The program is called Drive to the Prize.This nine-week program is designed to provide participants with a course of action to help them be more effective in achieving their goals and creating the future they desire.

After the first session, I received the following e-mail from one of our participants:

“I really enjoyed the class yesterday. It was truly an interesting group of people. Let me tell you how you helped me today during my FedEx route. In the early mornings, I have typically about five to eight addresses which isn’t a whole lot, but one must work very efficiently in order to get all the deliveries to the customers by 8:00 a.m. So, if you are spending time re-looking up addresses and referring to a list, then you get bogged down. BUT… if you can remember each address, then you are able to go from one stop to the other without having to look at addresses. I studied the route and went through my addresses and memorized each one while rehearsing as much as possible after getting started. That made the trip more enjoyable.”

-Larry

This made my day. What is your success story? Please comment on Larry’s story or add your own success story.

An organization is only as good as its people. However, bright people have more options today than ever before. In addition, good pay is no longer enough to hold the best.

Are good people clamoring to join your organization, or are resignations climbing? Do your people come in early and voluntarily stay late, or is absenteeism on the rise? Are your staff upbeat and enthusiastic, or do they gripe and moan?

Does your organization inspire loyalty, dedication, creativity, and motivation? Does your “company culture” challenge staff to learn, improve, and grow? As a good manager, you must ask yourself these questions. And you need to find positive answers.

To grow, even to survive, you must develop a company culture that attracts, inspires, and retains good staff. Take this seriously, or your organization could become a collecting point for old ideas and old thinking…”dead wood”.

Every organization has a distinctive culture. A good culture reinforces the values and behaviors that you want, and weakens the attitudes and actions that you don’t. A weak culture, of course, gives little guidance or direction, to the team, allowing all sorts of inappropriate actions and behaviors.

Make sure your company’s culture works overtime for you. Use the following ideas to build a stronger and more attractive culture inside your organization.

Vision, Mission and Values:

Are your vision, mission, and core values clearly written down in black and white? Have they been framed and hung upon the wall? If so, great! But then what happened? All too often these important statements become part of the woodwork, ignored by old-timers and quickly forgotten by new hires. Do not let this happen to you.

Integrate these key statements of purpose and philosophy into your recruitment and orientation programs, internal company communications, training, and development schemes, methods of appraisal, recognition and reward.

Ask yourself this question: “Can every member of your staff explain the company vision, mission and values in their own words, and give practical illustrations in the course of their daily work?” If so, you have harnessed the power of their alignment and understanding. If not, your team may be adrift without a clear course, or rowing hard… but in divergent or conflicting directions.

New Staff Recruitment:

Do you invest enough energy selecting staff who are really aligned with your vision and values? Do you give candidates sufficient time to get to know you and your organization – before they sign on as members of the team? Do you screen prospective employees with the powerful profiling tools available in the market today? Or do you complain about a tight labor market and find yourself content with hiring enough “warm bodies”? If so, you may not know the full cost, in money and morale, of the turnover that follows such hasty recruitment.

New Staff Orientation:

Do you actively help new staff settle in and get comfortable for long and productive careers? Or do you push the personnel department to get new hires on-line and operational in the shortest possible time?

Studies show that employees who get thorough and thoughtful orientations will stay longer and contribute more throughout their careers. Are you investing enough time and energy to help your new staff start right?

Training & Development Programs:

Investing in training and staff development programs is good. But many companies engage a wide assortment of trainers and programs, making little effort to ensure a smooth and beneficial integration.

Here is a simple test: Can each of your outside and in-house trainers clearly explain your organization’s vision, mission, and values? Can they describe the issues and major challenges facing your company today? Are you convinced their training will help address issues, solve problems, and strengthen people’s careers? If not, why not? You pay these professionals to help your people face the future. Shouldn’t they understand the future your people will be facing?

Annual Appraisals:

If you say you want a service driven organization, is quality service in your appraisal? If you want a creative mindset, are you assessing staff on the range, depth and volume of their ideas? If you want an open corporate culture, are your appraisals done in an open format? If you want cross-functional and non-hierarchical communication, do you employ a 360-degree appraisal process?

No amount of broadcasting company values will matter if people are measured by other standards.

Take a hard look at your current appraisal system. Is it up to date? Does it reward, recognize and reinforce what you want your company to become?

Rewards & Recognition Programs:

The old adage is true: what gets rewarded gets done. But not all rewards are monetary. They may be public, private, formal, informal, planned, unexpected, elegant, simple, unique.

The most motivating rewards may be public celebrations of the people and actions that exemplify your organization’s highest values.

At Singapore Airlines for example, the Managing Director’s Award is the most prestigious tribute an employee can receive. The award is given each year to those staff members whose action demonstrate the airline’s commitment to total quality service. Winners are celebrated, photographed, interviewed, published, wined, dined and praised, yet receive no special monetary award. These people become the legends, heroes and role models of the organization. Their deeds are told and retold for years to come. Their actions — and the public recognition they receive — keep the airline’s values flying high.

How inspiring are your practices of rewards and recognition? How frequently and consistently are they applied? People thrive on appreciation, recognition and reward. Does your company culture provide enough?

