January 23rd, 2012
Hmm, should I pick up the phone or send an email to my old contact from what seems like decades ago. Will they receive me well or just view my contact with them as a deliberate attempt to rekindle the past for a purpose or will we laugh about funny things from the past like it was just yesterday?
Why does that phone call seem so hard to make? Why do we put much more than years between us when we don’t have to. People make connections and if they are good one, they can become part of their life’s history. Quality connections add something mutually beneficial if only for a few weeks. At the time, we may not realize the purpose but as time goes by we learn about a bridge to another.
Meeting for coffee is an easy invitation to make and should never be looked at as just casual. One of the reasons that Starbuck’s probably survives the Great Recession so easily is because of the incentive the offer. They provideof an atomosphere that fosters good conversation along with agreat cup of coffee all for under $5.00!
Tips on How to Connect with Others Again
- Revisit old company newsletters or newspaper article that covered a project that you and a team worked on.
- Contact others who were on your kid’s sports teams that you are still in contact with to reach other.
- Church
- Social media
- Industry networking groups
- Use an incentive providing a lead or valauble contact
You only have to gain, get connected.
Tags: incentive, incentive programs
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January 4th, 2012
There is no better gift than sharing of one’s self with others. When we do so, we are spending time giving and investing in the relationship. We all need each other in this world and there is nothing more fulfilling than sharing yourself with others. Each hour we spend with someone else is an opportunity for enrichment. No social media connection comes close to looking into someone’s eyes, feeling their hand in yours when you shake it and sharing good conversation.
We all know that our clients are important to our business and we should always make a point to invest time with each of them. Some of us will drop everything when Mrs. Big Client calls however the reality is that Mr. Middle of the Road Client calls it is just as important. We have all envyed the incentive of the VIP treatment being offered to high rollers in Las Vegas with fancy roped off areas and servers all conveniently around. Your mid range clients are more plentiful and pay the bills each month. They are the type of clients that would be be thrilled to receive an incentive for an order and when they do, they will tell the world about it. So often just an email is received or nothing at all for doing business with most companies. A simple exchange of money for services.
Small incentives are money in your investment bank for you in good times and not so good times. We should never forget to thank our customers no matter what the economy. Appreciation is an act of kindness and respect, something that has dramatically faded during the past decade.
When we are appreciated it is powerful. For example, I was warmly greeted by a lovely French Canadian Receptionist who presented me with a small menu and asked me if I wanted something from it as I waited for a representative. I was so surprised that I had to ask her to repeat what she asked me. As I looked at the menu, I noticed there were various soft drinks, teas, coffees, waters and small snacks listed on it. I could not help but feel special and that I was embarking on a relationship where I was truly going to be appreciated before the relationship had even begun. I decided to order a flavored tea and sat back in a big leather chair looking around the room admiring the unique artwork and furniture. That day I could have waited an hour for the representative to come in, I was welcome, taken care of and comfortable.
Only 1 1/2 months after my first appointment, I received a small gift of chocolate fortune cookies in a decorative box with a Christmas Card, another pleasant surprise. Even if I am approached by a competitor offering a lower price for the same services, I am not going anywhere. I am not this company’s biggest client nor their oldest client, I am just a client doing business with them and they apparently appreciate it. Good old fashion respect and service.
An incentive is more than motivating, it is something that builds relationships and helps you build your referral business. I will refer this business each and every time I have the opportunity to do so.
Tags: incentive, incentive programs, incentives, motivate
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January 3rd, 2012
If you are not a believer in networking in the social media world, you best jump into the pool of belief now. Six degrees of separation has been reduced to 1 ot 2 degrees thanks to social media. Yes, we all sacrifice a bit of privacy but the valuable incentive is that we are meeting other people’s people to help us grow our business or to land a job.
Making a connection is not what it is all about, it is a good start. How do you go from “Hey, want to connect” to “Hey, can you help me find a job or help me get an appointment with Bob in Marketing for a sales presentation?” One must treat the 1 or 2 degree person as a preferred client. The relationship you have with that first level contact will definitely determine the connection opportunities that may be offered to you. As we all know, a warm introduction is at the top of the list of every salesman’s wish list.
