Author: Bob Bannister

Learn effective tricks to build your personal resilience

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

We think that building personal resilience is a management foundation skill.  During your management career you are going to face many stressors, both people and situations that are going to test you, potentially to the limit.  Being able to ride these storms doesn’t happen by chance, it is a skill you can develop.  

There are many aspects to being resilient.  Resilience is not only about the moment, the now, the current challenge, it’s also very much about me and the future.  It’s understanding what it will take to cope today and when other (perhaps even more unpleasant) things come flying in my direction.  

The advent of fragility

Psychologists are talking a lot at the moment about the advent of ‘fragility’ in society.  That is the idea that some in our day our feeling increasing less robust and more fragile.  It’s given birth to the phrase ‘snowflake generation’ for those born after 1995, referring in part to the increase in protectionist parental strategies.  In the United States it’s also thought to be connected to laws brought into play around 1995 that (for example), made it illegal for under 10’s to play alone in a public playground.  Whatever the truth of these things, it’s well reported that we are seeing a significant increase in people finding it more and more difficult to cope, or using our language here, lacking resilience.  

One of the problems is that we often look for confidence in being the best.  We look to be confident in being the winner, the champion, the most attractive, the one promoted, the one with the most social media likes etc; in a sense we encourage one another to go for gold all the time.  Yet the truth is, you can never be confident in getting gold!  You have no idea how you will actually perform on the day, let alone know how the others will perform against you.  So we end up lacking confidence, being unable to be sure of our success.  

So how can we reposition this?  Well, by simply putting our confidence, not in doing the best that can be done, but in doing the best we can in that moment – these are two different things.   The second is something we can be 100% confident in.  If not, we are just not trying!  This is just one of dozens of strategies that can help to increase our robustness and so contribute to our overall resilience.  

Invest in robustness

In our most fragile moments, we can quickly lose perspective.  Try investing in your robustness.  Develop your strengths and do all you can to reduce catastrophic thought processes that make the worst of future scenarios.  With skill and practice we can become increasingly resilient to all  kinds of management pressures.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain. 

5 tips for new managers

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

So you have been promoted or have just got that new management job.  Well done.  Here are 5 management tips for you that I wish I had been told in those early days.  There is of course loads of things that would be helpful to tell you, but Rome wasn’t built in a day, so these five make a great starting point.  

1. Challenge the effectiveness of your own role models.  

Despite what you may think, your managers up until this point may not have been the best!  We do learn loads from the bosses we have had, and when we are new to management we will often pick up on  their traits, styles and approaches.  

Now, you may have had a brilliant boss to learn from, and if you did that’s great.  Just don’t assume that they were all good, because guess what, even the best have flaws and get it wrong sometimes!  

Be analytical about it.  It’s worth taking time to grab a piece of paper and write down what they did very well and what they could have improved upon.  That way you can make conscious choices about what you might adopt yourself and where you could be even better than them.  

2. Ensure you step up into the role.  

Now this may sound obvious, but it’s a massively common mistake.  Make sure you step up to manage the team and not bury yourself in operational delivery.  I’ve written at length about this here, so I suggest you have a read.  But in short, it is a mistake to carry on delivering everything yourself, the greatest bosses I have had have been the ones that removed themselves out of the day to day as much as possible, seeing their job as enabling the team to deliver.  

3. Ask for feedback. 

My third tip is to ask for feedback, all the time, from everyone you work with – especially your own team members.  This isn’t about insecurity, always checking whether you have done the right thing, but is about fine tuning your strings!  Not only will you learn and hone your own skills, you will set an expectation and openness that will lead to a culture of feedback within your team.  In the long game this will be hugely powerful, enabling not only high performance, but the ability to function highly too.  You can read some more about the nature of high functioning teams here.

4. Sort genuine team issues. 

Number four needs to be a major focus of the first 90 days in role.  Let your team know that you are working for them by dealing with the genuine issues that they struggle with.  It will also show them that you have the authority to make things happen, bringing about a better environment for them en-route.  Show your interest and ability to make things happen that have not been dealt with sufficiently under any previous manager.  

