Page 129 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

100 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

and even those higher up. If you want to give your employee
a big boost of respect, have your boss or other upper manage-
ment personally visit and congratulate your employee on a
job well done.
3. Make an example. A great way to show respect is to use
an employee’s work as an example of excellence. For instance,
a team member might have produced an exceptional report.
At the next team meeting, share it and suggest that others
use it as a template. Be careful not to imply that everyone
else’s work is terrible! You might say, for example, “Everyone
on this team does good work—if you didn’t you wouldn’t be
here. Sometimes somebody does something exceptional that
we can all learn from. I am going to share such an example
today so that our whole team can benefit.”
4. Give more say. Recognize your employees’ accomplish-
ments by providing them with greater decision making and
autonomy in their jobs. Let them and everyone on the team
know that greater discretionary effort is rewarded with
greater discretionary control over their job.
5. Create more opportunities. Employees who go above
and beyond should be acknowledged with additional oppor-
tunities such as taking on new assignments or receiving spe-
cialized training. You need to send a message to your best
employees that you value them and want to continue to sup-
port their growth and development.
6. Wall of Great Ideas. One company I work with honors its
employees’ best ideas by putting them on plaques and hang-
ing them in the main lobby. The employees also receive a
monetary award based on the impact of their suggestion. As
you can imagine, employees take tremendous pride in seeing
the plaques with their names and ideas hanging in the lobby,
and it serves to inspire others to offer their suggestions.