Tips to Enrich Your Relationship with Your 1st. or 2nd. Degree People
1) Make a live connection by picking up the phone to call to your contacts at least once a month to chat about their kids, current events, a new movie, schedule coffee or lunch together.
2) Share beneficial articles via email when you come across one that may be beneficial to your contact.
3) Sincerely ask your warm contact if you can do something for them to help them with their business. When someone comes to the door and offers to help you, chances are you will be more open to take the time to listen to what they have to say.
4) Offer information about training that you found to be helpful.
5) Make introductions happen between your other friends, your 1st and 2nd degree connections.
6) Be your friend’s promotional agent, let them know you are supportive and are truly interested in their career. Talk about your friend’s business with others when they are present so they know that you really are trying to help them.
7) Provide your connections with an incentive. When a valuable lead or connection has been offered to you, immediately thank them with a small gift card.
8) Motivate your friends by sending thank you cards for their little acts of kindness. Thank goodness good Karma also goes around, not just the bad stuff.
9) Ask your friends what motivates them and what incentives that they may use to reward others who help them out.
10) Keep your promises, do what you say you are going to do when you say you are going to do it.
We all have good intentions and feel that nice little warm feeling when we help others be successful. Our incentive should be to enrich the lives of others.
Tags: blood donor incentives, corporate incentives, customer incentives, gift cards, incentive, incentive programs, incentives, motivate
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December 8th, 2011
It is Christmas time and everyone is wondering how to buy gifts on a super tight budget. We would all like to give gifts to all those that make our lives a little bit easier, provide good service or teach our children but the reality is we have must carefully pick and choose who will receive.
There is no better time than the holidays to buy gift cards and other incentives than now. Many restaurants, grocery stores and retailers are going out of their way to provide you with an incentive to buy more gift cards. Most restaurants are offering 1 $10.00 gift card when you purchase a $20.00. Although some think that gift cards do not provide the “ah” factor as a beautifully wrapped present with a gift inside, it does have longer lasting effect. A few days or even months later when your friends and relatives go to use their clothes, food or cocktails it is always reminds them of you or your business once again. You see a gift card is not just a gift providing the recipient with their choice of gift or incentive to do business with you, it is a long lasting incentive that often includes sharing who presented them with the gift card over dinning. If you are a business owner you realize the importance of word of mouth advertising, the best type of advertising in the world!
One thing to note, if you are mailing gift cards be sure to place it in a box so that it can not be felt in a Christmas Card and stolen. Also, select a retailer or restaurant who insures the card in case of theft or lost.
Other Ways to Maximize Your Gift Card Purchases:
1) Combine purchases with friends for a bigger incentive.
2) Look for coupons online or swap coupons you need with friends.
3) The incentive to buying online is saving money on taxes and get free shipping.
5) Purchase at smaller retailer who are willing to bargain for your business.
6) Ask friends on Social Nets works where the deals are on gift cards and other cool things.
Even if you are finished with your Christmas shopping, take advantage of gift card incentives on groceries and other items saving you even more money. Hurry deals end when the Christmas season is over.
Give
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Tags: corporate incentives, customer incentives, donor incentives, employee incentive programs, gift cards, gift incentives, incentive, incentives
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December 1st, 2011
It’s part of a program the financial institution launched that gives customers an incentive to go green.
BY JENNA SWEENEYPublished: October 13, 2010 09:30 AM
Orange-based Verengo Solar Plus and REC Solar, which has an office in Irvine, are helping Wells Fargo customers in Southern California make the switch to solar energy.
Through the end of the year, Wells Fargo is offering up to $1,000 in incentives to qualified customers who advance $15,000 from a line of credit or home equity loan for installation of a solar energy system through Verengo, REC or Oakdale-based Acro Energy.
Orange County ranks among the top solar markets in the United States, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. California made up 67 percent of cumulative solar capacity installed through the end of 2009.
“More and more customers tell us they care about reducing their impact on the environment and look to us to provide financing options that make renewable energy installations and energy-efficiency improvements possible,” said Rob Myers, Wells Fargo’s regional president for Orange County.
In January, Wells Fargo installed solar systems at 10 of its Denver locations.