5. Listen more than you talk.

It’s easy to think that you need to command your group, resulting in lots of direction and instruction.  Yes, there is a place for this, but it needs to come from someone who has listened first.  Make it your role to ask, to be non directive, to draw out the best in others.  Diagnose before you prescribe.  No one would like the doctor who hands out pills without asking and listening to what was wrong.  People like to be diagnosed, they like to be listened to, so make your ears the priority, not your mouth!  

There’s lots to learn when you begin your management career, but that’s OK so long as you have the humility to recognise it.  Be open, generous and helpful as a boss.  Serve your people rather than be a drain upon them.  Make it your primary role to support the people who work for you, ensuring that they always have everything they need (resources and skills).  It will create a great foundation for you to build upon as your grow and become the great manager you need to be.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Simple tips for a stress free return to work after holiday

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

It’s a pain isn’t it?  You’ve just had a great holiday, managed to switch off pretty well and now you’ve just walked into hundreds if not thousands of emails.  There’s a todo list that’s overwhelming you and all those balls that you were juggling before your break are now rolling around on the floor waiting for you to pick them up.  The stress is palpable and you wish you could be back on the beach in the Algarve or wherever you were.  Let me help you, here are some things you can do to get yourself back in the mix without blowing a pressure valve!  

1.  Make an appointment with your email account.  

The amount of email we return to after a holiday can be a really significant stressor.  So here’s a good way to deal with it.  Put an appointment in your calendar with your email account.  Block out the time and therefore stop others booking and robbing you of that time, by adding it formally to your schedule.  A smart thing here is to put that appointment in your diary before you go on holiday, so when you return you know you will have that assigned space to begin sorting your inbox.  

2. Park every email that has cc’d you!

Write a rule in your email tool to move all the emails that you are cc’d in, to a separate folder.  Let’s face it, if you are cc’d it’s for information not for action.  So you can strip them out of your inbox into a folder where you can check them in a few days time (or even next week), once you’ve had a chance to settle back in.   It will help you to focus on the things that do need your immediate attention and reduce the potential to feel overwhelmed by the shear volume of your inbox.  

3.  Schedule a catch up to assess priority.  

Thirdly, make sure that you sit down with your boss, team, peers and get an update on what you have missed during your vacation.  This is surprisingly useful for tuning you into the tasks that will be more important / urgent and require your immediate attention.  If you miss out step 3, you’ve got to work that priority out for yourself.  There’s only one of you, so you’ve got to make some choices about what you tackle first.  Use your immediate network to speed this up and help you hit the things that really do need your attention as soon as possible.  

4.  Have a physical clean up.  

Getting back into a good work flow is tricky when we are cluttered by lots of stuff on and around our desk.  We all know how we feel better about ourselves and our world when we have had a good clean out, tidying the environment that we are in.  So take some time (it probably won’t take long at all), to sort through and remove those old meeting notes, those expired piles of work etc. 

Most of all, try and enjoy it!  Work really is a blessing in so many ways.  Most of us would be pretty lost without it.  Try to hang onto to that de-stressed holiday feeling as long as you can.  Close your eyes and remember what it felt like back on that beach, transfer that feeling into the current moment.  Relax your shoulders and remind yourself to remove the tension from your body periodically throughout the day; especially as the demands start piling up again.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Time management techniques from an overly busy week!

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

Lessons from an over busy diary

It’s 0345hr, my alarm is going off and I cant help asking myself is this sustainable?  Two days ago I arrived late at the hotel and crashed into bed.  A restless night had me up slightly too early, my day had started.  The following 48 hours were jam packed, 2 follow up sessions with different programme cohorts, a grabbed and rushed evening meal, another follow up one-to-one evening meeting in the hotel lobby, before a 2 hour committee meeting online.  A better nights sleep followed before a solid day of 2 more follow up sessions, plus a 2 hour training needs meeting with the clients general manager.  I was quite ready to come home when the late evening flight got cancelled and a bunch of alternative arrangements kicked in to play.  

