leadership, Self-Awareness & Mindset
EP 108: The Simplest (and Cheapest) Way to Keep Your Best People
00:23:54
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A
Employee recognition is common sense, but let's face it, it's rarely common practice. Dr. Bob Nelson, author of more than 30 books on employee motivation and engagement, is here to bring us back to the basics. His advice isn't theory, it's timeless. These are low to no cost ways.
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B
To meet human needs.
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A
And when you get it right, your workplace becomes more profitable, more loyal, and truly a lot more fun. But when you get it wrong, you, you pay for it in turnover, potentially unhappy customers, and a culture that could.
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B
Be a whole lot better.
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A
Let's get into it. You're listening to the Conscious Entrepreneur and I'm Sarah Lockwood. This is the only podcast completely dedicated to the well being of entrepreneurs. It's where we do the inner work.
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B
To become the leaders our businesses truly need. A thriving business starts with a thriving you. Let's get into it. Welcome, Dr. Bob, to the Conscious Entrepreneur podcast. I'm so happy to have you here today.
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C
Thank you, Sarah. I'm pleased to be here.
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B
Today we're going to talk about the right way to recognize employees, to motivate them, to help them find more engagement in the organization. This is an age old problem. This is something managers have been struggling with since the beginning of time. But I do think the landscape has gotten more challenging as we've encountered remote work. We have more globally dispersed workforces and the new problem, or the old problem of feeling like the kids these days are just different. So I'd love to get your take on just the topic of recognition and motivation and how that's changed maybe over the last few years.
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C
Sure. Well, it's a very simple topic which is part of the problem because we think things that are simple must be easy. And sometimes it can be simple, but if you're not doing it, you're not getting the result. And, and that's a very common problem that we have recognition here. It's called a paycheck. Let me know who isn't satisfied with that, we'll get rid of them. There's the door. Don't like it here. So old line management is yet another hamper to making this happen. And that's very common. The older generations, of course, are on the top of the organization. And, and if they say, I don't need it, no one, I want anything, no one needs to thank me. So they assume that they shouldn't have to do that for their people who probably aren't making as much and aren't as excited about the work they're doing. And that is a bad miscalculation. Because they probably need it. They definitely need it more. And part of just thanking someone helps them be excited about the job they're doing.
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B
Yeah. I mean, it's an age old problem and the stakes are higher than ever. Right. Because we know that even in what I consider older generations, the millennials, they're not staying in the workforce. Our parents stayed in jobs for years and years and years and now even the millennials are leaving. I think stats have been saying under two years of tenure is the average. And it may be even shorter amount of time for Gen Zs who feel like they can cross the street and go some somewhere else.
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C
Exactly right. They are. And they're proud to be job hoppers and they're, you know, they know someone that's doing something exciting, they got a new app or, you know, and they're quick to hop and go check that out. Yeah.
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B
And even values seem like they've changed. Right. I have the impression that Gen Z cares tremendously about the values of the company and social issues that may not have really even been on the radar of our generation or older generations who maybe, you know, in leadership or management phases today. So I know one of the things I love about your books, you know, 30 books that you've written, you know, really, you often share a lot of very practical tips for how a manager can bring this into their day to day. And I'd love to just start there, you know, tell us like a fundamental best practice that, you know, may be simple but isn't being used maybe starting even when you onboard an employee, do you have tips around that timeframe so you can get started on the right foot?
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C
Well, yes, I do sit down with someone that just started for coffee or lunch or whatnot and it's your first chance to really get to know them better. And so, Jerry, tell me about yourself. Of all the places you could have worked in Denver, what was it that brought you here? Why are you excited to be here? What do you hope to learn while you're here? How can I help you learn that? Where do you want to be five years from now? And if you don't know, that's okay. But we're going to keep talking about that, so you might want to think about it. That's a pretty good place to start because, you know, Jerry, whatever your goals are, my job is to help you reach those goals. And we're going to, you know, we got work to do to get there and we're going to have some fun along the way. But I want you to be successful. So I can be successful. Boy, that's a pretty strong place to start. And you'll find a new energy right there from the employee because now they got someone that's got their back, that's looking out for them, that's looking where they're heading next. And most people don't have that. Once you do, you think twice about leaving it.