With the installation of an average solar system, Wells Fargo approximates savings of more than $40,000 over 30 years for homeowners in the Southern California Edison service territory.
Under the new Federal Stimulus Bill, homeowners who make the switch to solar are eligible for a tax credit worth 30 percent of the total cost of the system.
“With this special promotion and other incentives,” Myers said, “our customers can potentially reduce their solar installation costs by up to 50 percent while reducing costs on their energy bills in the future.”
Tags: blood donor incentives, corporate incentives, customer incentives, employee incentive programs, incentive
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November 9th, 2011
This article has been excerpted from The Power of Loyalty by Roger L. Brooks, available from Entrepreneur Press.
Reward your customers — they’ll reward you with repeat business
The best way to motivate customer behavior is to provide an incentive or reward for that motivation. Rewarding your customers for a specific purchasing behavior is not much different than training your puppy. With enough repetition and positive reinforcement, your pup can be motivated to act upon instruction. That’s because the pup knows if he listens to your command, he’ll receive his reward.
Human nature isn’t much different. People can be motivated to take specific actions that accomplish their buying goals while also accomplishing your goals to increase their spending, frequency of visits or combination purchases (or comparative goals relevant to your line of business).
The question then is how do you motivate behavior? Below are five ideas that will get you thinking.
- Offer soft benefits that provide value such as special access limited only to members.
- Offer relevant promotions through various lines of communication, for example: e-mail, SMS text, receipt messages, statement inserts, RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
- Up-sell complimentary products or services at the associate level.
- Offer sweepstakes, random rewards or special offers for a limited time frame, keep your strategy fresh and exciting:
- Strategically place messages (via signage, web banners, etc.) that will trigger motivating actions.
Motivate, But Don’t Mislead
Once you decide how you’ll motivate, always do so in an honorable way. Your customers won’t want to be misled into thinking they are receiving something greater in value that what they’ll actually receive as the reward.
Abraham Lincoln put it best when he said, “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
Of course, the statement was made some 150 years ago and the President was referring to politicians attempting to fool their constituents; however, the quote resonates with me every time I see a program that offers empty loyalty. Such programs offer an elaborate program on the outside when, indeed, it’s only a facade to increase business. In time, savvy customers will see through the facade. Your promotional strategy to motivate behavior must be phony proof. Once your customers lift the hood and kick the tires, the promotions must stand on their own and offer real value, not empty promises.
Remember, whatever you do, don’t try to fool the customer! Loyal customers will catch on if the loyalty program does not have true value. This can also backfire and cause disloyalty amongst your customers and defeat the entire purpose of implementing your strategy in the first place.
There are two reasons why your rewards offerings should be upstanding:
- Loyal customers have earned the right to receive a valid reward. If they weren’t enrolled in your program, they may have taken their business elsewhere.
- Customers can see through transparent rewards.
If you want to be in the loyalty game, you have to offer attractive redemption items that are achievable for your customers to earn. If customers are willing to change their purchasing behavior and provide you with their loyalty, they will expect the same in return from you in the form of a relevant reward.
It’s the Little Things That Matter Most
If you put on your consumer hat, you’ll understand that it’s the little things that matter most. One component you should incorporate is providing feel-good loyalty. Feel-good loyalty is just what it sounds like, providing something that the customer will feel good about. Offering feel-good-loyalty incentives should be part of your overall strategy and will require some clever and creative thinking. Some companies offer free Wi-Fi, others offer free shipping. Whatever you decide, brainstorm hard, even hold an employee contest. but find your niche and add feel-good loyalty to the mix.
Photofiddle.com is an internet company that offers a service to turn your photographs into art. Simply upload a photo and you can instantly transform that image into pop art, impasto, a black and white sketch and even more. Once you create your personal masterpiece you then have many options for the type of surface the image is printed on (glossy photo paper, canvas, etc.). Finally, you can choose from a number of print sizes and framing choices.
Although Photofiddle doesn’t have a recognizable rewards program they do provide various levels of feel-good loyalty. Upon opening your order, customers see each piece is carefully packaged and accompanied with a pair of white cotton gloves. The label attached to the gloves reads, “All fine artwork should be handled with care. Please use white cotton gloves. Oils from your hands and fingers can leave finger prints. Jewelry on your fingers and wrist can leave markings.”