Company Social Events:

Too many social gatherings are expensive undertakings that provide an outlet for stress but do little to enhance communication or commitment to the business. It doesn’t have to be this way. Memorable social events can deliver enjoyment for the staff and build enthusiasm for your company’s goals, achievements and values.

Put a cross-functional team in charge of design and delivery for your next social event. Give them time and budget. Provide them with professional and management support. Set parameters and guidelines for linkage to the business and the organization. Then monitor their progress, but let the show be their own.

Lavish praise for an event well done, and you will build a tradition of interaction that deepens and strengthens as it grows.

Staff Suggestion Schemes:

Managers want feedback and suggestions for improvement from staff. But how many companies can point with pride to widely respected and frequently used suggestion schemes?

Making your program more than just a box on the wall requires rapid response from management, immediate implementation of good ideas, and generous recognition for contributions.

Try this: give away $100 (or a dinner for two) every month for the best new suggestion. Even if the first month has only a meagre selection of ideas, pick one and give the prize away. Once people realize there is a prize given out every month, you’ll find the suggestion box brimming with input by the month’s end.

Management and Staff Interaction:

Management and staff will work better together if they have abundant opportunities to interact. Schedule frequent team meetings. Provide secure opportunities for staff to speak up without fear of reprisal or retribution. Create panel discussions where all sides can ask questions and receive candid — not defensive — replies. Host social functions, team games, or a telematch. Organize a fishing trip, nature walk, overnight retreat. More is truly merrier when mingling the members of your team.

Rites and Rituals:

Companies with strong cultures evolve rites or rituals that are memorable and unique. At one multinational, significant sales are honored by the key salesperson ringing a huge Chinese gong at the beginning of the monthly sales meeting. The message rings loud and clear: Successful sales are good reason for public celebrations.

An American R&D laboratory fires a loud outdoor cannon each time one of the research teams concedes a major or costly mistake. People worry when the cannon is quiet for too long! The cultural message is understood: Invention requires making mistakes. We are here to take those risks.

At the Service Quality Training Centre, new trainers are thrown fully clothed into the water at their first company retreat. The message: “We’re all in this together. Welcome aboard.”

Internal Communications:

How does word get around from your head office? Do your memos look dry, boring and official? Is that the kind of place you want your office to be? Are your bulletin boards covered with old announcements, faded backgrounds and ancient pieces of tape? Or are they current, colorful and information-rich?

Which message do you want to send? Does your newsletter focus on current customers, real issues and difficult but significant achievements? Is it seen as an open forum, or sanitized propaganda from Head Office?

How much dialogue do you really want? If you have moved to an e-mail environment, is access open and response encouraged? Or do staff read your latest comments on-screen and then discuss implications in the washroom?

External Communications:

How you communicate with the outside world reflects back upon your internal staff.

Do your employees take pride in the advertising and public relations your company sponsors? Is your corporate image fresh or outdated? Is your organization seen as a public-spirited contributor to the community, or just another money making enterprise?

Management Role Modeling:

The most powerful action for building company “culture” is management members leading by their own example.

A senior Japanese executive was visiting one of the company’s overseas manufacturing plants. As he walked along the carefully prepared factory floor, he saw a small scrap of paper just below one of the machines.

To his subordinates shock and amazement, he detoured from the carefully prepared route and stooped to pick up the paper. Placing it quietly into his pocket, he returned to the designated path.

That one gesture did more to reinforce the company’s commitment to housekeeping than countless booklets and banners. The challenge for all of us is clear: We must walk the talk!

Make your culture nourishing.

Your company culture is like water. It can flow strongly and steadily, refreshing your team and carrying people forward. Or it can sit festering and stagnant, gradually poisoning those around it.

It can be fertile and rich, irrigating growth and stimulating new ideas. Or it can be destructive and narrow, crashing down upon any signs of change.

Resignations, absenteeism, and destructive gossip are bad news. But they are only symptoms. The source is weak morale, low motivation and a suffering company culture.

Your prescription for better health? Take action now. Build your organization to nourish people, stimulate ideas and motivate everyone towards giving their very best.

]]> http://www.bijanintl.com/2011/01/build-a-company-culture-that-serves-sizzles-succeeds/feed/ 0 http://www.bijanintl.com/2010/10/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/ http://www.bijanintl.com/2010/10/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/#comments Sun, 10 Oct 2010 19:16:26 +0000 bijan http://www.bijanintl.com/?p=199

Maslow seemed to sense, that aside from the people with emotional limitations and problems, there were times when man was at his best. Although Maslow avoided the word “spiritual,” he did introduce psychology to truth, goodness, beauty, unity, transcendence, aliveness, uniqueness, perfection, justice, order and simplicity. These values he called “B-values.”

In the late 1960′s Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchical theory of human needs. Maslow was a humanistic psychologist who believed that people are not controlled by mechanical forces (the stimuli and reinforcement forces of behaviorism) or unconscious instinctual impulses of psychoanalysis alone.

Maslow focused on human potential, believing that humans strive to reach the highest levels of their capabilities.

Some people reach higher levels of creativity, of consciousness and wisdom. Other psychologists as “fully functioning” or possessing a “healthy personality” labeled people at this level Maslow had a more appropriate term for these people “self-actualizing.”