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B
Yeah, I like you modeling what that conversation could sound like. I've heard people say you should ask explicitly, how do you like to be acknowledged?
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C
That certainly is when you, hey, when you do a good job, how. How do you like to be recognized? And some people might say, oh, you don't need to do that. I, you know, I. And well, no, I know I'm going to want to do that. So I, I want to make sure I get it right. So I don't want to do something that, that, that you don't like or embarrasses you or whatever. So, so. And, and again, you can think about it. We don't have to tell me right now, but I don't want to be guessing because it's important to me. When you do a good job, I want to make sure that I do something that's meaningful to you. Not just meaningful to me, but meaningful to you. Or not meaningful to someone else that works here, but meaningful to you. So what is it you like? More visibility for your work? More. You know, there's the, the. I couldn't have written a book called A Thousand One Ways to Reward Employees if I didn't think. Recognition is all around us every day, just waiting for you to reach out and grab it and to apply it here and now as the occasion arises. So that's another thing. It's like, you know, for a lot of old line companies, old line practices, well, we're gonna, end of the year, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna take two or three people and put them on stage. And, you know, they did a great job. What about everyone else? They showed up, they were working hard. That's. That is a problem because you're not going to get the best from everyone by picking out a couple people and said, these guys are superstars. You guys are scum, you know, and it's. You want to move the middle. So basically you want everyone that works for you to feel valued. Yeah. And I'm not talking about, you know, just puffery or flattery. I'm talking about when they do a good job, you want to notice.
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B
I love that. And you know, you, you Make a great point about, you know, we have a lot of listeners here from people who are, you know, very small teams, maybe five or less people, all the way up to really big organizations. And one of the objections that I hear is like, well, I don't have any money or I don't have a budget for this. And I'm hearing you say that there are so many things that, that don't cost any money. Like maybe you could share a few of those ideas.
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C
The top motivators are all no cost. You know, so number one, thanking someone when they do a good job. Two way communication where people could ask a question, get an answer, not get their head taken off. Certainly involvement in decisions, especially those that affect the employer and the work they're doing. 89% of employees want to be involved in decisions at work if they make a mistake. And people, everyone makes mistakes supporting them even though they made a mistake. You know, maybe I end up saying maybe I don't think I would have done it the same way. But what'd you learn from that mistake? Boy, that's good. I'm glad you made it because you're not gonna make that mistake again, are you? No, I'm not. Okay, well we're heading the right direction then. And so those are asking people you want to, you want a cheap motivator? Ask people for their ideas for how we can do things better around here. Because you might think you have all the answers, but the person, you really got to tap into, the person that's doing the job and they, and the constraints they have and the person they're dealing with and the systems they're dealing with, get into, get into their head. And you do that by asking what's it going to cost you to ask a question? Anyone have any suggestion for how we can do things better around here? How we could save money, how we can make more money? Let me tell you that's. And then if they have a good idea, give them permission to pursue it, given its autonomy. And, and I worked with a company in Connecticut, Boardroom Inc. They do newsletters and they do these big oversized books. And they started a thing where they asked everyone to turn in two ideas every week for how we can streamline processes, improve customer support, whatever. And you know, they got, they got thousands of ideas. They didn't implement all of them, but they implemented enough of them to make a huge difference within. They had a five fold increase in their revenues in a three year period just by asking for ideas. And they, and they didn't give Those ideas to a committee to review them once a quarter and basically, you know, send out form letters that say, here's where we're not going to use your silly idea. What do you know about purchasing? What gives you the right to tell us what we should be doing? Then do that. They, they got, they asked for volunteers in the work group and they changed it each week and they said now we want ideas. So that Rule 1 is to thank people for turning an idea and if it's a good one, tell them. And so here they're turning ideas and someone's going to, this is a great idea. You should really do this one. Let us know if we can help you implement your idea. Who's got more energy for the idea than the person came up with it to begin with?
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B
Yeah, no, that's a great suggestion. I love that idea because you're getting the benefit of insights you may not have as a leader. Because often we don't have the same point of view on the challenges.
