Just say "Thank You"

Our mothers taught us always to use the magic words – “please” and “thank you.” They often couched the suggestion with various aphorisms like, “you attract more bees with honey than with vinegar.”

Tired and trite as such counsel may seem, the core truth is timeless and unchanged. Such behavior is important, even in business. A manager’s “please” and “thank you” carry much more meaning to employees than they do coming from a peer. That’s because people appreciate recognition, especially when it comes from those who may have the capacity to shape their future.

In the course of interviewing employees in a client organization a few years ago, we heard a story from people in the unionized manufacturing operation that underlines this point.

Late in the afternoon one day, a critical machine broke down, causing a shutdown of the entire production line. An early diagnosis determined it would keep the line down for at least 48 hours – maybe longer. The maintenance team, consisting of about a half-dozen men, stayed past quitting time and dove in. In fact, they worked through the night and, by mid-morning the next day, had the machine up and running again. The projected 48 hours of downtime was cut to a mere 15.

Sure, these union machinists were on the clock. And, of course, they collected a hefty overtime bonus for their hard work. The union contract would have allowed them to quit after their requisite eight hours and return the next day at their usual starting time. But, as a team, they decided to work through the night and get the production line back up and running.

A few days later, after these men punched in one morning, their supervisor greeted them with a boxful of warm donuts, a pot of fresh coffee, a “thank you” for each, and a big smile. He paid for the coffee and donuts out of his own pocket. The smile and “thank yous” were free.

Seems like a simple gesture and an obvious one.

When one of these guys told us the story, he got emotional and a little choked up at the recollection. In fact, when I retell the story, so do I.

We heard that story about five times from different people, only one of whom was actually a member of the original crew that worked through the night. The story was so compelling, everyone we talked to seemed familiar with it.

Now, here’s the amazing part of my story…

We later learned that the actual event had taken place more than three years before we heard about it.

Small effort? Yes. Big impact? You bet.

When businesspeople talk about “reward and recognition,” it usually is in terms of formal systems, where people’s performance is measured on the fiscal year and they earn credits toward a reward: a gift card or something from the company store. Maybe they get their name in the company newsletter.

That’s all well and good, and I don’t discourage that kind of activity. But if that is the only way people are recognized for their hard work, the result will be a closely aligned set of behaviors within the margins of those pre-set determinants of desirable conduct.

Go ahead and do that, if you wish, but don’t overlook the far more important and meaningful kinds of reward and recognition… the simple ones, like:
• A big smile
• A pat on the back
• A “Thank you for your hard work”
• Impromptu team meetings to tell them that they’re doing a heckuva good job

In short, do the kinds of things you yourself would want to hear from your manager. You’ll be amazed at how well your words are received. Who knows? Maybe they’ll talk about it for years to come.

Communicate with your employees - Doctor’s orders

Business people are busy today – very busy. That has always been true, but more so now in the face of a distressed economy. Companies are struggling to maintain profitability, the components of which reside in every part of the organization – from maintaining good client/customer relations, to wringing maximum productivity and efficiency from production, to cutting expenses to the bone.

For the senior people, these pressures are compounded. They carry the weight of the company on their shoulders. You’re doing them a favor when you can relieve them of some of their burdens. So the suggestion that senior managers become better communicators is often met with incredulity and outright rejection.

Yet focusing a bit more on communicating with one’s employees can actually help bring some of the relief and support that is so critical in such trying times. A true story helps illustrate this.

A few years ago, a process industry company engaged us in an employee communications assignment. This company owned several large facilities around the world. The plant where my story takes place was quite large and consisted of multiple parallel processes, all doing pretty much the same thing round the clock. Like other such plants, a machine manager and his team of managers and supervisors run each component operation, covering the various facets of keeping that machine going.

The manager of one machine in this plant told me this story and I’ve never forgotten it.

He was in his mid-50s. One day, he went in for his annual check-up and his doctor told him that he needed to get more exercise, and suggested a long walk each day would be a good start.

This plant is built with the offices at one end, and an executive parking lot right outside. So this machine manager every day would walk about 50 or 100 feet between his car and his office. To follow his doctor’s orders, he decided instead to park his car at the opposite end of his plant, forcing himself to walk about a half-mile both morning and night. Aside from getting more exercise, he realized some unexpected but very important benefits.

He suddenly had a lot more daily interaction with the people working on his machine than ever before. Sometimes it was a simple wave or nod and a "good morning" or "good night." Other times, it was talking about the latest NFL football game or the coming hunting season.

The important thing is that he broke the ice. Over time, he also changed people’s perceptions of who he was and what he did. He became more human and more approachable in their eyes. And what happened eventually is that people increasingly felt comfortable coming to him on the floor with problems, ideas, insights and solutions. Though that hadn’t been his intention, he opened lines of communication that had never existed before, in turn building trust among the work force.

His machine was one of the older machines in the company, yet about a year after he began his daily walks through the plant, his operation’s performance rose markedly – so high in fact that it became the most productive and efficient operation in the company.

What happened? What role did communications play in making this production line suddenly so productive? I think you know the answer, or at least can guess.

As this manager told me, as his people came to feel more comfortable with him, they told him things about his equipment and operation that he hadn’t fully appreciated before. And when he engaged in a little give-and-take with these hands-on operators, they had ideas and insights that, as the guy in charge, he could and did act on.

Sitting in that remote office, buried in reports, emails and meetings, managers don’t get a lot of opportunity to get their hands dirty, so to speak, learning what makes their operations tick. So the lesson here is, create the opportunity. Get out and talk to people. Pretend your doctor told you do it. You may be surprised what you learn.