3 Things You Must Remember while Appreciating

Sincere appreciation sometimes gets overshadowed in this era driven by results and hefty performance bonuses. While performance bonus, incentives, elaborate felicitation ceremonies function as ‘ATL’ strategy, sincere appreciation can be a vital ‘BTL’ strategy to improve morale and drive performance by inducing the individual to excel.  Though lot  can be said on appreciation, I will tell you  3 things you must remember while appreciating anyone

1.       Appreciate the progress:  Imagine your team member who is normally late in submitting reports 75% of the time. After you counsel her, you may see that her on time submissions have gone up to 60%, a significant improvement. What should you do? Should you come down heavily on the 40% gap still remaining? No, the right way would be perhaps to say “Good to see the effort you are putting in, Reema. If you can improve like this, I have no doubt you will achieve 100% timely submissions, which both of us agreed upon.” This way you are ensuring Reema stays on the path to progress. Progress appreciation is important on any task which has an agreed upon end objective.

2.       Avoid Congratulations with a rider: During my sales days, I used to read the congratulatory notes fellow Area Managers would write to their colleagues on some specific out of the way, achievement. They would go something like this; “Congratulations Hemant on booking 500 units of XYZ at Getwell Hospital. Looking to you to get the next 1000 units order.” Remember this is an exceptional event. Therefore, at this moment when an exceptional task is done, 100% of that moment should be spent on the current appreciation. Let him enjoy the moment fully. Standards can and will be set later.

3.       Serve Appreciation fresh: Imagine your sales guy has handled an important customer objection exceedingly well in front of you on the first call of the day. Do not wait till the end of the day to appreciate his effort. Appreciate instantly and on the spot. Do not wait to get back, write a formal mail and then maybe send some token. You may do all that but not at the cost of compromising the freshness. Sometimes freshness of the appreciation is more valuable than the size of the appreciation.

I have said what I wanted to say. I want you to try this out for 1 week. Yes, 1 week. You be the judge of the results.

Happy Appreciating.

Rediscovering a lost love

My mother made me do it. 

It was she who gave me the money during Pujas with the usual entreaty to buy something which I wanted.  I spent part of that money on a shirt. Some of you who have visited the Shoppers Stop showroom  in Metropolitan Mall , Gurgaon might have missed the Reynolds Shop next to it.

That is where I went and purchased my Silver Grey Reynolds Fountain pen.  Having had innumerable one night stands with ball point pens, micro tips, roller balls etc; the Rs.250 price tag was intimidating. Clearly the price was steep for the average association time (< 24 hours) of my pens.

Could this be a start of a longer relationship?  , I wondered.  Within the first 24 hrs of being with my silver grey beauty, I realized that there were 3 things that I had missed for the last 2 decades.

1.       The weight: The slightly weighty voluptuous feel of the fountain pen definitely scores over the anorexic ball pens which flood the market today. The fountain pen felt perfectly balanced and the weight seemed to lend a definite emphasis to my writing.

2.       The right Friction with paper: In today’s quest for smoothness we sometimes forget the feel of what happens when the point meets paper. The closest analogy that I can think of is that of driving. I like to feel that I am driving. Too quiet engines, power windows, power steering, air conditioning, automatic transmission, super tech suspension sometimes insulate the driver from the driving experience. At times, we do long for some sounds, feel and to be more ‘involved ‘in the experience.

3.       The Uninterrupted Flow: My heavy nibbed silver beauty delivered a broad uninterrupted flow of writing. The words and therefore the thoughts behind seemed more assured, in your face and strong. Quite a change from the ultrathin tentative lines made by my earlier partners.

My relationship with my silver beauty lasted 432 days; 18 times longer than my previous relationships till I lost her due to my carelessness in Chennai.

The void left by her was so huge that I spent 3 hours in Chennai to look for an exact replacement for my Silver beauty. Though I found the same make, I had to compromise with the colour (a deep blue). The deep blue guy has been with me for more than 150 days, till my wife succumbed to his charms and now Deep blue is with her for the last 7 days.

