PDF Summary:Carrots and Sticks Don't Work, by Paul Marciano

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• Empowerment
• Supportive Feedback
• Partnering
• Expectations
• Consideration
• Trust

The book covers why reward programs don’t work, how the RESPECT model drives engagement, and how to implement RESPECT in your organization.

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Employees have also changed their preferences. While WW2-era employees focused on working hard and not obsessing over happiness, today’s employees seek mental health, job satisfaction, and fulfillment. Money is less commonly a motivating factor – often it’s a Hygiene factor, meaning it matters when it’s missing, and matters especially when the employee feels she is unequally compensated. Workers today tend to be less consumerist, thus decreasing the impact of monetary rewards. Finally, workers no longer feel that companies are loyal to their employees, given corporate scandals, outsourcing, downsizing, and lack of benefits.

So a new type of management system is needed to engage employees.

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5. Goals can limit performance.

Fixed goals like sales quotas suggest an upper limit. Once an employee reaches the goal, they have little reason to push harder. Instead, you want workers to keep improving and pushing past their limits.

6. Rewards are often administered inconsistently and unfairly.

Inequity is especially frustrating to employees. For managers, having to choose how and to whom to dispense rewards invites criticism of favoritism. Some people have an unfair advantage (like seniority) and take the rewards.

So why not use a % improvement metric, like rewarding people for the % improvement on their performance rather than an absolute improvement? This is demotivating to top performers, who are already squeezing out all they can, and % on their already high improvement can be hard. It also invites manipulation of sinking your sales numbers one quarter to get a big boost the next.

Often, reward program guidelines are unclear. If your company gives out an award for being a team player, what does being a team player actually mean? If you try your best one time to get a reward, but don’t get it because of unclear guidelines, then you’re going to stop that...

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Surveys of engaged employees show these factors improve engagement in the workplace:

• Mutual respect with employer and supervisor
• Trust from supervisor and lack of micromanagement
• Feeling of impact within the company and outside
• Positive recognition for work and a sense that the company values their work
• Potential for growth
• Clear objectives

In contrast, these factors lower engagement in the workplace:

• A selfish, untrustworthy manager that takes credit for work
• Unrealistic expectations
• Lack of coaching and feedback
• Managers that don’t deserve respect
• Lack of value signaling, from not saying hello to compliments
• Doing work that doesn’t seem to add value
• Lack of vision of company direction

Surprisingly, less than 2% of people mentioned money as a reason for disengagement!

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Respect for the Supervisor

Supervisors should be hard-working, competent, fair, and compassionate. Good supervisors advocate for the good of the team and don’t leave people behind.

Managers promoted from within tend to be respected because they’ve done the job of other employees before.

Supervisors who denigrate employees lose respect.

Respect for Team Members

Employees will work harder for teammates they respect because they don’t want to let their team down. They openly communicate to one another to resolve problems – they respect each other too much to gossip behind their back.

Failing to hold underperforming team members responsible demotivates the entire team.

An easy way to increase respect in the team is to make commonalities clear, increasing empathy for each other. They can use personal background to understand future behaviors. One way to discover this is to circulate a team survey that asks personal questions. These can then be explored casually outside of work.

Questions to Build Rapport

A good first step to building rapport is to know more about the person. Here are questions that people can answer about themselves to share more about each...

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“It’s not in my personality.”

• It’s not in your personality to brush your teeth either, but you do it because it works.

“I have too many direct reports.”

• Encourage team leads to reinforce good behavior to fill in for your gaps.
• Focus your energy on a single theme, to make rewarding behavior across many team members easier.

“I don’t get recognized by my boss. So why should I recognize my reports?”

• Even if your boss fails, you still need to do your job.
• Don’t be afraid to ask for recognition and feedback from your supervisor – it’s important for your advancement.

“They never do anything praiseworthy.”

• Your bar is set too high. Lower your expectations so that people occasionally meet them. Ask people to share experiences with teammates.

Actionables for Recognition

• Make your feedback effective with these attributes: close in timing, very specific, in person if possible, enthusiastically, and publicly.
• Tell your reports: “It’s important to me that you feel recognized for your contributions. If you don’t feel I’m doing this, can you bring it to my attention?”
• Write handwritten notes.
• When you instruct a teammate to...

