When you do something right, you want it to happen again.
The rewards for doing something right in your business include employees being happy and customers being happy - which in turn delivers more profit and makes you as a business leader more happy.
The feeling of achieving the right things builds positive reinforcement to do more of the same. Celebrating those moments when individuals or your team achieves the right thing builds a culture of success and happiness.
Equally you need to find ways to motivate the right behaviour from those not doing the right thing. Think of it like giving your child an allowance when they do their chores, or losing weight when you stick to your workout plan and diet, or when you reward your dog for good behaviour.
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Putting it into practice
I once had an employee on my team who was universally disliked by everyone in the company, but he was exceptional at what he did. I own dogs, and so I wondered if I could transfer my philosophy about how to train my dogs into the workplace and in particular with this employee.
I rewarded him for good behaviour and ignored the behaviour I didn’t like. I complimented him every chance I got when he did a job well and when he showed the right initiative, and over time, everyone in the company saw the change in his attitude and also begin acknowledging the right behaviours, his loyalty and his energy.
This improved even further when I was able to talk to him about his responsibility as a role model and encouraged him to acknowledge the positive behaviour and right things in his colleagues.
I think we often overlook that people may not actually be aware of how their behaviour affects business outcomes and their fellow team members. They may have their own struggles that we may not know about.
Making someone feel good, telling them that they are bright and good and clever when they are, does wonders for their willingness to face the day and the work ahead of us.
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Immediate rewards
Great leaders design great workplaces: they create systems that ensure employees can do their best work. That includes implementing structures for appropriate, timely feedback.
Positive reinforcement has to be delivered immediately to be truly effective, and it works both ways. If a manager takes too long to commend an employee for a job well done, the feeling won’t connect. If they never say it at all, that’s even worse – especially if, like many supervisors and managers, they’re quick to point out when an employee has gotten something wrong.
Similarly, all leaders can benefit from hearing about both negative and positive developments in the workplace or to ask for feedback in their own behaviours and performance. A good leader wants to know what is working and what isn’t so they have a chance to acknowledge it or change it.
Interestingly, research into anonymous surveys as a feedback tool has revealed that they may do more harm than good for both employees and managers. One of several reasons for that is that the time required to gather and process the anonymous responses can render the information irrelevant. Managers can’t implement solutions in a timely manner, and employees may feel like suggestions or complaints are ignored. I encourage radical candour in checking in at every meeting point.
Scheduling regular and frequent catch ups with honest and constructive performance feedback will lead to greater outcomes and employee satisfaction.
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Body language
There is a large performance gap between socially intelligent and socially inept leaders. It’s especially important in stressful situations where employees rely on leaders to guide the way. A large part of guidance is how a leader acts – not only what they say, but how they say it.
This TEDtalk by Amy Cuddy highlights the power pose - standing like Wonder Woman when you need a personal confidence boost – among other body language techniques. If changing your stance for thirty seconds can affect your emotional outlook, imagine what it might be like to see someone frowning as they compliment you. You wouldn’t quite believe them, and so the positive reinforcement would fall flat.
Compare that with how you might feel if someone provided constructive feedback around something you did wrong, but did it in a warm, friendly manner: making eye contact, nodding and smiling and not really stating the consequences of what you had done. The fastest conclusion would be that they have good intentions, and perhaps your behaviour was really not as bad as it seemed… even if it was.
Either way, whether you are considering the delivery of positive reinforcement or constructive criticism, you have to be aware of your body language. We can’t always control our faces, our hands or our posture, but an awareness of their impact can lead to improved practice. Match your body to your words; it’s all about being authentic.
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Balancing out the positive and the negative
When you use positive reinforcement correctly – at speed and with the right body language – partnered with effective negative reinforcement, which you can read more about here in this HBR article, you can figure out the best strategy for directing and motivating your team. It’s better to emphasise improvement rather than perfection. Education researchers have found that teachers who have a positive reinforcement to punishment ratio of 4:1 or better had good discipline and high achievement in their classrooms. Remember the frequency at which video games reward players; if you want people to keep moving on to the next objective, in a game or in the office, direction paired with reward is the way to go.
In terms of how positive reinforcement works in business, Gallup found that 67% of employees whose managers focused on their strengths were fully engaged in their work, compared to 31% of employees whose managers focused on their weaknesses. IBM’s WorkTrends survey of over 19,000 workers in 26 countries revealed that the engagement level of employees who receive recognition is almost three times higher than the engagement level of those who do not; employees who receive recognition are also far less likely to quit.
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Building a high-performance culture
Recognition increases happiness at work in general and is tied to cultural and business results, such as job satisfaction and retention. Leadership is about playing to people’s strengths; if you put employees in positions based on their strengths and skills, and then harness those strengths fully, they will thrive.
Motivation can be a tricky business, but there are always resources out there for you to educate yourself on how others do it, and from there, you can start to develop your own style.
Using positive, frequent and fast reinforcement can help you get the most out of your employees, and help them get the most out of their time with you.
Remember, feedback is an ongoing process, and you’re going to benefit from it as much as your team will!
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