FastTrain

Imagine that your team has done well at something.  You want to praise and thank them, so you decide to do something a little different.

One case in mind was when a manager decided to make a special effort of thanking his team by buying cream cakes to have during the Friday afternoon team meeting.  He showered them with praise and the effect was obvious to see. 

The next time he found an excuse to praise his team, he was so pleased with the previous experiment that he did it again.  Then he decided that this was having such a positive effect that he would make the cream cake treat a regular Friday thing – “We’ve all had a good week and worked hard so let’s treat ourselves” became the message. 

The team had started to get used to these Friday afternoon delicacies.  They enjoyed the high spirits, the praise and now the cream cakes weren’t seen so much as a treat but as something which was to be expected.

Then things started to get a bit sticky (pun intended), the current economic downturn meant that other teams in the office were struggling, there was talk of redundancies and the high spirited Friday afternoon team meetings didn’t really seem appropriate.  So this manager decided to stop giving the cream cakes and took on a more sombre attitude to the team meetings.

Naturally his team noticed this and wondered what they had done wrong.  Explanations were not forthcoming and the team in turn thought that they might be targets for redundancy.  All of a sudden the motivator provided by the cream cakes became a de-motivator. 

The team slipped from being a happy bunch of people keen to help each other to being suspicious and resentful.

The manager thought that he was doing right, first by praising and treating, and then by being responsible and sensitive to what was happening in other teams.  Instead he made matters worse.

So what should he have done?

• A treat is a treat so treat is as such!  When a treat becomes the norm then it is no longer a treat but something that is expected
• Praise should be continuous but should reflect the achievement.  Sometimes that means a hand written note to an individual, sometimes public praise in a team meeting, sometimes cream cakes or a trip to the pub to celebrate a big victory, but keep it different and proportionate to the achievement
• A managers behaviour must be consistent, if it isn’t then his or her team will notice and react accordingly
• Ultimately it’s all about communication, if things need to change then tell them why, get their buy-in and cooperation, then they will know that it is nothing to do with them but a ‘needs must’ situation.