That’s a personal touch and that’s feel-good-loyalty. It’s doing the little things that matter most with customers. It’s thinking outside the box so that your brand motivates your customers and resonates in their mind. Providing the white cotton gloves with each order sends both a literal message and subliminal message. It reinforces the need to treat your artwork with care and that they treat all of their customers with care.
Roger L. Brooks is a respected loyalty strategist with more than 15 years of experience in developing, supporting, and implementing customer loyalty and rewards programs.
Tags: awards, corporate incentives, customer incentives, employee incentive programs, incentive, motivate, motivational, reward, reward programs, rewards
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November 6th, 2011
It is no surprise that when the going gets tough, the tough must get going with the incentive being survival. Just about every company around the globe is finding new ways to do more with less while trying not to burn out their valuable skilled workforce. A survey by Deloitte of CFOs and other executive managers working at mid-sized companies demonstrated that 70 % of the nearly 700 survey respondents said they have experienced overall improvements in productivity over the past three years, with approximately half of those reporting gains of 5% or more. Most respondents attributed gains in productivity largely due to improvements in processing and technology. Investments in technology has required some companies to cut expenses dramatically to pay for systems, training and implementation however with remarkable gain.
Although technology has greatly improved our professional and personal lives, it is still human interaction coupled with technolgy that boost a company’s effectiveness. Your employees, vendors and customers want to know that if and when technology fails that there is a skilled and caring individual on the other side to help when needed. Nothing is worse that driving off a car lot with your new car then finding out a few days later that there is a problem and no one is there expect the automated attendant that answers the telephone.
In Call Centers across the world, a systems called call presentation delivers incoming calls very efficiently to representatives without them even having to pick up the phone. The representative simply hears a beep and in a few seconds a caller is waiting on the line and their account seems to magically present itself on the Call Center Representative’s screen. Seems easy but if that employee is not trained correctly, is stressed or is disgruntled, it is a recipe for disaster.
Do you remember the scene on the “I Love Lucy” show when Lucy and Ethel were working at a candy factory when all of a sudden the conveyor belt quickly speeds up preventing the two friends from wrapping each piece of chocolate? The belt goes faster and faster sending chocolates all over the floor causing Lucy and Ethel to panic! Soon the two best friends become stressed out due to lack of training, experience and become forced to look for ways to cut corners eating many of the chocolates before more landed on the floor thinking they could save themselves from being fired. It was one of the most memorable scenes of the show and something like this is just as memorable to your customers but without the humor.
Doing more with less is sending productivity higher however at what costs? Usually the first to suffer is quality because employees become tired and frustrated if cuts result in long term sacrifice. Without an incentive to hang in, stretch and grow accustomed adjusting to new demands, employees will make more mistakes and as soon as their is an opportunity, they will leave to greener pastures. Last month, a survey found that a growing percentage of workers are unhappy on the job and are looking for new employment. No matter what the economy, quality skilled workers will always have a place to go. Turn over is just as costly now as it was 6 years ago before the Recession however it is much harder to find those who are skilled.
As Managers, one has to become more creative, foster an atmosphere that is stimulating and provide incentives to push employees to higher standards during challenging times. If you are not a people person that gets involved and greets your employees at least a few times a week, you are not investing in your future. The way you manage your department today will carry you and your company ahead of the competition as the economy begins to turn around. If employees are left to continually think about getting a new job as soon as the economy changes because you did not demonstrate appreciation for their dedication, you will be spending more hours spent on recruiting than in planning for future growth.
Tips to Help Boost Productivity:
1. Make everyone fully aware of goals and expectations each week. Don’t badger just go over expectation, recognize employees who are doing well and train those who need help.
2. Brighten up your department with motivations posters, balloons when they reach their goals and Pep Rally type meetings on Mondays.
3. De-clutter your department and ask your employees to work on doing the same with their work space.
4. Create a contest and reward employees who can an opportunities list suggesting methods to cut waste and increase productivity.