Maslow set up a hierarchical theory of needs in which all the basic needs are at the bottom, and the needs concerned with man’s highest potential are at the top. The hierarchic theory is often represented as a pyramid, with the larger, lower levels representing the lower needs, and the upper point representing the need for self-actualization. Each level of the pyramid is dependent on the previous level. For example, a person does not feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied.

1. Biological / Physiological Needs. These needs are biological and consists of the needs for oxygen, food, water, and a relatively constant body temperature. These needs are the strongest because if deprived, the person would die.
2. Security / Safety Needs. Except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting) adults do not experience their security needs. Children, however often display signs of insecurity and their need to be safe.
3. Social (Love, Affection and Belongingness) Needs. People have needs to escape feelings of loneliness and alienation and give (and receive) love, affection and the sense of belonging.
4. Ego / Esteem Needs. People need a stable, firmly based, high level of self-respect, and respect from others in order to feel satisfied, self confident and valuable. If these needs are not met, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless, and worthless.
5. Self-actualization Fulfillment. Maslow describes self-actualization as an ongoing process. Self-actualizing people are, with one single exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin. The are devoted, work at something, something very precious to them–som calling or vocation, in the old sense, the priestly sense. When you select out for careful study very fine and healthy people, strong people, creative people, saintly people, sagacious people… you get a different view of mankind. You ask how tall can people grow, what can a human being become?

The people at each level in the hierarchy of needs seeks information on dealing with what is important to them.

1. Coping -seeking information when lost, out of food, or sick
2. Helping -seeking information on how to be safe such as food, shelter, emergency supplies
3. Enlightening -seeking information on how to have a happier marriage, more friends
4. Empowering -seeking information to help the ego
5. Edifying -seeking moral and spiritual uplifting such is found with the word of God, spiritual music, and paintings

Once a person is self actualized, one is in a position to find their calling. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, and a poet must write. If these needs are not met, the person feels restlessness, on edge, tense, and lacking something. Lower needs may also produce a restless feeling, but here is it much easier to find the cause. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem the cause is apparent. It is not always clear what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

Maslow believes that the only reason that people would not move through the needs to self-actualization is because of the hindrances placed in their way by society. For example, education can be a hindrance, or can promote personal growth. Maslow indicated that educational process could take some of the steps listed below to promote personal growth:

1. We should teach people to be authentic; to be aware of their inner selves and to hear their inner-feeling voices.
2. We should teach people to transcend their own cultural conditioning, and become world citizens.
3. We should help people discover their vocation in life, their calling, fate, or destiny. This is especially focused upon finding the right career and the right mate.
4. We should teach people that life is precious, that there is joy to be experienced in life, and if people are open to seeing the good and joyous in all kinds of situations, it makes life worth living.
5. We must accept the person and help him or her learn their inner nature. From real knowledge of aptitudes and limitations we can know what to build upon, what potentials are there.
6. We must see that the person’s basic needs are satisfied. That includes safety, belongingness and esteem needs.
7. We should refreshen consciousness, teaching the person to appreciate beauty and the other good things in nature and in living.
8. We should teach people that controls are good, and complete abandon is bad. It takes control to improve the quality of life in all areas .
9. We should teach people to transcend the trifling problems and grapple with the serious problems in life. These include the problems of injustice, of pain, suffering, and death.
10. . We must teach people to be good choosers. They must be given practice in making choices, first between one goody and another; later between one god and another.

Acknowledgments

A. H. Maslow the Farther Reaches of Human Nature, Esalen Books, Viking Press
SBN 670-30853-6 hardbound, 670-00360-3 softbound

Abraham H. Maslow Toward a Psychology of Being, D. Van Nostrand Company, 1968
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-30757

]]> http://www.bijanintl.com/2010/10/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs/feed/ 33 http://www.bijanintl.com/2010/06/141/ http://www.bijanintl.com/2010/06/141/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:37:58 +0000 bijan http://www.bijanintl.com/?p=141 Research on emotion in the Social Sciences:

Because emotions are key to attributions for success, motivation, and goal-setting, we will be focusing on regularities in how they manifest. This is of interest because traditionally, emotions are considered to arise rather mysteriously, and be uncontrollable.  The first step to controlling emotion is to understand it.  Nico Fijdas is a social scientist whose work on emotional regularities (he refers to them as laws) is constantly cited.

Regularities give scientists and other perplexed and curious people a way to establish some ground rules for evaluating important emotional parameters such as intensity and perseverance. If you or a course participant is ever perplexed by an emotional reaction, you may benefit by running it through the following criteria for emotional response.

Previously, we have noted that meaningful, goal-oriented behaviors are sourced in emotion.  We may also say that emotions appear to arise from the meaning placed upon the situation.  For example, events that satisfy your goals, or promise to do so, yield positive emotions.  Graduating from college may satisfy both the proximate goal of obtaining a diploma, the intermediate goal of obtaining interesting and lucrative work, and finally, the ultimate goal of supporting a comfortable life for you members of your family.

This leads to the observation that emotions arise in response to events that are important to your goals, motives, or concerns.  If you are feeling an emotion, you may be sure that it is related to an area of concern.

