Kouzes and Posner write in their classic leadership book, The Challenge of Leadership, Jossey Bass, that through their research of over 60,000 leaders across continents, they have uncovered five practices and ten commitments of excellent leaders. We have already discussed the five practices and went through in detail the first six of the ten commitments.
Today we go through the balance four.
7. Set the example by behaving in ways that are consistent with shared values.
Exemplary leaders engage in practices that stand the test of time, the first being that they model the way. They clarify their personal values and then express those values in their own style and voice, in thought and action. They then set the example by aligning their personal actions with shared values.
Leaders understand that values cannot be imposed from the top. They must be forged. Being clear about personal values allows us to detect where there are shared values in the community.
Discovering values that can be shared is the foundation for building productivity and genuine working relationships. Although leaders honour the diversity of their team members, they also stress their common values. Leaders build on agreement.
Tremendous energy is generated when individual and group values are aligned. Commitment, enthusiasm, and drive are intensified, as people have reasons for caring about their work. When we care about what we are doing, we are more effective and satisfied. We experience less stress.
The most powerful thing a leader can do to mobilize others is to set the example by aligning personal actions with shared values. Leaders show up, pay attention, and participate directly in getting extraordinary things done. They show others by their own example that they are deeply committed to the values and aspirations they espouse. Leaders are measured by the consistency of their deeds and words—by walking the talk. Leading by example is how leaders make visions and values tangible. It is how they provide the evidence that they are committed and competent.
Leaders enact the meaning of the organization in every decision they make and in every step they take. Leaders understand that they bring shared values to life in a variety of settings—in staff meetings, one-on-one conferences, telephone calls, e-mails, sermons, and in visits with colleagues and constituents.
How you spend your time is the single clearest indicator, especially to other people, about what’s important to you. Critical incidents chance occurrences, particularly at a time of stress and challenge, offer significant moments of learning for leaders. They are often the most dramatic sources of moral lessons about what we should value and how we should behave. They become stories that are passed down in the workplace.
8. Achieve small wins that promote consistent progress and build commitment
The power of progress is fundamental to human nature, but few managers understand it or know how to leverage progress to boost motivation. In fact, work motivation has been a subject of long-standing debate. In a survey asking about the keys to motivating workers, we found that some managers ranked recognition for good work as most important, while others put more stock in tangible incentives. Some focused on the value of interpersonal support, while still others thought clear goals were the answer. Interestingly, very few of our surveyed managers ranked progress first
When we think about progress, we often imagine how good it feels to achieve a long-term goal or experience a major breakthrough. These big wins are great—but they are relatively rare. The good news is that even small wins can boost inner work life tremendously.
Many of the progress events represent only minor steps forward. Yet they often evoked outsize positive reactions. Consider this diary entry from a programmer in a high-tech company, which was accompanied by very positive self-ratings of her emotions, motivations, and perceptions that day: “I figured out why something was not working correctly. I felt relieved and happy because this was a minor milestone for me.”
Even ordinary, incremental progress can increase people’s engagement in the work and their happiness during the workday. Across all types of events, a notable proportion of incidents that had a minor impact on the project had a major impact on people’s feelings about it. Because inner work life has such a potent effect on creativity and productivity, and because small but consistent steps forward, shared by many people, can accumulate into excellent execution, progress events that often go unnoticed are critical to the overall performance of organizations.
If you are a leader, the progress principle holds clear implications for where to focus your efforts. It suggests that you have more influence than you may realize over your team members’ well-being, motivation, and creative output. Knowing what serves to catalyse and nourish progress - and what does the opposite - turns out to be the key to effectively managing people and their work.
9. Recognize individual contributions to the success of every effort.
Retaining quality employees can be a challenge. High turnover not only affects morale, but your company’s bottom line will take a hit too. It’s incredibly inefficient to train new people or get them up to speed. It taxes existing staff, and there’s an obvious cost in time and money of procuring new people.
So how do you motivate existing employees and keep them hungry and passionate without necessarily giving them substantial pay increases or bonuses? How do you increase employee engagement, and more importantly, loyalty?
You should never underestimate the power inherent in executive recognition. It’s a potent weapon in your motivation arsenal, provided it’s used in moderation and at the right time.
When an executive recognizes exceptional effort or rare achievement, its value is increased. A simple thing such as a company-wide email acknowledgment or shout-out in a meeting will go a long way. And if you add a personal call or shake hands to express your appreciation to the employee, you’ll be surprised how much motivational currency that will create.
You may not necessary need to give away plaques like we do – especially if your employees are remote. The key is the find creative ways that work for your company. Find something that serves as a constant reminder of their achievement that has longevity beyond just the day it is bestowed.
You’re part of a team, but you’re an individual too.
While it’s important to get praise as part of a team that successfully meets goals and quotas, everyone needs to be recognized for their individual accomplishments by the people around them – and above them. Anticipating that they will be recognized for completing a task well is strong motivation for an individual to “go the extra mile.”
Providing positive recognition of an accomplishment serves to raise individual self-esteem, reinforce their value to the organization, improve their self-image and encourage them to accomplish even greater results in the future
Recognition is important, but so are rewards. Praise and recognition for completing tasks have a limited shelf life. At a certain point you have to put your money where your mouth is and give some kind of reward to acknowledge superior results.
While it’s important to motivate employees, if rewards do not come after extra efforts, your employees will lose their enthusiasm and come to the realization that there is no payoff.Rewards come in all shapes and sizes and can be tangible or intangible. Tangible rewards include such things as a briefcase, a gift certificate, a bonus or a pay increase.
But intangible rewards can be just as effective and cost the company far less. Just doing something as simple as taking the employee out to lunch to celebrate their achievement or give the employee extra time off can have a huge impact.
10. Celebrate team accomplishments regularly.
An organization’s success is the sum total of micro-successes that its employees experience each day. It is important to celebrate such workplace successes as it gives employees a sense of purpose, makes them feel valued, and eventually boosts employee morale. Milestone celebrations, both organizational and employee-oriented, should be leveraged as engagement opportunities. Such celebrations should not be considered a perk as these are instrumental in acquiring and retaining talent.
Employees get a sense of purpose when they see how their regular deliverables contribute to organizational success. Getting acknowledged gives them a reason to work harder. In longer term, it helps in retaining talent. Moreover, it creates a culture of appreciation within the organization. Having a robust ‘rewards & recognition’ policy significantly aids in building a positive culture of appreciation. The policy should be designed in a manner that allows managers to reward and celebrate significant as well as smaller teamaccomplishments.
While it may be important to acknowledge and celebrate achievements, these should essentially be linked to well-defined goals. Regularly celebrating with team members the accomplishment of short and long term goals can be very motivating for them. Spontaneous celebrations with an element of surprise are always received well and create a spirit of camaraderie.
A lot of organizations are strategically partaking in CSR initiatives that align with the theme of important milestone celebrations. Supporting societal causes and engaging employees in related volunteer work can inspire trust of the employees and pitch the organization as a responsible corporate establishment, internally and externally.
Celebrations don’t always have to be fancy and expensive. The key is to celebrate smaller achievements regularly to give employees a sense of belonging and appreciation.
(Lionel Wijesiri is a retired company director with over 30 years’ experience in senior business management. He is also a freelance writer.)
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