5. Deliver a “Do it right the first time” campaign that often results in less phone calls and rework saving thousands of dollars.
6. Request that employees batch small tasks together and getting them done quickly each day.
7. Revisit individual employee talents. If you have someone who is a good researcher, have them be your point of contact for those needing to do research to complet requests. If one or two of your employees have good people skills, appoint them as your rallying team so they can help you engage other employees. There’s no reason not to use your team’s natural talents to your advantage.
8. Always be ready to capture new ideas as they pop up. Don’t put it off because you may forget.
9. Communicate clearly and often keeping everyone’s eye on the ball.
10. Keep them healthy mentally and physically by bringing in oranges during flu season and have fun frequent contests to provide an incentive to reach higher p
Tags: customer incentives, gift incentives, incentive, incentives, marketing incentives, motivate, reward
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October 27th, 2011
A manager has evolved from being a time keeper and making sure things get done into a coach, counselor and driver of corporate strategies. Since managers are the closest to front line staff and have more direct customer contact they are a wonderful source of information that provides leads regarding the need for future development and can more easily influence employees during times of change.
If you are a manager, you know you are not only sandwiched between executive level people with big requirments, you are also surrounded by employees who look to you for guidance, advancement opportunities, motivation and at times a friend. Being a manager on almost any playing field is one that may require you to walk gingerly through political land mines while keep things calm on the home front, your department.
Managers know that it can be a challenge to keep valuable skilled employee who are grateful but still keep an eye out for new and improved opportunities. After all, in today’s job market if you don’t see thing happening within 2 1/2 to 3 years at your company, it is time to move. The days of moving up in your own company are often limited because many executives and directors bring in their own teams for their own job security limiting advancement for mid-level managers and front line staff. Managers must keep nuturing their staff providing an environment that fosters cross-training in other departments, involvement in decisions and direction of the department and incentives to stay.
Regardless of our lovely economy, recent surveys reflect that over 80% of workers hope to change jobs in the near future. Job satisifaction is at a low. People need to feel valuable and appreciated and I don’t just mean during the holidays. One time in a job interview someone asked me “Why aren’t employees more loyal?” I almost burst out with a “Are you kidding?” Employees have felt since the 1980′s that companies are not loyal to them. Employees watched their mom and dad’s pension diminish or evaporate, we had Enron then we also began to see many mergers and buyouts. Company raises began to shrink from the once robust 10% increase down to a ceiling of 5% to 7%. Health benefits were beginning to shift into a more of a cost sharing type of thing.
As a manager, it is up to you and not just your employer to provide an valued incentive to stay interested in their job. If most people feel that their boss is doing what they can to keep the job and environment productive and interesting, they will invest added time. Also, if their manager sincerely cares about them as a human being and meets with them on a one on one basis once a month to hear about the family and the manager gives of themselves a bit, an employee will feel appreciated and enthusiasm will soar! As it has been for years, employees leave their jobs first and foremost because of their boss, the job itself and then, because of dissatisfaction with pay.
Going back in time we learn about how our roles changed over the decades contributing to our jobs today:
70′s …
Training focused primarily on discrimination, racism, and management by objectives.
80′s …
Popular training topics were behavior modeling, the first real push towards teamwork, empowerment, diversity, feedback, quality and employee incentives.
90′s …
Lots of manager training to become visionaries, learning groups, performance management, sexual harassment, re-engineering, fun incentives incorporating company executives and the evolvement of balancing work and life.
00′s …
A time when our employers want us to learn how to protect the company by attending training on topics such as employment law, computer security, workplace violence and prevention, stress management, differences between men and women managers and employee motivation to help with mergers and/or rightsizing.
Fun Ways to Provide that Added Incentive:
- Fun Fridays
- Funny Sock Fall Contest
- Outdoor Meetings under the Trees
- Host a surprise Un-Meeting
- Bring a Treat Friday
- Manic Monday Casual Day
- Scavenger Hunt Thursday
- College a Coupon for a Good Deed for a Prize
Being a manager is rewarding. The more you involve your team and keep them motivated, the better it is for you. Your team will help you meet your goals and your involvement with them will help them grow and feel valuable. Those at the executive level will quickly see that you can easily motivate your team to move ahead through change.