Emotions are elicited by events appraised as real, and emotional intensity will correspond to the degree of “realness”. For instance, you hear that there is trouble in the Middle East. This is business as usual for people who do not concern you. However, if your parents are traveling in Israel, you are in front of CNN broadcasts for the duration of their stay. This regularity is even more interesting if you have  a vivid imagination.  Imagination is thought to be a way to transform reasoning or symbolic logic into much more motivating emotional stimulation.  Motivational visualization will work well for people who are able to imagine an event in detail.

Emotions are elicited not so much by the presence of favorable or unfavorable conditions, but by actual or expected changes in those conditions.  The greater the change, the more intense the emotional reaction. We will be over the moon when our bottom-ranked team wins the big one because no one expected that much difference in performance. .A friend turns into a jerk after financial success- the change for the better is as hard to deal with as a bankruptcy.  Your frame of reference  determines what counts as an emotional event and what response is possible. This becomes clear when we watch people who feel that they should cope with difficult circumstances suffer when they cannot cope. I stress this because general feelings of control are key to coping with the stress of constant or drastic change.

Emotions are conservative.  Emotional events retain their power to elicit emotions indefinitely,  unless repeated unto boredom and indifference.  Think of people in war zones who appear indifferent to acts of extreme violence as a result of being constantly exposed to horrific events. However, unless you get used to a certain class of repeated change, you will react to that emotional event indefinitely.  If you don’t work to establish more positve meaning for traumatic events, you might be doomed to experience it afresh every time a present stimulus evokes it.

This sort of work keeps therapists and clergy in business. There is a lot of scoffing at unresolved childhood trauma, but there is ample evidence that what goes unresolved in your family of origin  affects you in relationships which evoke similar response.  Traumatic events may not be erased, but they may be overwritten.  Behaviors which you seem doomed to repeat, in spite of unfavourable results, are wonderful places to begin the process of assessing and reevaluating.

**************

Our emotions tend to be “absolutes” relative to individual meaning structures, not necessarily corresponding to reality!  How many times have we counseled a friend (or ourselves) not to act on an emotional surety before checking out facts and alternatives?  For instance, a child is certain that the teacher is out to “get him”.  We arrange a meeting, and find that the teacher has a very high opinion of the child’s talents, and is pushing them towards goals higher than those set for the rest of the class.  In mediation, for instance, we often stop a mediation in which the people are at absolute loggerheads  with each other and ask them to undertake a fact-finding mission before resuming the mediation.  Armed with real information, participants may come back ready to make some concessions to more objective criteria for reality, such as law, custom, or industry standards.  This moderating effect leads to

7/  Every emotional impulse can be modified by the emotional effect of consequences.  You spoke harshly to a child, and he cried.  This caused some reflection on whether you had been too angry over a minor infraction, and whether you need to exert control over your reactions to his behavior.  Control is an inextricable part of emotional response.  Completely uninhibited response  can be dangerous unless sanctioned.  People in crowds or groups that sanction uninhibited response easily lose such control.  Think of the stands in a pro-wrestling match, or a “rave” dance happening.

8/  Lastly, we tend to place an emotional interpretation on events that gives us the lightest load to bear and the greatest emotional gain.  For instance, we have an argument.  The other person is not only wrong, but obviously more stupid than oneself.  It takes a very powerful argument to persuade one that one is wrong and possibly even ignorant!  We resist feeling badly.  Different emotions can produce different gains.  Anger intimidates and produces “agreement”.  Fearfulness prevents one from taking risks.  Grief provides excuses, demands the right to be treated with consideration, and calls for help (think of a child who broke their toy, cries inconsolably, and brightens only when Dad promises a new and better one).

Another day another dollar”; “Thank God it’s Friday”; “You can take this job and shove it!” Why are so many common phrases about work so negative? What would it take for your people to say: “Another day, another welcome challenge”, “Thank God it’s Monday” and “I’ll take this job and love it!”?

Some managers claim the best way to motivate staff is through the wallet: increase pay, raise allowances, give more cash incentives. But while money is certainly useful, it is not the only key to human motivation.

Sincere recognition can mean a lot more to your staff than just another dollar in the bank. A genuine pat on the back, given at the right time, in the right way, for the right reasons, and in front of the right people; can boost staff morale and commitment in ways that money never will.

What can you do to build an enduring culture of motivation and reward at your company or organization? What actions can you take to make your people feel recognized, appreciated and esteemed?

Move beyond sporadic incentive schemes and predictable “Employee of the Month” contests. These may work on a short term basis, but they do not create a challenging and inspirational company culture.

You can make a bigger difference. Here are four key steps to help you build the long-term morale of your all-important team.

1. Learn from Everyone’s Mistakes.

Before rewarding people for a job well done, assure staff they won’t be crucified if things somehow end up poorly or fail.

In an environment of challenge and growth, people must try things they’ve never done before. And they will make mistakes. In a healthy and rewarding culture, people must be encouraged to learn from their mistakes, then quickly regroup and rebuild. Managers should work with employees to understand, rectify and improve. Together they should attack the problems, and not the people involved.

Managers might ask aloud: “What can be learned from this mistake? What processes can be improved? Who else in the company should we tell about this error so they, too, will benefit from the learning?”

Many companies have rituals for sharing success and achievements, and that’s good. But it’s the mistake no one hears about, and others blindly repeat, that can pull your ship to the bottom.

“Sweep it under the rug.” “Turn a blind eye.” “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.” These quotes are the recipes for disaster.

In Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, Harvey McKay writes: “You’ll always get the good news; it’s how quickly you (and the rest of the team) get the bad news that counts!”

Lead by example: Start your next management meeting by sharing the biggest mistake you’ve made in the past two weeks. Explain what you learned from the experience. Then ask others for their ideas and input, listen for feedback, and thank those who offer their opinions. You will demonstrate a willingness to learn together, and encourage an open culture of sharing and communication.

What about those staff who make no mistakes? Either they are very good at hiding what is really going on, or they are not being challenged enough. The person who only makes small, safe and bureaucratic moves does not innovate or grow. In today’s turbulent markets, this is not what you need to succeed.

2. Make Appraisal Criteria Clear.

Make sure your staff understand how they are being appraised for increments, bonuses and promotions. Whether you evaluate yearly or monthly, openly or behind closed doors, in writing or in dialogue, staff must understand the criteria for their evaluation.

Introduce your standards for appraisal during the initial hiring process, explain it further during new employee orientation, and clarify the process consistently through staff meetings, newsletters and executive forums.

After you have published these “rules of the game”, keep the playing field fair. Meritocracy demands unprejudiced assessment. Nothing dooms staff morale faster than watching an incompetent who “takes care of the boss” move forward, while capable staff who don’t kiss backsides languish in mediocre positions.

Ask yourself: “Are the criteria for staff evaluation made clear? Are they openly explained and discussed so that all parties can achieve and succeed? Is the process of evaluation fair-minded?”

If your answer is yes, keep moving forward. If your answer is no or maybe, tackle this crucial issue, now. If you are not sure of the answer, check with those whose opinion really counts: your staff. Take a survey, run a poll, ask for immediate feedback.

But be forewarned: If the staff says your system of appraisal is unclear or less than fair, you’d better be ready to change. Even more demotivating than an unfair process of evaluation is an unfair process of evaluation that persists, even after staff have given you their honest opinion.

3. Encourage Career Development.

Make sure the conversation of career development is always open. Provide staff with a boss, mentor, counsellor or personnel officer who cares about their growth and professional well-being. Show you care about future possibilities and potential, not just current results or past achievements. Help staff understand those competencies required for a successful future. Help your team chart career progressions that are sustainable and realistic.

Provide access to relevant courses, seminars and conferences. Subscribe to appropriate publications and circulate articles of interest. Build a library of books, tapes and other useful resources. Keep everyone in the company aware of changes and trends in your industry so they, and you, are not caught flat-footed.

You can provide many opportunities for new learning without spending money outside your organization.

Start by cross-training one another. Use attachment schemes to integrate neighboring departments, and designate good mentors to show each other the ropes. Launch cross-departmental teams to work on cross-functional projects. Put all these plans into action and your staff’s confidence, and competence, will grow.

4. Create Powerful Rewards and Meaningful Recognition.

Tailor in-house reward and recognition programs to fortify your company culture.

Most rewards are handed down from the top: management praises staff, supervisor recognizes subordinate, boss applauds the workers. Why stop there? You can encourage recognition in all directions.

Create a “Bottom Up” award for staff to recognize and compliment their leaders. You determine the frequency and budget for this scheme, but allow staff themselves to select the winners, the reasons for winning, and the appropriate awards.

Transform “peer pressure” into “peer pleasure” on a group and individual basis. Have each department or work team select and publicly recognize a different team for their notable efforts and improvements. This encourages cross- functional understanding and coop-eration.

Ask each staff member to nominate one or two role models from among their peers. Get the reasons behind their nominations. Then recognize your role models. Publicize the reasons. Reinforce those values and behaviors.

Invite customers to participate in your staff recognition scheme. Put easy to use nomination forms at key points of customer contact. Set up a hotline for customers to call with compliments or complaints. Get your suppliers involved. Query them by phone, mail or fax. Thank them for their vote and send them a copy of the praise you then give to your staff.

Remember to reward the rewarders. Give special recognition to those managers who excel at recognizing their own staff.

What, When, Where, How and Why?

What should you highlight with your tributes and commendations? What gets rewarded gets done, so recognize and reward a lot.

Cover all traditional categories: targets met, sales accomplished, savings gained, customer compliments received. Then add some spice: celebrate the first account opened in each industry, first repeat order from every new account, under-budget completion of important projects, innovations that save the company money.

Acknowledge system and process improvements: fastest cycle time to date, shortest time to respond, most productive shift of the month, and most consistent performance every quarter.

Applaud improvement efforts in groups, sections and teams. Celebrate two or more departments — at the same time — for their progress in teamwork and communication.

To find even more opportunities for celebration, get creative. Highlight the most unusual service recovery, or most unique approach to a common problem. Commemorate the “best mistake” each month, with special focus on the learning that followed thereafter.

Create new themes for recognition each week, or month, or quarter. Keep staff motivated with unusual campaigns to arouse their interest and stimulate innovative actions.

When should recognition be provided? To sustain a vibrant culture, keep praise flowing in programmed and spontaneous ways.

The end of the month is a natural time to give rewards for targets and goals achieved. The end of the quarter aligns with financial accomplishments. The end of the year is an expected time for bonus, increments and promotions.

