Page 199 - Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles

170 Carrots and Sticks Don’t Work

personal and professional stress when you can make the most
difference.
Knowing about problems is obviously a prerequisite to doing
something about them. Supervisors viewed as uncaring rarely
become privy to such information and, consequently, have few
opportunities to support their employees. To break this vicious
circle, begin by asking questions that demonstrate interest in
your employees’ work and career and build up to more personal
inquiries.
Knowing more about employees and their lives also allows
supervisors to demonstrate proactive consideration, that is, do
something that will be perceived as considerate that is not sim-
ply a reaction to a situation. For example, imagine sitting on an
airplane reading a magazine. You come across an article about
one of your employee’s favorite authors and bring it back for him
or her. Such small acts make a big impact on employees’ experi-
ence of consideration, because they demonstrate that you know
and remember something personal about your employees and
think about them away from the office. Again, the point is that
the more you know about your employees, the more opportuni-
ties you will have to act considerately. The most obvious way
this occurs is through daily conversation, even if just for a few
moments. If you don’t know what’s going on in your employ-
ees’ lives, you’re going to miss most of the opportunities to be
considerate.
I find it discouraging that when I ask supervisors and man-
agers to give examples of how they have shown consideration
to their employees, most struggle to come up with more than a
handful of examples—some cannot even come up with one. For-
tunately, research participants shared many excellent examples
of being treated with consideration. Because consideration is
the RESPECT driver that often presents the greatest challenge
to supervisors, I have provided many examples.