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C
And so no, we definitely don't. CEO is looking at outside the company and maybe the job, maybe they started in a job inside the company, but they've moved on from there and now there's other people doing that and circumstances have changed. So you can't have the answers to something that doesn't exist anymore. You gotta tap into the people that are doing it now. I'll give you just one, I remember just one suggestion. They had a shipping clerk, hourly paid employee that had this one suggestion one week that, hey, next time we get this book that we sell printed, if we could trim the paper size, he said, by a sixteenth of an inch, I think it'll save us some cost in shipping. And they cut up a book. Is he right? He's right. And they made that one change and they saved half a million dollars in postage fees the first year. The CEO, CEO told me, Bob, I worked in a mail order for 28 years. I didn't even know there was a fourth class postal rate. The kid that's staring at the chart day in and day out, he knew there was, oh, we missed it again. So just tapping into people, what they know, you know, is, is key. Or, or give you another example. This, I'm all about examples, real examples. You don't have to make up stuff because the reality is out there. There's Johnsonville, Johnsonville Foods, the makers of Johnsonville Brats.
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B
Yeah.
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C
CEO Ralph Stair, I remember him telling me that his, his admin one day said, Mr. Stair, you know, we have such a great Product, Why don't we sell it directly to customers? We sell it all through a broker and a middleman. And Ralph said, well, if she'd asked that a couple years earlier, he would have said, well, Jane, that's why we make the big decisions up in management. You type the letters. And he didn't say that. He said, jane, why don't you look into that and see what you find out. Fast forward 18 months later. Jane's running a new division of sales directed to customers that in the first year made $2 million. And now she's got a department helping her do it. It's all, every employee, I really believe this. Every employee's got a $50,000 idea if you can just let them get it out.
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B
And who's more engaged in a company than the person who's being listened to and gets to put their exciting ideas into action. So that's a win. Win all around. Plus, the people around them see that happen and are also inspired to think, well, if it could happen to them, it could happen to me. It's very contagious culture. Yeah, that's a great contagious.
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C
It all starts with the leader. People don't care how much you know till they know how much you care. So the leaders got to show that you matter being here. And if that's not true or if they think, well, you got to pay your dues, I paid my dues. And don't hold your breath. The younger generation is not going to pay their dues. You either meet them where they're at and energize them. Now find out what they're excited about and make sure they get in some of that and the work they're doing right now, or they're going to be gone tomorrow. Most younger generation, most, most of them, they already got one foot out the door when they start. They, they've got their, their resume on online services. They get pinged if someone looks at their resume. So if you, if you want to keep them, you got to show them, hey, wow, you're doing a great job. Not made up. But when they do, that means you got to be on the lookout to say, when did they do a good job? And you got to know you can't just wing it. So there's a little, a little effort involved, a little, little thoughtfulness. But money, you know, for, for the younger generation, 88 say money's not their top motivator. They want to be excited with what they're doing with their life. They want, they want to be the Gen Z is very socially conscious. They want to work for a company that's making a difference in the world. It's making it a better place to live. We're not just doing widgets to earn more money. They want to feel proud and where they work and it starts with them feeling special for the job they do.
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B
That is so important and I love that you said that. It is not a new idea and it is not super complicated. But I think we get all benefit from being more thoughtful every single day about how we build this into our own day to day activities and into the teams and culture of our company. Sort of one little step at a time. So you know, it never hurts to be reminded of fundamentals which this is one of. Which this is one. And I guess I'd like to just sort of ask you one last question as we're leaving the conversation and that is, you know, as we have global workforces and diverse teams so I know a lot of people have for example a lot of vas or people who aren't in the same place in the world. Obviously recognition, appreciation, some of the intangible things that you're talking about are easy to do for everyone. But how do you recommend doing things where maybe you can't send Starbuck gifts card because maybe there's no Starbucks or that kind of thing?