But the beginning of each week can also be a good time to set short-term campaigns in motion. And nothing beats Friday for a few off-the-wall commendations.

In “The One Minute Manager,” Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson encourage readers to catch people doing something right. That means recognizing good actions whenever and wherever you see them. Give merit to your deserving “Employee of the Moment” – why wait for the end of the month?

Where should you give out your awards and commendations? To build an encouraging culture, make the recognition widely known. Give praise at staff meetings, team meetings, management meetings and executive forums. Award prizes at the company picnic or family day. Bestow special honors at the annual dinner and dance.

Create tea parties, breakfast gatherings or end-of-the-week celebrations. Use every opportunity to commend superb performance and recognize successful efforts.

Highlight your awards in the company newsletter. Notify the local newspapers. Send press releases with photos to your industry publications.

Create a Wall of Fame in your plant, office or building. Take down some of the impersonal decorations and put up visual reminders of your most successful projects and praise-deserving teams.

How can you provide staff with meaningful recognition? By making the awards something your staff will appreciate and remember. For example, when the recipient is an outgoing type, throw a party, make a big fuss, go for all the publicity you can muster.

If the winner is shy, however, consider providing praise in a more personal way: special meeting, a thoughtful letter, a hand-written note on their desk.

If you are going to award a prize, try to make the honor reminiscent of the achievement. For the fastest production team, buy running shoes. For the engineer who devises a better way, go out and bronze a spanner wrench. For sales teams that hit the target, host a party with a tournament of darts.

You can give useful work tools as practical reinforcements. A new workstation can be a major motivator for a technically minded professional. A direct telephone line can mean success to the salesperson starting out. New business cards mean a lot to junior staff: give them as a premium for good performance.

And finally, why should you provide so much reward and recognition for your staff?

People have many choices of where — and how hard — to work. An encouraging culture motivates us to give our best. A sterile or discouraging culture diminishes our enthusiasm daily. Where would you rather put in your best effort?

At one local company, staff’s admonition to the newcomer is: “If you do a good job around here, you get to keep your job. But don’t expect recognition.” Now that’s a culture that needs to change!

To make the change and make it last, you must build your company culture. Create a community of recognition, encouragement and support.

It’s not an easy job, and the change won’t happen overnight. But you must take the lead and meet this important challenge. The company you build and the people you inspire may be your greatest rewards of all.

The inability to manage diversity in the workplace can be extremely harmful to your business. It can cost you:

• discrimination suits
• litigation time and money
• legal fees/settlements
• high employee turn over rates
• negative community image

You can keep your risks at a minimum by understanding what cultural diversity is, why it matters, and how to effectively manage your business in terms of diversity.

What is Cultural Diversity?

The United States is often thought of as the great melting pot where anyone from any background can assimilate into a single society. This idealistic way of thinking is not too applicable to our nation today. A more realistic and appropriate “ideal” is one of multiculturalism (cultural diversity). Multiculturalism is based on the idea that cultural identities should not be discarded or ignored, but instead, should be maintained, and valued.

The importance of cultural diversity has been, by in large, accepted in American business. This is illustrated by the increased presence of women and minorities in the business world. Diversity has gone from being a moral and /or legal issue into a business necessity.

A study by the Hudson Institute for the U.S. Department of Labor found that 85% of the new entrants into the workforce in the year 2010 would be women, minorities, and immigrants. If you want your business to be successful and competitive in the future, you will have to utilize these human resources and participate in these diversity trends.

Why Does Cultural Diversity Matter?

Cultural Diversity matters to every single one of us, both professionally and personally. When a group or segment of our population is excluded or oppressed, all of us are denied. For our businesses and communities to not only, survive, but to thrive, each of us needs to be aware and sensitive to ALL the members of the community. Our communities are rich with resources. When all segments are respected and utilized, it benefits everyone involved.

A great many of us live on the “margins” of society. To be in a margin means that you are not a part of the mainstream, popular culture. In this nation, our popular culture, or ideal for business success, is white, young, heterosexual, Christian, and male. This means you are on the margins if you are:

• a woman
• have ANY ethnic background that is non-white
• are not a heterosexual
• are not a Christian
• are not between the ages of 21-50

If you can answer “yes” to any one of these criteria, you live in the margins. This means that there are obstacles, prejudices, and stereotypes about YOU as an individual. You cannot automatically assume that society’s view of you is unobstructed or based solely on your individual character, qualifications, or accomplishments. Unfortunately, you may be put in the situation to “second guess” or question one’s motives in their interactions and responses to you.

Another fact this criteria illustrates is that more of us live IN the margins than do not. More of us DO NOT fit the societal prescription of what is normal and acceptable. While this all may be true, we all must do our best to function as productive, happy individuals.

So what are we to do? We can all strive for change. We can all be proactive in our decisions and lifestyles rather than reactive to ignorance and intolerance. When a white woman snubs an ethnic woman, for instance, she is harming herself as well. The white woman lives in the same margin as the ethnic woman, and she is only perpetuating and cementing her place there.

America is the most diverse nation in the world. Our ethnicity, religion, life experience, etc., makes each of us unique. Ideas our nation once embraced about assimilation are now inappropriate and outdated. For someone who lives on the margins to assimilate into a single idea of acceptance to fit into society is a gross violation of their individual identity and rights. This means that we all need to learn to accept what is different from us and respect it.

