Page 98 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

78 Building a High Morale Workplace

action plan. Build in lots of small wins along the way and make
recognition part of the system. When you do this, you’ll be con-
necting rewards with behavior. List in the performance builder

what specific rewards will be included, such as money, award
certificate, a week off, two-hour lunch, letter from the CEO,
more responsibility, etc.

Step 7. Give people what they need to make smart moves,
then help plan their careers! When it comes to performance

building techniques, employee development should be at the
top of the list. Think training. Ask employees what they need to
learn in order to succeed. Don’t just decide for them. Get them
what they need, when they need it. Help plan their careers and

give them the guidance and resources necessary to
make smart moves and
Deliver Training decisions.
Ahead of Time
Cynical Attitudes
One of the secrets to IBM’s
earlier success was that the organiza- It’s no secret that negative
tion gave its people lots and lots of attitudes and poor behav-
training.They were always thinking ior in the workplace are
ahead.Training is critical, but it has to deadly. Costing corpora-
be timely too. It used to be acceptable tions billions of dollars a
to deliver employee development “just
year in lowered productivi-
in time,” but that doesn’t cut it any
ty and weakened perform-
longer.Today managers need to pro-
vide employee training ahead of time, ance, negative attitudes
not just as close as possible to the and lousy behaviors can-
time it’s needed. In today’s cyber-fast not be ignored. Cynical
world,“close” is not good enough. attitudes and negativity
are like contagious dis-
eases that, if left untreated, can spread throughout the organiza-

tion, affecting even the most upbeat employees and bringing
down morale in a hurry.
Managers and supervisors can’t be responsible for protect-
ing every employee against negative experiences, but they can

certainly help to minimize the overall effects of negative work-
place behaviors by taking specific actions to eliminate some of