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ASK BOB AND PETER: I have found that working in a

?strictly commission environment causes a lot of friction. When the chips are down and a salesperson has to

weigh between being slightly dishonest with a customer or coworker to make a sale and making ends meet, often the customer or coworker loses out. I have often felt that commission sales result in the staff working for the good of themselves rather than the good of the company. How can commission sales function in an organization when the very nature of this pay method promotes behavior such as being dishonest with customers, weaseling away customers from coworkers, and doing virtually anything to make a sale? Commission salespeople, by the very nature of their pay structure, are often driven to infighting. How can more positive motivation methods be implemented in this environment?

If you reward your employees—commission or otherwise—for “being dishonest with customers, weaseling away customers from coworkers,” and so forth, then that’s what your employees will do. To change your employees’ behavior, first decide what behavior you want your employees to exhibit. Then take a very close look at your system of rewards and recognition, and make sure that it reinforces the employee behavior you want. For example, if you want your commission salespeople to cooperate with one another, then give them an incentive to do so—perhaps a cash reward for an “assist,” like an assist in basketball or hockey where a player sets up a teammate to make the score. Or, have part of the honor of being top salespeople be an expectation that they share with the entire group their strategies for closing their sales. Find out from your employees what rewards motivate them the most, and use that information to reinforce the behavior you want them to exhibit.

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employees have a chance to obtain rewards. For example, your clerks also should have a shot at the rewards, not just salespeople or assemblers.

•Obtain commitment and support. Communicate your new rewards program to your employees. Many organizations publicize their programs in group meetings. Present the programs as positive and fun activities that benefit both the employees and the company. To get the best results, plan and implement your rewards program with your employees’ direct involvement.

•Monitor effectiveness. Is your rewards system getting the results that you want? If not, take another look at the behaviors you want to reinforce, and make sure that your rewards are closely linked. Even the most successful rewards programs tend to lose their effectiveness over time as employees begin to take them for granted. Keep your program fresh by discontinuing rewards that have lost their luster and bringing in new ones from time to time.

TEN GREAT WAYS TO MOTIVATE EMPLOYEES

Use the following checklist of effective techniques to keep your employees involved and motivated on an ongoing basis.

1.Personally thank employees for doing a good job—one on one, in writing, or both. Do it timely, often, and sincerely.

2.Take the time to meet with and listen to employees—as much as they need or want.

3.Provide employees with specific and frequent feedback about their performance. Support them in improving performance.

4.Recognize, reward, and promote high performers; deal with low and marginal performers so that they improve or leave.

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T H E R E A L W O R L D

It’s relatively easy to have happy employees: Give them what they want, when they want it. Far more difficult, however, is to have employees be excited about the job and objectives you most need them to do. The process of getting someone “up” for that chal- lenge—and keeping them up—is a moving target and never-ending challenge for any manager. Today, this is best done by starting with what is important to your employees and then achieving what is important to the organization within that context. In other words, you need to have your employees truly feel you are on their side, willing to do whatever is necessary to help them to succeed. If someone has a good boss, that is, a person who values and respects his or her employees on a consistent basis day in and day out, that person tends to feel he or she has a good job—the two go hand in hand. This requires a realization that the strength of any relationship can be measured by the last interaction. If you truly trust and respect someone else, it shows in every interaction.

5.Provide information on how the company makes and loses money, upcoming products, and services and strategies for competing. Explain the employee’s role in the overall plan.

6.Involve employees in decisions, especially those decisions that affect them. Involvement equals commitment.

7.Give employees a chance to grow and develop new skills; encourage them to be their best. Show them how you can help them meet their goals while achieving the organization’s goals. Create a partnership with each employee.

8.Provide employees with a sense of ownership in their work and their work environment. This ownership can be symbolic (e.g., business cards for all employees, whether they need them to do their jobs or not).

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9.Strive to create a work environment that is open, trusting, and fun. Encourage new ideas, suggestions, and initiative. Learn from, rather than punish for, mistakes.

10.Celebrate successes—of the company, of the department, and of individuals. Take time for teamand morale-building meetings and activities. Be creative and fresh.

P O P Q U I Z !

What motivates people motivates them, and it changes from person to person and for any one person over time. This is what makes employee motivation so challenging: It’s a moving target. Answer the following questions based on the research and information we shared in this chapter:

1.Think of the best manager you ever had. What did that person do to best motivate you in your job?

2.Although money is important to people, what other things are often considered even more important by today’s employees?