Managing Cultural Diversity in the Workplace

The management of diversity can be considered a response to the need to recognize, respect and capitalize on the different backgrounds in our society in terms of race, ethnicity, and gender. Different cultural groups have different values, styles, and personalities, each of which may have a substantial effect on the way they do business.

Rather than punishing or stifling these different management styles because they do not conform to the traditional white (male) management methods, employers should recognize these differences as benefits. Not only can diverse management styles achieve the same results as traditional methods, but a diverse workforce can also help improve the company’s competitive position in the marketplace.

Diversity, or sensitivity, training is now common place in the corporate world. However, small businesses need to be aware of these issues just as well. As a small business owner, your awareness and respect of diversity truly matters to your employees and your client base.

You must create a balance of respect and understanding in the workplace to have happy and optimally productive workers. In addition to this, it is important that you AND your employees are aware of the importance of respecting diversity when dealing with your clients. When you work effectively with your community, both you and the community benefit.

Giving and receiving feedback is often an uncomfortable and onerous experience, but it is a critical element to long-term success. Without it, we have no way to measure how we are doing or if we are headed in the right direction. Appreciating the value of feedback is an important first step in harnessing its power.

Intention is key: feedback should be given in order to help, not hurt. Too often, people give feedback to make themselves feel better, with little regard for the impact it has on the recipient. When on the receiving end, it is far more useful to view the feedback as important information that creates opportunities for improvement rather than criticism meant to hurt.

Focus the feedback on the behavior instead of on the person. This goes a long way in creating that positive intention. It is crucial that feedback is directed toward behavior the receiver can do something about, as opposed to events or circumstances beyond their control.

Well-timed feedback is the best kind of feedback. It is most useful at the earliest appropriate opportunity after the behavior you want to address has been demonstrated. Positive feedback given in front of a group to acknowledge someone’s performance is a great idea. Not so when offering constructive feedback of a sensitive nature that is far better suited to the privacy of closed doors.

Some other important elements of giving feedback: Establish rapport and some level of trust. Focus on a positive aspect before giving more constructive feedback. Stress their goals.  Let them know how they would benefit from change. Ask for permission to give them feedback. Be specific and be brief.

The second level of freedom is to act independently of childhood or cultural conditioning.  If you were raised a Catholic Democrat and in middle age choose to be a Green Party Buddhist, you are probably aware of more degrees of choice in your voting and religious behaviors.

The third level of freedom is the much-discussed freedom from “natural law”.  .  If everything is lawful, then it is all predetermined.  This belief runs from early philosophers to the present belief that genes may control up to 50% of a given expression of a trait such as susceptibility to anger.

While it would be difficult to argue that anyone is completely free of physical drives, external stimulus, conditioning, or genetic inheritance, it is easy to argue that we retain a great deal of flexibility to deal with our immediate concerns.  Since people are indeed organized around pursuit and enjoyment of incentives, many actions and much inner experience are dependent on the factors that determine the incentives to which they commit.  These factors prominently include enduring characteristics of individuals, such as values, success expectancies, experience, and talents and competencies.  Enduring personal characteristics and concomitant goals have enormous bearing on how two individuals may view the same situation and react to it.  If free will did not exist to some sense, or at least a wide range of possibilities, all people would react in the same way to the same situation.

Goals do not exert simple and direct effects on human behavior.  If we define goals as all objects and events toward which a person reacts with positive or negative emotion-then it’s clear that not all goals necessarily exert much influence.  However, people do become committed to pursuing goals, and then they are very likely to act to attain them.  This goal attainment process is characterized by thought and emotion centering on the desired outcome.  Until committed, there are a universe of goals out there- think of a person looking for a mate- there are many possible, a few probable, and finally, only one person, and a commitment.  Unless that person turns out to be disappointing, a committed person does not pay much attention to the fields of probables still out there.  The bulk of the work towards a goal, say, of having a long-term relationship, comes after the commitment.  Which suggests that of the two phases, commitments are more important than goals.  You can have many goals, but few commitments.

So, what is commitment?  How can we predict it?  There are some regularities to the process of forming a commitment:

1/ Given a choice of alternative goals to strive for, people tend to prefer those that they value, and that they believe that they have a reasonable chance to obtain.  For example, a woman is likely to seek a career to which she is to some extent attracted, and in which she has a fair chance of succeeding.  If you were advising this woman as to the probable success of her efforts, you would have to know three things:

The value of each alternative career to this woman.

The woman’s beliefs about her chances of success, and the price in time, effort, and resources the person believes she would have to pay for each alternative.

An incentive becomes a goal after the person commits to it.  For instance, I may regard a vacation to South America as an attractive incentive, but until it becomes a goal, I will not be checking the papers for package deals, calling travel agents, and buying tour guides to the pyramids.  After it becomes a goal, a commitment to the goal starts to alert me to all the ways that the trip affects my life.  For instance, I pay attention to my exercise routine because I wish to climb a volcano.  I forsake a Starbuck’s latte habit after calculating the savings- money that can go to the trip fund.  If I go to a party and someone mentions Peru, I go over and make inquiries.  In this way, we find that commitment focuses us on anything pertaining to our goal.  People can become obsessed with their goals to the point of neglecting other important items.

