Page 225 - Everything I Know About Business I Learned

Recognition

Meaningful Rewards
Recognition worked because it was meaningful. Operators
with top-performing stores, for instance, were given consider-
ation to open other stores, as John Cooke, a former senior vice
president, reminded me. And generally, these stores ended up
being the higher-sales-volume and higher-profit stores. The best
operators want to be recognized as such, and what better way
to say it than with the highly sought-after chance to open a
new store?
Tony Liedtke, a multiple-store operator from Long Island,
has been using different forms of recognition for his managers
and crews for years, and with great results. “I think recogni-
tion is the key,” Tony said. “McDonald’s is a people business
and you cannot have good people and not recognize them.
When I give something to my folks, I always make it for a spe-
cific purpose. If I am sending you out to dinner, I will find
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out your favorite restaurant, or your wife’s favorite restaurant.
I had someone do a great presentation for me one time, and
I asked them where they would like to go that they had never
been. So I sent them to a Caribbean island. I want the “wow”
factor. One time one of my key managers, she is now a super-
visor, had really been working hard—working late hours,
never home, the whole deal. I wanted to do something for her
as well as for her husband and son. I found out that the hus-
band and son were big Yankee fans. I got them some super
seats for the two of them. I sent them to the husband and let
him know how much I appreciate the job his wife has been
doing and for the two of them to cheer on the Yankees. I later
received a handwritten note from the son. I find the key to
recognition is to show that you are really sincere about it, and
the way you show that is to give them something that they
don’t expect.”