Here is to being a manager, enjoy!
Tags: awards, employee, employee incentive programs, employee rewards, incentive, incentives, motivate
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October 11th, 2011
Find out how giving praise is the key to getting it
Happiness Thought for October: Praise early and often. As St. Therese of Lisieux wrote, “When one loves, one does not calculate.”
I’m a real gold-star junkie. One of my worst qualities is my insatiable need for credit; I always want the recognition, the praise, that gold star stuck on my homework. Recently, I was grumbling to my mother about the fact that some extraordinarily praiseworthy effort on my part had gone unremarked upon. My mother wisely responded, “Most people probably don’t get the appreciation they deserve.” That’s right, I realized – for instance, my mother herself! I certainly don’t give her enough praise for everything she has done for me. Our conversation started me thinking about the importance of praise, and how to praise effectively.
1. Be specific Vague praise doesn’t make much of an impression. Parenting experts often express this point of view: Praising a child means more when it’s specific than when it’s general. “What a beautiful painting!” is less gratifying than “Look at all the colors you’ve included! And I see you’ve used all your fingers with the finger paints. You’ve really made your picture look like a spring garden!” This is true for adults, too. “Great job!” is less satisfying than an enumeration of what, exactly, was done well. General praise sounds perfunctory and meaningless; specific praise seems heartfelt.
2. Never offer praise and ask for a favor within the same conversation It makes the praise seem like a setup for whatever you’re asking for.
3. Look for something less obvious to praise Highlighting a quality that a person hasn’t heard praised many times before shows that you’re really paying attention, not just repeating what other people have said.
4.Praise people behind their backs The person you’re lauding usually hears about it, and behind-the-back praise seems more sincere than face-to-face praise. That’s why I make an effort to repeat any behind-the-back compliments I hear.
5. Match the quality of the praise to the difficulty of the task If a job was quick and easy, a hasty “Looks great!” will do; if it was protracted and challenging, be more lengthy and descriptive.
6. Remember the negativity bias The “negativity bias” is a psychological phenomenon: People react to the bad more strongly and persistently than to the comparable good. For example, within a marriage, it takes at least five good acts to repair the damage of one critical or destructive act. So when I praise someone, I remember that one critical comment will be far more memorable than several positive ones. If I want someone to walk away feeling great, I skip any negative remarks.
7. Praise the everyday as well as the exceptional When people do something unusual, it’s easy to remember to give praise. But what about the things they do well all the time without any recognition? I try to point out how much I appreciate the small services and tasks that someone unfailingly performs. Something like, “You know what? In three years, I don’t think you’ve ever been even an hour late with the weekly report.” After all, we never forget to make a comment when someone screws up.
Praise is gratifying to the person getting praised, of course, but it also boosts the happiness of the praiser – at least I’ve found that true of myself. Still, what about the opposite problem? I find it fun and easy to give gold stars, but so often I’m craving them myself. I struggle (admittedly with only moderate success) to master my need for gold stars. I’ve repeatedly asked my husband to give me more of them: “Manipulate me! Lavish me with praise, and you could have me jumping through hoops like a tiger at the circus! Just give me my gold stars!” He laughs, and he understands my nature, but he still doesn’t do it.
Some of my happiness-project resolutions are aimed at this desire, and I tell myself, Don’t expect praise or appreciation. Nevertheless, for all my efforts, I have to admit that I still crave those gold stars. It helps if I tell people I’d like gold stars. If you give a gentle reminder, they might happily shower you with praise. Here are some other strategies I use to try to curb my neediness:
1. Do things “for myself” For a long time, I self-righteously told myself that I made certain efforts “for the team” or “out of love for my family.” While this sounds generous, it led to a bad result, because I sulked when my husband or whoever was involved didn’t appreciate my efforts. Now I tell myself, I’m doing this for myself. This is what I want. I want to send out holiday cards. I want to organize the cabinets. This means I’m not waiting for a gold star. No one else has to even notice what I’ve done.
2. Find ways to reward myself Maybe other people aren’t giving me credit, but I can give myself credit. I keep a chart of my daily resolutions, and I get a little jolt of satisfaction when I reward myself with a check mark next to a resolution. I give myself gold stars!
