Page 209 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Recognition

tic lunch rush or as an officer in the Oak Brook home office
growing the company globally—McDonald’s arguably would
never have attained such legendary success.
As a 16-year-old working my first McDonald’s crew job, I
drove myself hard to become part of the rhythm where everyone
did his part (in the beginning, only males worked crew). Little
did I know I was part of a system where those who delivered their
consistent best were rewarded. Up until that point I hadn’t real-
ized the power of praise. But it got me. A little praise, some recog-
nition, and I was ready to give my all to the company.
Now, it’s easy to attribute that sort of revelation to youthful
inexperience. Yet, the seasoned operators and executives I came
to know who were also bestowed with all kinds of rewards,
from winning incentive trips to opening additional stores to
receiving a simple certificate, all share the same reaction. Con-
sistently, they describe that reaction with these three words: “I
179
was hooked.” To this day, they still express the same kind of
awe. All of us were achievers, answering to our own inner drive
to excel, and subsequently were wowed when the system
rewarded us. The system caught us by surprise.
As the American psychologist Abraham Maslow stated in A
Theory of Motivation, people thrive on recognition as a form of
self-value when they feel that their contributions make a differ-
ence. As humans, we need that affirmation. That’s obvious. Yet
even though recognition is such an affordable tool—it costs
nothing to thank an employee for a job well done—you’d think
more organizations would use it to engage their employees.
At McDonald’s, recognition took many forms. There were
promotions and raises, of course, but also weekends at one of
the corporate ski lodges or condos, which were available to staff,
not just to officers. And there were free dinners at wonderful
restaurants. It didn’t matter that many of us could foot the bill