So here I am, it’s 0447hr and I’m amazed at how many people are around me in the airport.  I should be home by 0830hr, but sadly, only to repack for another flight out at 1300hr (for a workshop in Milan of Friday).  It’s turning into one of those weeks.  

I know I’m not alone in having a pressured week, really I do,  I’m sure my story and much much worse is being repeated many times around the world.  But sitting here with my empty blue Nero cup, I can’t help feeling my diary has got a little out of order recently.  When it feels like this, I like to count my blessings, it puts things back into perspective.  I’ve got UCB1 radio on in my headphones (one of our great clients) while waiting for the gate to be called, they’ve just played a track featuring my two sons and son in law, makes me feel really very proud and grateful.  I muse on other things that make me glad and at the same time sad (seriously ill ageing parents) and I reaffirm to my self the need to enjoy it all.  

When my retired dad tells me he’s had a busy week, I have to say, I don’t necessarily believe it!  That’s the funny thing about being busy – it’s such a relative thing.  One persons busy is another’s easy, I guess the thing we need to watch for, is when it’s all becoming overly pressured.  For me that happens when I start to feel things are getting out of control.  Too many balls being juggled, so that there’s a real danger I start dropping some.  Generally I try not to worry about those things I cannot influence, the pressure comes when I am simply struggling to do all those things that are within my span of control.  I find clarity of purpose a helpful thing at these times.  I ask myself whether I am sure about what the end goals is.  It helps me to work at doing the right things rather than just being busy about all sorts of things.  Who in this fast paced world has the bandwidth to do stuff that is not directly contributing towards what you want or need to achieve?  I suspect no one, but I also suspect many managers have teams without that necessary focus or clarity.  

Making sure your team knows what is critical in achieving the desired outcome ought to be a daily task for anyone in a leadership role.  I’m quite dedicated to the idea that my team shouldn’t end up doing anything that is not directly and clearly linked to a desired vision or outcome.  It’s a way for you to help them ensure some sanity and not become overwhelmed by the weight of work.  

I wrote about slimming down stuff a couple of weeks ago, I think now is also a good time time for me to re assess some diary commitment rules.  set some realistic maximums on things like client days per week etc.  Someone told me a story this week about a small local company that gives one day a week to its staff for development and improvement.  I love that idea, it’s a big commitment to ‘reduce’ productivity by 20% but am convinced we do need to find refresh time, future time, development time, to survive in today’s challenging work environments and markets.  I think I’m going to schedule some growth days in the diary, perhaps for the whole team, I’ll ask them about it.  It will help me to ensure some sanity around my own schedule as well.  

It’s all too easy to become a victim of our busy lives, when the truth is we always have choices, always.

Bob Bannister

ships Captain 

How intimate are you when managing your remote team? 

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

Why intimacy is a big deal when managing remote team workers and what to do about it.  

Intimacy doesn’t seem like a very professional word does it?  It is, however, a crucial idea when we are managing remote team workers.  

The Google dictionary suggests its definition is a ‘close familiarity or friendship’.  Euphemistically we would refer to two physically joined people as sharing intimacy.  So it has to do with how close we are.  

Intimately connected or a million metaphorical miles apart.  

That is (of course) part of the problem when we are managing geographically dispersed team members, they are quite literally miles away from us and that can translate into a slow but persistent possibility of disconnecting.  We may not think this matters too much, but it does.  It matters loads, because the reduction of professional intimacy has a direct correlation with the reduction of trust, and when trust starts to break down in a remote workforce, you really start the problems.  

Note this too, it’s not just the intimacy between manager and staff, it’s also the intimacy between peers and co-workers.  So the remote team manager needs to ‘up their game’ and proactively develop the relationships as part of the day job.  Here’s some ideas about what you need to do. 

1. Get people together physically, just for the sake of getting people together physically.  

 

We need to  plan in reasons to have physical meetings and when we do there is a new and vital item to be added onto the agenda.  That is ‘catch up time’.  Whatever tech we are using (and we should use lots), there is still no substitute to spending face to face time together.  Working together for sure, but also ‘catching up’ together.  