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C
Well, there's no one answer. So you have to find out what would work in that, in that environment. And, and even like next time you meet on Zoom before you. Hey, before we get into our agenda, this is. I want to just take a minute here and go around the group and ask, ask everyone what they feel good about something that they recently achieved and, and you know, 10 minutes later you got. And, and, or to say if there's anyone in our group that you should thank for something they've done for you. Anyone And a simple thing like that and 10 minutes later everyone has had a chance to share to something they're excited about that's contagious and it makes it so you don't even have to be together to make this happen. Hyatt Corporation, the hotel chain, they, they do a thing with their virtual employees where they, they call, they, they do it, they call it a buddy recognition buddy where they ask everyone in their work group to find. They assign them to someone else versus another virtual person in their work group and then for that person they're, they're doing it for someone else to, to keep an eye on what this person's doing and thank them for us when they do a good job. It's a buddy system, kind of like a secret Santa, you know, and it works, it connects them or they do a. When they start, when they first, someone first starts, they have a, you know, get to know me page and then the person does, you know, maybe a video, video clip about themselves and, and where they're from, what things they're interested in. And so everyone get to know them even though we're not meeting them physically or to, or to make a statement on the things that the leader should be making. Find out which of every employee, what ways they prefer to be recognized. Because public recognition is powerful, but unless you don't want it, and that is painful. So whether it's that or whether it's. I've seen a lot of research in this area that 8% of employees, their preferred form of recognition is more responsibility.
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B
Doesn't love that.
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C
I know, really. So it's, it's. We tend to think and old line manager tends to think, well, you know, and that's often when I work with the company, I'll start there. Well, do you know what your employees want? And the result I often hear from leaders is yeah, we know what, recognize what, what they want. They want more money, they want promotions, they want better benefits. That's, that's all we're spending our money on those things. They must be what they want. So they said that's what they want? Well, no, but it's obvious. Well, why don't we just ask them and see if that's what they say? If we do, then you're, you got it, you're on it. But I've never seen where employees say that they, you don't hear anyone say, if only I had a better dental plan, then I'd really knock it out at work.
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B
You know, it's very true. And it's, you know, and it's, it's, it's misguided. Right. I think it's easy to fall into the idea of like, well, I just need to raise their pay or I need to find another benefit or I need to do these things. But like what your message is, is like, no, this is about people. This is universal. It doesn't matter if they are a global team that's in the Philippines or in India or if they are remote working from their home office or they're at, you know, the home base of an office. People are people, they want to be seen, they want to be appreciated, they want to contribute in a meaningful way. And you know, I think your Many, many books are great resources for inspiration but also just a great reminder of this important fundamental part of leading people. So thank you so, so very much for kind of just reminding us of this important thing. And of course you're available as a consultant, a speaker and you know, 30 plus books are available I think on your website.
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C
Just I just signed up my 32nd book with Harper Collins leadership. It's going to be called 1001 Ways to Grow Employees. Again, you know, if you talk to companies about something like that, they'll let's say, well, we've got tuition reimbursement or we got the one or two things and again, developments all around us every day and we've got to tune into that because if people aren't growing and there's not a, from day one, if you're not talking about where they're headed, they're going to find another place to go work and you're going to lose them. The top reason why people don't stay is there is no place for them to go. Their boss isn't going anywhere and so there's no other job. So if we had been helping them get, develop skills at the same time connecting them with opportunities that might be an assignment, maybe a part time thing in a different department, it might be starting a new, a new thing. Yeah. Then, then they wouldn't have to leave. You know, I, I, I worked, I worked for Ken Blanchard, wrote the 1 Minute Manager for 10 years in his company. And I had, I had five different jobs while I was there and every one of them was created for me because what do you think would best help us? Well, Kenya, have you guys thought about doing this? That's a great idea. Baba, can you do that for us? I could sure give it a try. Off I go.
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B
Yeah, no, I mean it's a great inspiration. What you're sharing is so important.
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A
Right.
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B
Like we've got great people and we want to keep them contributing to our organizations as long as possible. And that means seeing them and challenging them and rewarding them, you know, for the great work that they do for us and for the missions of our company. So this is just a tremendously important reminder. You know, our, our businesses for the most part are the people and you know that you've given us some really great food for thought.
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C
So I want to thank me. Will be as successful as, as the people as they feel valued. And then if you want to get the best from them, make sure you spotlight when they've done something that's helpful to to you, to the company, for the, for the guest, for the customer.
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B
Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Such a great, great reminder. Thank you for being here. And again, everybody can go check out your website for your many, many books and your newsletter for inspiration as well. So I think there's, there's great resources just to remind us of how to do this day to day.
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A
Thank you.
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C
Thank you, Sarah. Pleasure being with you.
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A
Thanks for listening to the Conscious Entrepreneur. Every episode here is meant to sharpen.
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How you lead and how you live.
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A
If something landed for you, please share it. Founder to founder. I'll meet you here next week.