Page 127 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

98 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

The Yellow Sticky

Have you ever come back to your desk to find a yellow sticky with
something like “Good Job!” written on it by your boss? Whenever
I give a talk, I ask the audience this question. In an audience of a
hundred people, usually two or three will raise their hand. I then
ask them, “What did you do with it?” Only once have I had some-
one say that they threw it away. Every other person kept it visible
in their work station, such as pasted on their computer monitor,
for long periods of time. It’s amazing that most of us get so little
acknowledgment from our bosses that a yellow sticky with a few
words takes on the significance of a prized trophy; a reminder
that we did something worthy of recognition and thirty seconds
of our boss’s time. Employees may show up to work because of
paychecks, but yellow sticky notes are far more valuable a currency
when it comes to determining how hard they will work.

like a dagger, doesn’t it? Employees exert extraordinary discre-
tionary effort for David because of the mutual respect and desire
for approval but also because they don’t want to disappoint him.
It is really important to understand the powerful relation-
ship between recognition and corrective feedback, namely, the
greater the recognition, the more effective the feedback. Imag-
ine having a highly critical supervisor who constantly points
out your weaknesses and failings but never your strengths.
Now, imagine having a supervisor who regularly acknowledges
and recognizes you for your good work. Corrective feedback
from which boss is more powerful? Obviously, it’s the feedback
from the one who regularly acknowledges you. Employees grow