Make sure you schedule down time from the business for people to develop deeper and more meaningful relationships.  This is even more important when on boarding new remote team workers.  It makes all the difference, really.  

2. Work at creating an online community.  

In addition to the physical catch ups, ensure you have some kind of online community tool, and work at making it an active environment.   

Most Organisations have team chat facilities now, but if not, simply grab WhatsApp or something similar.  Set up a group and encourage the whole team to be active on it.  Think about how you can create interaction; like adding a ‘good morning team here’s what I’m doing today’ post, and asking what others are doing.  Have some fun in there, run a few team competitions or post some pictures of the weekends antics.  It all helps to add personality and ultimately intimacy between everyone.  

3.  Go and visit them.  

Own the adage ‘go along to get along’.  Make regular time in your schedule to go and work with each of your remote team members.  They will really appreciate this, the interest, the care, the effort.  They will value this and see you as a highly beneficial boss.  Be careful though.  What ever you do, don’t make this an “I’m checking up on you” visit.  Instead make it a support trip.  You are there to serve them, to help them, to support them, to tune into their issues in the field.  So get out and about as part of your normal duties and it will pay dividend.  

Build a trusting remote environment.  

Work at these three things to help build a trusting environment.  Enable your teams engagement with each other and be proactive in creating significant, positive interaction between you and all the community members.  

If you are a remote team manager, it’s going to be harder than managing an office environment, so step up and own the role.  Do everything you can to enhance the intimacy in your team.  For further insight into managing a remote team check out our free online lesson on managing remote workers. 

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Emotional intelligence: Lessons from the discomfort of a bad back

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

I’ve never been one to suffer badly with back pain.  The really painful stuff has only happened to me a few times over my near 55 years.  Memorably the first time I experienced debilitating back pain it was caused pulling my socks on, on my 30th birthday!  Prior to that experience I had carried around woeful, youthful disdain, belittling the grumblings of others over their sore backs.  If nothing else, my unwelcome birthday present brought a new ability to empathise on a completely different level!  When you put your back out, it hurts like crazy!  

Two weeks ago I had the questionable pleasure of being reacquainted with such pain.  It was a normal day, I’d pulled up outside a clients head office, opened the boot, removed a suitcase of training stuff and then grabbed my laptop bag slightly twisted, bang!  There it was, that striking pain that indicates I’d become somewhat careless with my poor old back.  

What do you do?  Me, I’m a pusher, the client is relying on me, there’s going to be a whole room full of people expecting me to deliver, alongside mounting costs with people travelling to take part in the workshop.  Having tried to mask my discomfort I get into the room and find some strong pink painkillers in my bag (I want to call them Cuprinol, but I’m pretty sure that’s something all together different).  

I pushed through the two days in client, thinking I was masking my discomfort well, until the receptionist who has welcomed me for many many years said “Bob, are you ok, you don’t seem your usual cheerful self”.  She was right, I was ruddy sore! 

Two weeks on, thankfully it’s reduced to a low nagging reminder to be sensible when moving myself or anything at all really.  Perhaps a useful reminder, because we all know that it’s when I forget about it I’m most likely to do some more damage.  I’ve learnt some things though, if your interested here’s what:  

1. When you lose your health you can feel utterly useless! 

For those first few days I needed help to do the simplest things.  Literally the simplest; getting bags from the car, removing clothing, even getting out of a chair!  I couldn’t even pick up and cuddle my beautiful grand daughter (and honestly she is so beautiful she may be the reason for all that icecap melting; she melts me for sure) climbing up my leg to say hi to pops.  For me it was only a short lived disability, but it highlighted the struggle that many face on an ongoing basis.  It’s cliched I know, but looking after our health and well-being is so important. 

I feel I’m relatively fit, exercising once or twice a week, but I hadn’t made it to the gym (through busyness) for nearly three weeks before it happened.  I feel sure that returning to do a little exercise has helped my immediate recovery, but the experience has given me a new emphasis to make time for keeping my ageing bones in as good a condition as possible.  Exercise is not an option, it’s the route to keeping well as long as I physically am able. 