3. Express your appreciation for what other people do One good happiness rule is that if I wish people would act a certain way toward me, I should act that way toward them. If I wish people would be freer with praise, I should make sure I’m ladling it out myself. Also, I’ve found, when I push myself to feel grateful for what others are doing, I remind myself of how much they do for me – and that eases resentment.
4. Remember that being taken for granted is a form of praise It’s ironic: The more reliable you are, the more likely you are to be taken for granted. If you always meet deadlines, if you never lose your temper, if you’re always prepared, people can overlook your efforts. And really, that’s a compliment. My only clear childhood memory of being picked up from school is the one day that my mother was late. Every other day – year in, year out – she was on time. As a child, did I ever say, “Hey, Mom, I really appreciate the fact that you’re never late”? Nope. But it mattered. How about you? Have you found effective ways to give or get praise?
Tags: awards, corporate incentives, customer incentives, employee incentive programs, employee rewards, incentive, incentive programs, praise, praise employees
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September 28th, 2011
Being a middle manager in a big corporation can be a wonderful position but it is one that presents it unique challenges. A middle manager is usually closer to front line staff than executives however at the same time, there is great responsibility to achieve higher level goals. Often times the compensation and incentives of a middle manager does not include stock options, travel in first class or the opportunity to be readily seen in action presenting additional promotional opportunities.
What is the best way to describe a middle manager in just a few words? I would describe it as the sandwich position. The middle manager’s staff often views their boss as someone who understands the day-to-day production push and sees first hand how hard they work. They view their boss as someone who can fight for their right and provide key information back to them from the top. Top level executive management views the middle manager as a producer and someone who needs to make it happen regardless of staffing levels, the right tools and is a sponsor for the cause but not one of the elite.
More than five years ago middle managers were casualties during the need for downsizing. Vice Presidents and above were then required to manage lower level staff saving their companies money yet at times sacrificing employee development and needed coaching. This action came at a sacrifice to some companies effective growth and efficiencies.
As the Recession began to show signs of its seriousness coming down the pike at lightening speed towards us, companies began to look at mergers as a survival tool. Together companies could more readily competite in a world market that was becoming very challenging. Companies everywhere seems to be preparing for mergers and takeovers by window dressing. Window dressing is when a company hires a multitude of executives to appear stronger and more strategic therefore, becoming more attractive to suitors.
iddle managers are once again being viewed as a key role because they can manage diverse responsibilities at a closer level and act as catalyst for change. Middle managers offer an incentive to their employers by performing job functions and not just look at spreadsheets all day as many executives are required to do. These managers also discover auspicious opportunities because of how close they are to customers and employee cost saving production finds. If our economy improves, we will experience a demand for middle managers as many existing middle managers who survived downsizing and executives retire.
Being a middle manager is not easy. Employers need to recognize the demands placed on these people and demonstrate appreciation for their efforts because they are an integral part of a companies ability to more quickly positioning themselves through necessary change. One on one development is actually more important at the mid level than it is on the front lines because these people are the best suited to be future leaders and should be developed. We already know that these middle managers already posses Emotional Intelligence which we all know is paramount skill for an upper level executive.
Corporate America has moved away from the value of promoting from within. We have hired others from outside our companies looking at them as if they were more valuable with greater shine. What is valuable is right in front of our eyes! When we hire from outside the company, new hires often times bring in their own staff or other managers they know closing the door to development and promotion. We then are all faced with unhappy and unmotivated staff. Should we blame them for their sentiment? What happened to the song and dance about promotion from within that we sing loudly during the recruitment process? Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? Is there no value to someone that can hit the ground running and bring seeds fresh for planting?
Middle managers work hard and are often the unsung heroes. We need to provide them with incentives so that they do not just feel like an unrecognized work horse. Your managers are your spokesperson to your vendors and customers. They are your cheerleaders and messengers of the company’s vision. They translate complex directives into a possibilities motivate and provide an incentive to front line staff to execute and succeed.
Tags: blood donor incentives, employee incentive programs, employee rewards, incentive, incentives, motivate
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