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Remember This
and You Will Succeed
by Christine Harvey
In
one of my speeches on how to motivate, a
woman came up to me afterwards and said, “Oh, Christine. I realize now what
I’ve been doing wrong with my husband. He’s been trying to start a new
business and every night when he comes home, I tell him everything I think
he’s done wrong. No wonder he’s discouraged. Now I see from your talk that
I have to tell him what he’s done right!”
The
same is true in business. As managers, it’s tempting to tell people what
they’ve done wrong and not acknowledge what’s right. I often address
business groups and tell them to start blowing the whistle on good
performance instead of bad. The results will amaze you.
I
addressed the Sony Corporation with the importance of positive reinforcement
and afterwards the Director in charge had silver plated whistles made for
his managers. He sent me a copy of the letter that went with it saying
“Here’s a reminder following Christine Harvey’s message to blow the whistle
for employees with admirable performances.”
I
often start my speeches by asking the audience to consider how many teachers
they ever had who really, really motivated them. The answer is usually one
to three. Then I ask how many bosses they’ve had who really motivate them.
The answer is usually one or two. So few motivators.
If
you think of the people who motivated you, you may discover that it was
someone who showed you the best in yourself – someone who gave you faith in
yourself..
What if you were to do that for others? What would the benefit be to you?
Perhaps the answer is in this slogan I’ve created. “Show people the best in
themselves and they will follow you anywhere.” Think of how loyalty from
colleagues will impact your career. Think of how loyalty from customers will
impact you. And think about how loyalty from family and friends will impact
you. Yes, showing people the best in themselves – giving them positive
feedback, makes all the difference in the world.
Secondly, when you motivate people, the job gets done quickly and
effectively. How often have you gone to meetings in which people agree to
do things. Later you discover nothing was done. Often it’s because they
weren’t motivated.
Motivate Yourself and Others Through
Positive Reinforcement
Positive
reinforcement can be used in your own life to motivate yourself too. In my
book, Secrets of the World’s Top Sales Performers, I quote Michael Renz
XE "Renz, Michael"
who uses positive reinforcement daily. He
mentally goes through the day and discovers anything that went wrong. Then
he determines how to fix it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Then he
thinks of his successes. He said to me, “Christine, if I carry negativity
into my day, I’m not doing the right job for myself or my company. It’s
important that I keep my self esteem up.”
I was
addressing a group in Monte Carlo once. There were about 350 of them, mainly
company directors from Scandinavia.
After
explaining the concept of positive reinforcement, I asked them to think of
one person they’d most like to motivate. Then I asked them to imagine using
the phone to call that person and use this three-part process:
1.
Tell the person what they did right.
2.
Tell the person how that action benefited the company.
3.
Thank the person.
After my speech, there was another speaker. He was a member of the
European
Parliament who spoke for about 40 minutes then we all went into the ballroom
for lunch.
I was only seated for a matter of minutes, when I had a tap on the
shoulder. I looked around and saw a very exuberant man.
“Mrs. Harvey, “ he said with a voice full of
emotion. What a close call I had!” He explained that he telephoned one of
his most valued salesmen and told him how much he appreciated him using the
three-part process I had described in my speech. “John,” he said, “Do you
remember last year when you gave up your weekend to help the company move so
we could be operational the following Monday? Well, we gained a customer
that Monday who now accounts for 10% of our business. John without your
dedication, we would not have been open and would have lost that important
customer. Thanks, John.”
Then he went on to tell me John’s reaction.
John confided in him that he had not been feeling very appreciated recently
and had gone out job hunting. He had another offer and was planning to turn
in his resignation the next day! “But because you cared enough to pick up
the phone and call me all the way from Monte Carlo, I’m really touched. I’ll
reconsider my resignation,” the valued employee said.
Never
underestimate the importance of positive reinforcement.
Use it with employees, use it with customers, use it with yourself and your
family. Undoubtedly you have goals you want to reach, and here’s the perfect
place to use positive reinforcement.
Agree On Goals
Are we leaving motivation to chance? Do we give lip service to motivation,
but let the employees go in all directions unnoticed? Do we sometimes
acknowledge them and sometimes not, leading to confusion, then blame them
for being unpredictable? Do we even know what the end goal is, or do we wait
until people go in the wrong direction and then lambaste them for not
finding their own way to the undetermined goal? In reality, many of us are
trying to motivate people in our business and personal life without giving
them direction.
Do people tell their spouses what they really want from them to help each
other make their lives together a success? Or do they let their spouses
guess at it for 20 years and then, when they're wrong, divorce them?
Do we talk with our colleagues and employees to find out what their goals in
life are, and then plan a path that meets both the company's and the
employee's objectives? If so, then everyone profits.
Those experts in motivational psychology who say that a person's happiness
is directly proportional to the speed at which they are moving towards their
goal make an interesting point. If we can keep people moving toward goals,
we keep the level of satisfaction up. We keep a positive cycle going.
Be Specific in Your
Feedback
Let's imagine we have a path with five points along it leading to the end
results. When our subjects get to the right point we want to tell them
they've arrived. We don't want to say, “You're about there.” Otherwise,
they'll keep looking for the exact point.
Yet, as managers, people often think vague acknowledgment is reinforcement.
They haven't learned that exact, specific feedback is necessary to get the
subject to the end goal in the shortest possible time. They think a smile, a
nod, or even the lack of punishment is enough to keep people on course!
Instead, we must tell them exactly what they did that was correct. “Nice
job, John,” may be a good start, but it's not specific. If you want to give
reinforcement that gets results, you'll include exactly what was done and
what effect it had. “John, That section of the proposal on pricing was a
masterpiece. The numbers were laid out in a format that was concise and easy
to read. Thanks John! If we win the bid, it's due to your excellent
contribution.”
You
can use positive reinforcement with colleagues too. In a training seminar,
Bill and I might say to each other, “I really liked the way you involved the
participants in the second session by relating the material to their
industries and to them personally. I noticed that those particular people
took a stronger leadership role later on.” You can use positive
reinforcement in selling too. One top performer uses it like this. “Mr.
Jones, you told me that your objective was this, this and this. Now you’ve
gone through and made your selections. If you go down the list of your
choices one by one, you’ll see you’ve achieved this, this and this. Those
were excellent choices. Congratulations.” In this way, sales stay closed!
It's important to be
specific. Financial people relate well to the importance of specifics. They
wouldn't dream of working with figures “vaguely in the range of such and
such,” so why should we work with vague feedback.
It simply doesn't tell anybody anything.
Positive feedback has lasting results. It's the perfect way to motivate.
Remember the perfect way
to motivate is to:
Give
Positive Reinforcement
ACTION SHEET
Ideas for Development:
1. Give
positive reinforcement to people to achieve results and loyalty.
2. Use positive
reinforcement to motivate yourself and others.
3. Use positive
reinforcement to retain good employees.
4. Use positive
reinforcement in your personal life.
5. Agree on
goals and give positive reinforcement at every stage of progress.
6. List other
points here:
7
Of the above
ideas, which one is likely to yield the best results?
What percentage
of sales (or performance) increase could realistically be expected?
How long would
it take: to develop the idea? to get results?
Who would have
to be involved?
What date
should we start?
What is the
first step I should take?
Want to learn
more on this topic? Christine Harvey has written six books in 25 language
that cover many of the concepts found here.
You can get your own copy by
clicking here or visiting our eShop.
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