2. Some things can help you make small changes that you should have already been mindful of! 

The second lesson may not be so profound as the first, but it’s making a difference. I’ve lost weight!  Not personally, not in two weeks, but I have aggressively downsized that laptop bag. It had become way too heavy, really. I just hadn’t realised it. A laptop, a big iPad, usually a camera, a kindle, a book (I know), a water bottle, various food and endless other dongles, spare batteries and other general assorted crap!  It was a bad back waiting to happen.  So I’ve skimmed it down, tried to keep it to a bare minimum basis.  Which got me thinking; what else in my life had become bloated or unnecessary?  Are there other areas where I could slim down, cut out the crap and be better for it?  It’s very easy to collate and collect, multiple bass guitars, more shoes, another gadget. Or perhaps it’s another social commitment, committee or responsibility.  It could be a useful question, what can we eliminate from our lives that will reduce the strain we have inadvertently built up over the years?  

They say every cloud has a silver lining.  I think there is some truth in that.  If I count my blessings and strip out the unnecessary it might just make my push towards retirement all that more enjoyable and free from pain.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

How do you keep a sense of team when everyone is geographically dispersed?

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

One of the problems associated with becoming a remote worker is the loss of team feeling.  We find that organisations who have a great culture start to introduce remote working, home working, hot-desking etc, only to discover that they are loosing something of the sense of team.  

Talking with an organisation recently, they sighted how there was such a ‘great fun’ culture in the office, BBQ’s, ice cream vans, cake at any opportunity even champagne flows relatively frequently.  But the increase of remote working was starting to have an impact.  I witnessed a team huddle in the office, but comment was made ‘has anyone thought to include the remote workers of the team in that huddle?’  Possibly not.  

It’s a common issue; take the people out of the office, and the office will change its dynamic.  It’s possible that this is one of those things that will change the organisation, and it will never be the same again!  That does not mean however, that there is nothing that managers can do it improve the sense of team.  I would suggest it just makes it more critical for managers to be thinking about this and injecting in new practices to help compensate for what is being lost.  

Meetings have a new purpose.  

One thing that managers of remote workers need to understand, is that all physical team meetings now have a new purpose.  There is something to add to the agenda that’s just as important as the list of work issues.  That is ‘catching up’.  

Working physical presence meetings into the life of the remote team is not optional, it’s a vital dynamic that will help to maintain a good team spirit.  Especially if we design-in catch up time.  We should encourage this time to chat, strengthen relationships and most importantly share what’s going well and what’s been a struggle.  In part it’s going to inject back in, the element of social learning that’s lost the  moment we stop being in the same room.  It shouldn’t be optional either.  It’s too easy to tag an hour on the end of a meeting and suddenly find half the team are rushing off.  Three meetings in and you will probably give up on it!  Alternatively, make it happen in the middle of the meeting, cut out a ‘catch up’ break mid process to ensure everyone gets involved.  

Investing in team needs to be high on the agenda of all managers of remote workers.  Involve the team in coming up with ideas, they’ll have plenty I promise you.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain.  

Ask vs tell – Your management style

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

We probably use ask-and-tell all the time in our management roles, but there’s something important about this that goes beyond just being polite or not.  There are times as a manager when I really need to tell, be directive and give individuals instruction.  There are other times when we really need to be non-directive too, to use the skill of asking insightful questions.  

Understanding when and why I make the choice between these two approaches is a management foundation that we all need to get right.  Here’s some simple guidance:

Using ‘tell’ as a manager.  

‘Tell’ is quick, it’s easy, and it’s a way of getting things done, but it can be problematic if used in the wrong situations.  ‘Tell’ is the correct approach in situations where your team member is unable to draw on previous experience, it’s something they currently don’t know how to do.  Can you imagine turning up at parachute school on the first day and being asked how you would like to fold your parachute? 

If I don’t know, then I need you to tell me.  

Directive input is welcomed when the recipient is unable to draw on their own knowledge or experience.  It’s not welcomed when they already have a good understanding of something.  Start telling me, when I have knowledge and ability and I will feel patronised.  

