Say less and listen more...

·      There’s no secret that happy employees do excellent work. 

·      So why don’t we focus more on making employees happy.

 

If you were to get your hands on employee handbooks from 100 different companies, nearly all would focus on rules and what happens when you break them. How many do you think focus on inspiring employees to strive for excellence? When’s the last time you asked an employee what it would take to make them happier at work? We get so caught up in one-size-fits-all schedules and processes that we boil out the excitement about coming to work. Years ago, we told our guest room attendants how many rooms they had to clean each day – that was a source of friction until we told them they could earn bonus points for meeting expected standards. Suddenly, they got energized and creative - we stopped telling them what to do and began listening to how they thought things should be done. That little give and take led to a marked increase in employee satisfaction and excellent performance. We focused on catching them doing things right and they found joy and pride in doing excellent work. Find what makes your employees happy and focus on that today.

 

Pearl S. Buck (1892 –1973): American writer and novelist best known for The Good Earth, the best-selling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 and in 1938 became the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.