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That Was the Year That Was

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That Was the Year That Was

There was a television program, I think it was back in the 1970’s or 80’s, called That Was The Week That Was. It was a British show that in Canada had the titled shortened to TW3. Being a British Show, it took the typical British tongue in cheek view of the news of the day. I want to resurrect the name with a twist. 2020 TW3 – That Was The Year That Was.

Leaving 2020 behind.

Certainly, there have been other years that carry the same feelings, family health issues or deaths, job losses and other similar difficulties in the passage of life. But I believe 2020 should win the title and the Crown, as the most, in nearly every category of significance.

We began the year with the most successful economy in American recent history. For instance, we saw the lowest income quintile see their net worth rise 37% while the top quintile held steady (Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances). A tight labor market forced employers to raise wages and the minority workers, black and brown, as well as women, saw their net worth rise 10 to 20 times their white male counterparts. The economy seemed to be performing exactly as society would have wanted.

Then the Pandemic hit. “The depth and breadth of its economic disruption was greater than that of any postwar recession.” “The distribution of the job losses was completely different than what one usually sees in a downturn.” “Low-income earners were the hardest-hit group.” (WSJ 2020 in Review) This downturn affected women and people of color disproportionately. Service businesses, restaurants, barber shops, hair salons, bars, gyms, etc. were declared non-essential services, by various governments, and shut down. Many of those business will not return having already declared bankruptcy.

Then the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police brought the sight of violent riots and demonstrations to the nightly news. Society, as we knew it, was being fractured. Let us remember this is not the first time this has happened. Not by a long shot.

And of course, we had the election in November which showed a seriously split electorate. Roughly 80M versus 75M split between Democrats and Republicans for the Presidency. Significant gains by the Republicans in the House and basically a stand still (at this writing Georgia has yet to vote for the Senate) in the Senate. Thirty of the Sates are controlled by Republicans and twenty by Democrats. Pretty much a “schizophrenic” voting population.

Finally, a Vaccine. One the most amazing feats in modern medicine is the research into, development of, the actual testing regimes, and regulatory approval of vaccines to stop the spread of the Pandemic. Politically they called it “Warp” speed. Now the roll out of the vaccinations to the world is underway.

That Was the Year That Was alright. But I don’t need a repeat of this year again in my lifetime. Thank you.

Earlier in the year I read a remarkable book by George Friedman, an author for whom I have much respect, titled “The Storm Before the Calm.” It is an incredible read from a very astute author. If you haven’t read it get it, you can thank me for the suggestion later. Which brings me to my thinking today.

I believe that 2021 will be a year in which we “reset” our businesses. If we had our eyes open, we learned a lot.

  • that we could have some job functions “Work From Home” a new acronym WFH. This also exposed us to a lot of office building space being superfluous to our needs.
  • the critical nature of “Internet Based” Businesses. Our need for 5G internet speeds and significantly most robust security tools on our systems.
  • how to conduct “Virtual Meetings” with previously unheard-of businesses like Zoom becoming a house hold name.
  • how education was changed in ways that no-one had foreseen. This was a change that was necessary to happen as student debt for University education had become the largest single debt in America.
  • that Companies generally have procedures in place for upskilling their workforce. Teaching employees what they need to move up in the organization, such as management skills or technical knowledge. Reskilling workers, to move them to a different role, is very different today.
  • We learned how to save money. Americans have accumulated $2 Trillion in new savings since February.

And we learned that we had choices to make in our lives. Those of you that know me will understand me when I say I refuse to be a victim to what goes on around me. I am too stubborn to let that happen. I want to always find a way to make things work. Work better if at all possible. That is my belief and it has driven me my whole life and I see no reason to change at this point.

So, I would ask all of you to stand and raise your glass with me. I am going to “KICK” 2020 out this year. Much more than I am going to welcome in 2021. We are going to see a remarkable 2021. The world will start to return to normal and with a fresh optimism we are poised to do remarkable things.

The time is now.

Max and the Little Extras

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Max and the Little Extras

Max and the Little Extras

In this latest abstract from Ed Wallace’s book, Business Relationships That Last, Ed and Max, the remarkable taxi driver, remind us that it’s all about the experience that we create for our customers and colleagues and many times that experiences is manifested in doing all of the ‘little things.’ “Max and the Little Extras” is a great reminder of that.

Three weeks later, on the morning Max had agreed to pick me up, I was running a few minutes behind schedule. I kept checking out the front window, hoping to catch him before he rang the doorbell. At exactly 5:00 a.m., I heard a gentle tap on the screen door. As I walked to the taxi with Max, I imagined how many people had probably ridden in his taxi over the previous three weeks, yet despite that large number, he had remembered I had an infant son who was most likely sleeping at such an early hour. Max’s thoughtfulness and ability to remember details about my life impressed me.

During my next several rides to the airport in Max’s marvelous taxi, we talked almost entirely about my life. (Notice that I was no longer driving myself to the airport!) He asked about my work, where I was traveling to, my ambitions, my family. I could hardly believe how at ease I felt opening up to him. I was more comfortable telling Max things about myself than I was telling people I had known much longer. The more time I spent with Max, the more interested I became in learning how he was able to make me—and most likely all of his customers—feel so comfortable.