Using ‘ask’ as a manager.  

Ask is the tool you should use when you want to take someone from a basic understanding into a deeper level of insight and ability.  Ask is developmental.  If I say (tell) “No, the answer is 8” you will learn the answer and little else, except your the answers guy when I need it.  

If instead, you ask “How did you get 7?” The person will learn how to work it out for themselves.  It’s a completely different experience for the recipient of that question.  It’s not patronising either, because you are merely helping me to improve whatever it is.  

So there is clarity on when you should be ‘asking’ or ‘telling’ your team members.  Use ‘tell’ too much and I’ll just create management junkies that are addicted to asking me for the answer.  Use tell when the person has a good amount of experience, and I’ll end up with a frustrated team.  Use Ask when someone doesn’t know what to do and nothing will happen!  Getting this right is critical for the growth and motivation of your workforce.  

Make yourself super self-conscious concerning what you are doing, and when you are doing it over the next week.  It can transform the performance of the team and their perception of you as the manager.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

New leadership role? It’s all about grabbing the moment!

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

Unless you’ve been avoiding the news, you will probably know that there is a leadership battle underway for the UK’s top political job.  At the last count there were 11 contenders all competing for the opportunity to be the next (unelected) Prime Minister of the UK.  Following some of them on Twitter has proven both interesting and insightful.  They are all very hungry for what might be the most desirable yet undesirable job in politics – leading a split country and split government through Brexit.  

The party race is yet to conclude there are many weeks of the competition yet to run, but it got me thinking about the importance of those early weeks in a new leadership role.  What would you and I do given the opportunity to take on a new leadership position.  

Here’s what I think should be top of any new leaders list.  Four things (three really) that need to be established within the opening weeks of taking up any leadership position.  

Week 1:  Relationship is everything.  

OK, it’s week one, what do you need to do?  Obviously all the on-boarding stuff, but then what?  Make your first week about your people.  Spend as much time one to one, with as many of your team as possible.  The quality of your relationship with your direct staff (and your boss) can be the key that will unlock the potential within.  Make an active attempt to avoid or not listen to the ‘words of wisdom’ that you may be offered by others, particularly about individuals in your team.  Instead extend the largest benefit of the doubt and work at finding people just as you find them.  Form your own opinions, don’t be coloured by those who may have a jaded or fatigued views.  Building a strong, open, trusting relationship from the outset is priority number 1.  

Ask everyone, what they would change given the opportunity.  Find out about the things that frustrate them and hinder their progress or efficiency.  

Week 2:  Relationship is still everything.  

Week two needs to continue in the same vain, but this time with the network that surrounds your department or function.  Meet with as many stakeholders of your services or products as you can.  Sit with them one to one and ask as many questions as you can.  Listen to them.  Find out what they need from you and your team, understand what for them would constitute outstanding performance.  Use this question…  “If we were to wind the clock forward 6 months, and you are amazed at how my team have supported you, what would we be doing?”  

Use the SPED question set; tell me about your Situation, Problems, the Impact of those problems and what solution you Desire.  You will learn so much about the changes you need to bring about within your team and its provisions.  

Week 3:  Great leaders do bold things.  

Make a statement, a commitment to your team.  List all the things that you promise to uphold for the team, issue it to everyone and pin it on the wall.  Tell you people in this statement how you are going to work with them.  It might start something like this: 

I will:

  • Empower you to make decisions and own your work domains.  
  • Always be at hand to support you and answer any questions you may have. 
  • Work at developing your individual skills. 
  • Always seek to provide direction for the team.  

This is a bold commitment, especially as you are putting it out there on public view.  Here’s the thing, great leaders often do bold things.  Making it commonly understood within your team will also help you to work at upholding it.  

Week 4:  Make some significant changes.  

In a career there is seldom a better time to make changes than at the beginning.  By week four you should have gained enough insight to change something significant, for the better.  It will demonstrate your attitude to change, inspire new hope within the team and set the context for more change in future weeks.  Starting in the way you intend to continue is so much easier than trying to introduce your first change in week 16.  Make a land grab and show your team that they have a new boss that’s going to make things happen.  