3.What’s the greatest management principle in the world and an example of how it works? Does this principle apply in any relationship? Explain.

4.What’s the best way to determine what is most important to your employees?

5.Recognition is all around us every day, just waiting for us to tap into it. Name three examples of recognition that don’t require any money.

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C H A P T E R 5

V

Coaching and Development

IT’S A NEW WORLD OUT THERE . . .

Coaching and . . .

How to create a high-performance organization.

What coaches do.

Coaching explained.

Day-to-day coaching.

The tools you’ll need.

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HIGH-PERFORMANCE COACHING

Over the past decade or two, there has been a major change in the way that managers do their jobs. While, in the past, managers were supposed to closely direct their employees’ efforts, today’s best managers are coaches—that is, they support and encourage the efforts of their employees. Managers who act as coaches—and not just as bosses—can help employees achieve outstanding results as their organizations perform better than ever.

But beyond supporting and encouraging the efforts of employees, coaching plays a critical part of the learning process for employees who are developing their skills, knowledge, and self-confidence. Employees will never learn to be self-sufficient when you’re always telling them what to do. In fact, they usually don’t learn at all, making them more reliant on you going forward, rather than less reliant.

As the old saying goes:

•Tell me . . . I forget.

•Show me . . . I remember.

•Involve me . . . I learn.

It’s difficult for employees to learn effectively when you assign new tasks with no instruction or support whatsoever. Most employees will eventually figure out what to do (assuming they don’t get bored first or tired of trying), but they’re going to waste a lot of time feeling their way around.

Fortunately, there is a place between the two extremes of being told what to do and being given no support whatsoever. This is the place where employees are coached to learn how to work effectively, how to set and achieve goals, and how to make their own decisions. By supporting and coaching their employees, managers don’t just create

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happier employees, they unlock the creativity and energy within their employees that make them much more effective in their jobs—improv- ing their organizations’ bottom lines in the process.

WHAT COACHES DO

So, what exactly is a coach? A coach is someone who acts as a colleague, counselor, and cheerleader to his or her employees. By encouraging their employees and supporting them when they need it, coaches help employees reach their full potential.

While we’re not big fans of the metaphor of business manager as sports coach, there are definitely parallels. A football coach doesn’t go out on the field and run plays or throw the football or tackle members of the opposing team. He is not allowed to actually play the game— he can only teach his players ways to improve their skills and performance, and then support and encourage them on game day.

Similarly, smart managers don’t do their employees’ jobs for them (as tempting as it may be). Instead, they give their employees the tools they need to do their jobs (training, money, resources), the authority they need to get their jobs done, and the support and encouragement they need to persevere through difficult circumstances. Then they stand back and get out of the way.

There are a number of things that coaches do. The following list summarizes the most important:

•Coaches set goals. Every organization makes plans and sets goals to achieve them. One key job of coaches is to work with their employees to set goals and deadlines for completion. The best coaches don’t create these goals in a vacuum; they involve employees in defining their goals and setting deadlines for completion. They then get out of the way and allow their employees to determine exactly how to accomplish the goals.

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•Coaches support and encourage. No one ever said that business was easy, in fact, it can sometimes be downright difficult. As a result, it’s easy for employees—regardless of their level of experience or expertise—to become discouraged. Coaches keep close tabs on their employees to monitor their emotional states of mind. When employees need a boost, these managers are there to help provide it.

•Coaches emphasize team success over individual success. The best managers know that it’s important to put the emphasis on team and team performance, not on the one or two standouts who invariably are a part of every team. Winning takes the combined efforts of all team members and singling out one or two stars only serves to demotivate the rest of the team.

•Coaches can quickly assess the talents and shortfalls of team members. No employee is strong in every area; some are proficient at certain tasks while others are proficient at a completely different set. It’s up to coaches to determine their team members’ strengths and weaknesses and then tailor their approach to each. If, for example, an employee is great at customer relations, but needs help with filling out sales reports, the manager can concentrate on providing support for the employee’s development of better reporting skills.

•Coaches teach. Coaches are often more experienced at performing certain tasks than the employees they manage, and one of their key functions is to transfer this knowledge to employees so that they can perform at a high level of expertise. Smart coaches take the time to teach employees the skills they need to succeed in their organizations in a nonthreatening and inclusive way.

•Coaches inspire their team members. Employees respond positively to sincere encouragement from managers. Coaches make a point of supporting and inspiring their team members, helping them to consistently bring their best efforts to their jobs. Experienced coaches know that teams of inspired individuals can move mountains when

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