As evolved organisms, we do come equipped to react to specific situations with some specific kinds of behavior that need not be learned.  It is a vague schematic but it runs something like this: for instance when you find your efforts to do something are blocked (the situation), the individual tends to repeat the behavior with greater force.  Somewhat the “if it doesn’t go in, get a bigger hammer” approach.  We see it when a tourist tries to communicate in a foreign language; saying it louder does NOT make meaning more clear.

Joy and satisfaction are associated with achieving a goal or mastering a challenge.  This response is expected, as are characteristic physiological changes, facial expressions, and postures.  Who can mistake the emotion expressed by a football player making a touchdown?  Or that of a new father as he lifts his child? We use emotion to interpret the value of the goal or incentive.  If it elicits strong emotional affect, it is more likely to have high value and to be committed to.  Let me repeat that: we value objects, people, and events if they arouse emotion.  Even things that normally evoke little emotional response are treated as important if they lead to a valued goal.

Commitment and depression: what if you blocked from achieving a valued goal?  Many people experience depression as part of a normal adaptive process of personal reorganization following a significant defeat.  Workers in jobs where they have little sense of control and less satisfaction have something in common with people dissolving a marital bond.  When people are unhappy with their situation, and feel trapped in it, they experience emotions, thoughts, and behaviors characteristic of alienation.  They believe themselves powerless with respect to the job or marriage feel themselves unable to produce behaviors expected of them, and cannot seem to resolve their problems.  Escape into depression and alienation produces the following patterns: they cease to put effort into the seemingly insoluble problems, they seem faceless, without energy or enthusiasm, or any positive emotional response and are bored and easily distractible.  At this point, work enrichment or marital therapy are not likely to produce good results.  The person can choose to live at a very low level of joy, seek satisfaction elsewhere, leave the situation entirely, directly confront their own feelings, or commit suicide.  Or they can directly affect mood through drugs- a tempory solution that may become permanent.

Why are goals and commitments so important?  Because when people say their lives are meaningful, they generally mean that they are emotionally involved with important relationships, and actively involved in the pursuit of goals with the power to command strong affective responses.  We need to feel strongly to live fully.

Any definition of intelligence generally involves three elements:

• the ability to profit from experience
• the ability to learn new information
• the ability to adjust to new situations.

In his work on emotional intelligence, Daniel Golman defines the hallmarks of emotional maturity and a trained emotional intelligence as:

• being able to read the feelings of others
• handling relationships with the least possible friction
• being able to control impulses
• getting angry only when that is an optimal and appropriate behavior.

Emotional intelligences can be learned.  We learn the basics as children.  As adults, most of us feel refining our emotional responses is a life-long task.  The process of bringing our response into an optimal configuration for any situation begins with insight,

Insight into oneself is described as an intrapersonal intelligence.  It is the capacity to form an accurate, veridical model of oneself and to be able to use that model to operate effectively in life.  We achieve this through” self-monitoring”.  The purpose of self-monitoring is simply to observe one’s behavior, not to modify or condemn it. Understanding your own motivations and processes is necessary before extending that awareness to the motivation and behaviors of others.

Self-monitoring is the predecessor to interpersonal (between self and others) intelligence.  This is defined as the ability to understand other people and what motivates them, how they work, and how to work cooperatively.

Eastern religions and Western scientists agree on the use of self-monitoring techniques as a way to distance oneself from emotions, beginning to master and regulate our response to events.  Self-control begins with realizing that an emotional response is frequently predictable from context.  Prediction allows a moment to organize a response.  Intensity of response can be moderated in many different ways.  Planning and practicing to do something different when presented with a familiar challenge to one’s self-control, such as anxiety or anger, is one way to prevent an emotional hi-jacking.  We aim to become aware of our mood, our thoughts about our mood, and make small changes in our response to stimuli.  In session 4 we will continue to work on emotional intelligence by exploring one of the most difficult emotions to modify and moderate: anger.

People with a high level of emotional intelligence often seek to integrate the interests of all parties.  Entering relationships or negotiations without a clear perception of the interests of  participants operate at a severe disadvantage.  As the Win/Win game illustrates, communication is key to satisfaction in cooperative negotiations. In real life, when people are not allowed to win or feel control over outcomes, they often become apathetic.  The “learned helplessness” research of Martin Seligman (1975, 1991, 1998) shows what happens when animals and people experience life events as both uncontrollable and unfavorable.   They learn to feel helpless and resigned.  Depressed and institutionalized people fall into this category; losing the power to act when they feel that nothing they can do would be effective.

When management appears to be capricious and/or rigidly unfeeling it becomes difficult to sustain a sense of personal control and competence. People become apathetic in their job performance.  It is difficult for managers to manage widespread indifference, particularly if they are perceived as part of the problem. Workers given leeway in carrying out tasks and making decisions experienced improved morale (Miller & Monge. 1986).  Restoring a sense of control to people increases their sense of self-efficacy.  To increase self-efficacy you do not need to persuade yourself or others that they can be efficacious, nor praise or puff up their ego. You simply need to set challenging, yet realistic tasks, and successfully complete them.  To do one’s best and to achieve is to feel confident, and yes, empowered (Ozer and Bandura, 1990).

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