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What Makes Employees Mad - Part I | What Makes Employees Mad - Part II
What Makes Employees Mad - Part III | Workplace Wrath: Using Anger to Build
All Praise to the Supervisor | Listen First | The Emperor’s New Clothes - Providing Negative Feedback
Practicing Safe Stress

Feedback: The Breakfast of Champions

Wheaties, has long been the cereal of champions or so General Mills would like us to believe. “Eat this breakfast and you will excel in athletic competition” is the implication. The ultimate proof is the latest Olympic champion featured on the front of the box. Good communication should also be the prominent feature on any jobsite, for feedback is to corporate success what a good breakfast is to the athlete.

Providing timely responses is the critical feedstock for good decisions, proper quality assurance, a safe worksite, and effective customer service. When stated with proper garnishments and in a timely manner, feedback can be the difference between success and failure. This is true for positive feedback or critical analysis; one is delightful and the other can cause uncomfortable feelings, yet both are incredibly valuable.

Employees who think their work has value and is worthwhile are more likely to be enthusiastic about their work than others who work only for a paycheck. It is sad to see a human spirit dying on the shop floor when they perceive what they do is not valued. In the book Man’s Search for Meaning Victor Frankel was a Nazi concentration camp survivor. Here, prisoners had no rights, privileges, and if not immediately exterminated they were systematically starved to death. In this total depravity, Victor Frankel observed that the people who gave up were the ones who had lost meaning in their lives. If they lacked a reason to live, they were dead within 48 hours and not directly by the Nazis.

This realization speaks to the workforce today. Workers who have the dignity of knowing that their work is important and is valuable to others will be more enthusiastic and with higher productivity than their co-workers who do not share the same attitude. There was a manager who took over a New York City maintenance crew. One of his employee’s jobs was to paint fire hydrants and his normal productivity was one per day! A person has to work hard at being that unproductive, and yet the previous manager could not force any more out of this long-term employee. The new manager asked the worker to report to him the number of fireplugs painted that day by posting a 3x5 cards on the bulletin board. After this system began, the manager would make daily comments about this worker’s productivity. The first day a big number “1” was on the card but the next day there was “2.” The manager made a positive comment about the increase and the following day the number was “4.” Again, positive comments until this formally non-productive employee was taking paint home so he would not have to go to the shop prior to work but head directly to his fireplugs! This “non-productive” employee transformed himself when he found meaning in his work.

Many supervisors have a common reaction to this story; “the employee was required to paint fireplugs; that is what he was paid for – right”! True, but remember we are dealing with human nature. Everyone needs to see value in what they do for when they do not see meaning in their efforts, their spirits begin to die and they languish on the border between just enough productivity and not enough.

The key question is why it so difficult for supervisors and managers to provide positive feedback? What makes saying “thank you” or “good job” so difficult? Maybe it’s because so many supervisors are not getting this validation from their employers? Or maybe a “nice job’ complement will cost them at raise time.

If it is important for Wheaties to provide athletes proper nutrition, then helping our employees, co-workers, and supervisors find meaning is equally important for ultimate success. This is something each one of us can do; all it takes is awareness and it doesn’t cost a dime. We humans want to do a good job; want to take pride in our work. We want and need meaning that what we do contributes to society; feedback is the Breakfast of Champions!