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Actionables for Empowerment

• Regularly ask employees how you can help them be more successful. Resources? Training? Information?
• Delegate as much decision-making responsibility as possible to employees. (Shortform note: If you have a problem with this, ask yourself - what would happen if I let them make decisions up to a possible $100 of loss? $500? $1000?” After you try this out to cap your losses, you’ll become more comfortable with empowering your workers to make their own decisions.
• Improve training during onboarding. Ask current employees for feedback on how to improve training.
• Carve out employee time for continued training, and give them resources to achieve it. Allow them to choose the area of their training (within boundaries).
• Encourage employees to take educated risks.
• Ask employees for suggestions on changing restrictive policies and processes, so they don’t feel bottlenecked or held back.
• Ask a leader from another department to share info with your team. Allow team members to cross-train in another job, so they can expand their skills.
• Turn employees into coaches. Hold workshops with team members who can teach each other...

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• Message feedback with powerless communication, or not aggressively or assertively. Instead of saying “you should have done this,” ask, “can I give you a suggestion?” Even better, ask them to reflect on a suboptimal outcome, and how they could have done better in that situation.
• Hold a workshop for employees to learn how to give feedback to one another.
• Always make feedback about the behavior, not about the person. No “you have a bad attitude.”
• Don’t make a “shit sandwich” where you start off with one positive, one constructive, one positive. This feels too artificial, and employees will feel you’re merely saying the positive feedback out of formality.
• When delivering notably critical feedback, take extra care to message it in a supportive manner.
• When you’re given feedback yourself, don’t get defensive. Listen attentively and ask for advice on how to do better.

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• As a manager, be willing to dig in and get your hands dirty and fight alongside your troops in the trenches. Walk the factory floors and ask individual contributors for their opinions.
• Build cross-departmental teams to allow crosspollination of ideas and people. More extremely, have people spend a day working in other departments, or crosstrain them in a second role so they can cover each other.
• Keep compensation and benefits egalitarian. No manager parking spots.
• Allow employees to have equity (shares) in the company.
• Create an employee council consisting of a heterogeneous mix of employees.

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• Consistent. Don’t change goals on a whim, or workers will feel their current work can be obsolete.

In the other direction, make sure you clearly understand your subordinates’ expectations.

Actionables for Expectations

Setting Goals

• Set expectations in collaboration with employees. Let them define goals they feel comfortable with – this will secure their commitment moreso than goals handed down from on high.
• Set goals far in advance, so workers know what to expect. Set high level goals over 12 months.
• Make sure that goals are measurable and include time frames.
• Clarify how employees will be evaluated. Show them a performance evaluation form.
• Explain the WHY behind expectations. This makes employees feel like partners in decision making. It also conveys the commander’s intent, empowering them to make local decisions in furtherance of the main goal.
• Give physical examples of the desired outcome. Give a sample report, or visualize the final product. In extreme cases, do the job yourself as an example. (A CEO once found his VP’s office messier than the image he wanted the organization to cultaivate. He cleaned the office himself,...

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• Benefit more than just the employee, like the company that gave Turkey dinners to all employees.
• Deliver bad news personally.
• Support employees’ goals outside of work, like the company that gave each employee $10 for every pound lost, and paid for discounts off memberships to Weight Watchers.
• Shut off your phone when talking with employees.
• Begin meetings on time and end early if possible.
• Ask staff how to shorten meetings or limit attendance.
• Celebrate birthdays and work anniversaries.
• Support creature comforts – make the work environment comfortable, not noisy, and give food when they’re pushing extra hard.
• Set up flexible work times so the employee can schedule work at her convenience.
• Let people personalize their workspace, bringing in photos.

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• Admit mistakes when you make them, and accept responsibility when your team fails.
• If you’ve messed up, admit that you were wrong, apologize, and ask for another chance. Take personal responsibility rather than finger pointing.
• If you’re starting with a negative reputation, address this upfront and get back to neutral ASAP.

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Conclusion

Leaders earn RESPECT by practicing it everyday. Leaders tend to overestimate how much respect they give, especially since they rarely receive direct feedback about their interpersonal problems.

If you have a problem, the first step is to be aware of the problem and admit that it exists.