The first four weeks are so valuable, don’t waste them but go into the role with purpose, focusing all the efforts of doing something exciting by the end of the first month.  

I can’t help feeling that whoever wins the Conservative party leadership will find themselves in a no win scenario.  It will be surprising if they manage to be re-elected after Brexit has settled.  Make your next role a success by starting in a truly positive and inspiring way.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

Three reasons positive feedback matters

Bob Bannister
by Bob Bannister on

What’s all the fuss around giving people praise, especially if they are only doing what’s expected of them?  

Sometimes we managers can get ourselves into a really unhelpful way of thinking.  Perhaps it’s because we feel we mustn’t ‘over-do’ the praise of our staff.  “Surely” we tell ourselves, “it becomes worthless when we give it too much”.  Perhaps it’s like asking how much we should tell out partners we love them?  We wouldn’t want to say it so much that it becomes worthless, would we?  

Well, here’s my view, you can’t tell them enough!  

I just read a tweet by Sajid Javid praising Theresa May and showering her with gratitude; sorry Sajid the horse has bolted, what’s the point of saying #nowyou’regoneweloveyou ?  

We badly need to recalibrate our appreciation filters (perhaps especially in the UK).  Here are three good reasons why…

 

1. All the studies show it’s motivating.  

The carrot, far outweighs the stick!  All the studies affirm this.  I’m a big fan of the work by Tom Rath on this (see his book ‘How full is your bucket’).  In one of his experiments he shows how praise can double the performance of someone compared to receiving no input at all.  That’s bonkers, double the performance – yes double it!  Praise is massively motivational, and we managers need to get this implanted into our brains.  

Motivation is such a moving feast, one day I feel like going to the gym, another day I don’t.  Nobody has done anything, it’s just my own motivation doing its usual thing and going up and down like a yoyo.  So often all I need is for someone to help me find that motivation.  A word of praise or thanks can provide just that inspiration.

2.  It’s how they know what you like.

I’ve probably said this somewhere before; managers are the custodians of the standard.  You are the ones that need to communicate what his acceptable in performance, delivery and behaviour.  Telling people when they’ve done something you like is the absolute best way you can do this.  

It helps them to understand what good looks like, what pleases you, and therefore what they need to do next time in order to do a great job.  

Don’t leave it to chance or guess work, tell your people when they’ve done well so that they know exactly what to replicate in the future. 

3.  They’ll need to uphold your view of them.  

Here’s a strange but true story.  I’ve worked with a lovely lady for maybe 15 or more years.  She’s changed employer three times during that period, but sooner or later the phone has rung and I’m suddenly working with a new client.  

She knows what she likes, and thankfully she likes what we do at iManage.  The strange thing is this, she commented once (just once) on my shoes ‘that I always wore nice shoes’ kinda comment.  Now we might think this was a throw away thing to say, from someone I knew well and had worked with for many years, but it wasn’t!  Oh no, it was an enormous thing to tell me, because from that point onwards I’ve always had to check what shoes I’m wearing before I meet her!  I can’t help myself, it’s now become so ingrained that I might even need to buy new shoes next time I see her, just in case the old ones are looking slightly tatty!  

Here’s the thing, when we tell people what we like about them, they are highly likely to need to uphold the positive view we have expressed and so, will try even harder to keep that standard.  It’s absolutely true, tell John that you like the way he’s always on time for meetings and the chances are he’ll strive even more to make sure he’s never late for you.  So giving positive feedback will very often strengthen the individuals resolve to maintain that standard.  

Giving positive feedback is literally a win / win / win scenario.  There’s virtually nothing to lose and so much to gain through expressing your appreciation of the individuals in your team.  So don’t do a Sajid Javid and leave it until it’s too late, instead master this as a management foundation and show your team some individual appreciation while it still has value.  

Bob Bannister

Ships Captain

iManage

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I'm Bob Bannister, owner, and trainer at iManage Performance, the specialists in training for remote workers and managers with over 20 years of experience in this sector.

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