As for me I have moved to a Silver Waterman gifted to me by my client. Ah! I love her and hope that we have a very long relationship.

As to my first silver beauty, I thank her for not only bringing joy to my life but also for the fact that I could learn to understand my own handwriting after 2 decades. I do hope she is bringing joy to some other lucky person like me.

God Bless her.

Maslow's Hierarchy Chained by Organizational Hierarchy

‘There is a time and place for everything’ does not hold true for lightning, inspiration and insights.

This insight hit me when I was conducting a leadership workshop for Sales Managers in Singapore recently.

I was taking a session on motivation. The slide containing the multi-coloured Maslow’s Hierarchy needs had been explained.

Suddenly a participant asked me “Does the pyramid of Maslow's hierarchy coincide with an organization’s hierarchy?”

For a moment I did not understand the question. Then it dawned. What was being asked was that does an individual's needs depend on the position occupied by him / her in the organizational hierarchy?

This hypothesis if true, would imply a junior manager's needs be more about food , shelter , clothing (Physiological Needs) and about providing security to family and self (Security Needs).

It would also imply that only the top management can enjoy the ‘perks’ of having the need for self actualization.

Ridiculous as it may sound, in most situations we design our motivational programs unconsciously following this hypothesis.

Entry level sales force motivational tools rely much more heavily on monetary gains and benefits. These are also focused on the end result. While  the end result (Targeted sales) is vital , the process leading to the targeted sales needs to be oiled with appreciation (fulfilling the love and belonging need) as well as address the self esteem need of the individual (Esteem Needs).

In reality this often gets neglected. 

Under no circumstance am I suggesting that monetary needs can be substituted by the other needs, but a right mix of the relevant motivational programs would give a higher engagement between the employee and the organization. We also need to keep in mind that the junior high performers are the most prone to be poached by rival companies by being offered higher pay packages. A higher engagement creates a buffer against poaching.

Self actualization is all about finding one's potential; irrespective whether the person is a CEO or a Sales Representative.

Not everyone becomes a CEO. This does not mean that this person has not found his potential.  It is the mission of every single leader to help his team members to discover their own potential irrespective of the employee's position in the hierarchy.

After all isn’t this is also about finding a leader's potential?

Successful leaders will always strive unchain the Maslow’s Hierarchy from the clutches of the Organizational Hierarchy.

A common mis application of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Realizations sometimes hit at the most unlikely times. This one hit me when I was conducting a leadership workshop for Sales Managers in Singapore recently. I was taking a session on motivation when a participant asked me whether the pyramid of Maslow's hierarchy coincided with an organization’s hierarchy.
The question meant that does an individual's needs depend on the position occupied by him / her in the organizational hierarchy?
This hypothesis if true would imply a junior manager's needs be more about food , shelter , clothing (Physiological Needs) and about providing security to family and self (Security Needs). It would also imply that only the top management would have the need for self actualization. Ridiculous as it may sound, in most situations we design our motivational programs unconsciously following this hypothesis.
Entry level sales motivational tools rely much more heavily on monetary gains and benefits and are focused on the end result. While , the end result (Targeted sales) is vital , the process leading to the targeted sales needs to be oiled with appreciation (fulfilling the love and belonging need) as well as increasing the self esteem of the individual (Esteem Needs) , is also essential. This often gets neglected.
Under no circumstance am I suggesting that monetary needs can be substituted by the other needs but a right mix of the relevant motivational programs would give a higher engagement between the employee and the organization. We also need to keep in mind that the junior high performers are most prone to be poached by rival companies by offering higher pay packages. A higher engagement creates a buffer against poaching.
Self actualization is all about finding one's potential irrespective whether the person is a CEO or a Sales Representative. Not everyone becomes a CEO. This does not mean that the person has not found his potential.  It is the mission of every single leader to help his team members to discover their own potential irrespective of the employee's position in the hierarchy.
After all that is also about finding a leader's potential.

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