When asked, he told me a few things about himself, his business, and his day-to-day schedule as a taxi driver and small business owner. His clients could not be easily categorized. They were local CEOs and their colleagues. They were sales professionals going to the airport and elderly people going shopping. They were groups of ladies going to the city for a day at the art museum, lunch, and a nice tour of the historic district. I finally asked how he had developed such a long list of loyal customers, hoping he would provide me with a “secret to success” that most client-facing professionals dream about. “Simple, Ed,” he answered, holding his thumb and index finger about an inch apart. “It’s the little extras that turn fares into friends.” I thought about what Max meant by the “little extras.” Sure, it was great fun riding around in his taxi; it was the only one of its kind in the area and attracted a lot of attention. But that was only a “It’s the little extras that turn fares into friends.” That’s a small part of what made Max a success—and he was a remarkable business success.

After a few minutes, I realized that his entire business philosophy was based on friendship, and the little extras that friends would do for each other. So, I asked, “What are these little extras? Are they the on-time arrivals? The courtesy and warmth? Treating everyone equally? The impeccable upkeep of the taxi and the quiet environment it provides? The bottled water? Listening, remembering, and having a genuine interest in the riders’ lives? The gentle tap on the screen door at five o’clock in the morning?” Max answered, “Yes.” “Which one?” I asked. Just as the words were coming out of my mouth, I got it. Of course, how could I not get it? Max was skilled at identifying and aligning with each rider’s specific needs and situation. But how did he do this? I believe that Max woke up every morning thinking not that he was going to work but that he was going to spend the day with his close friends. This is obviously a very different approach from viewing business as a series of transactions in which both parties want something from each other. If we define friends as “parties who help one another,” and if you consider everyone you interact with your friend, then adding the little extras in your business relationships would be as easy as including them in your personal life, which you do naturally. On the simplest level, Max’s job was to provide a ride from one place to another. Any driver could do that, and do it on time, safely, and courteously. But when you rode with Max, the quality of the relationship, the conversation—the whole experience—was so enjoyable, supportive, enlightening, and pleasant that you didn’t want the trip to be over. He had mastered the art of taking his so-called simple business from a merely transactional level to the It’s the Little Extras!

The Time is Now

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

Virtual Selling and Time Management

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Virtual Selling and Time Management

Virtual Selling and Time Management

Don Buttrey, President of Sales Professional Training, Inc. is back with a new installment of his CRM Hell series: Virtual Selling and Time Management.

 

Virtual Selling Tips related to Vital Selling Regimens.

The virtual world is all on you. You are in control of every aspect of your world. Your life, your world, everything. It is a big change. We had become comfortable with our “old” routines. How we proceeded through the day. How we organized our calls. Now we have to “relearn” how to do everything.

Time and Appointment Management (calendar)
  • Check/improve internet speed. Upgrade if needed. This is your new main venue and you must avoid as many potential distractions as possible.
  • Set aside time each week to SCHEDULE calls/video conferences with current and prospective customers. Call and/or email to ask for best day/time then send invites. Be proactive. Take control.
  • Load up your calendar with appointments and live by that calendar.
  • Confirm next meeting and venue (call or video) at the end of every sales call.

With time management applied to our virtual world, we can stay on top of our customer service.

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

Skill Levels and Assessments

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Skill Levels and Assessments

Skill Levels and Assessments

As with everything we do in the “Learning” business we are constantly adjusting our Learning Paths and Skills levels to reflect the scores we have been seeing from our Job Function Assessments. We are going to change the “Names” of each of the levels. We have used Basic, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. Those are terms that we felt everyone would understand. We are going to change those terms now to use those most common in education. Now we are going to call the Assessments Levels Developing, Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced.

Let me explain what they mean:

  • Developing
    • This is the phase of an employee’s employment where they are learning the job, they are being trained, either by mentor or their boss, in how to do the job. This is in keeping with Don Shillings approach to employee development – “Grow Your Own.” This is an apprenticeship approach. Here is when they are shown how to do the job and then helped to do the job. This is before the employee is given the full control on their job. There is direct supervision of the employee in this phase.
  • Basic
    • This is the phase that the employee is in when they know how to do the job. Now they are learning how to take advantage of that knowledge and put into action their particular skills and competencies to make their job more effective. This is when the supervision tapers off and is no longer on a tsk by task or day by day basis.
  • Intermediate
    • Is the phase where the employee knows how to do the job better than most other people. They have a level of competency that requires less direct supervision. We must always remember that every individual starts their work experience with their job as an excited person. They are starting a new job and they are excited. Then depending on how the leaders treat them they will either grow into a self-reliant achiever or disillusioned and demotivated employee. It is really more dependent on the type of leader than the type of employee.
  • Advanced
    • This is the final phase of the learning path. A self-reliant employee who is ready and able to take on additional tasks and job functions. This is the final stage of this step on the career path of the employee.

We are also changing the threshold scores for each of these levels. We started with quartiles (25% blocks). That each individual taking our assessments would be coming to us with similar skill levels based on the standard score rating of quartiles. Twenty five percent blocks. We have found, based on the result of the assessments and our discussions with the employers that this does not apply in our Industry, nor for our employees. It is rather a triangle where we have a lot at the bottom of the triangle and a much smaller group at the top. We are moving to the following skill levels.

Developing                        0% –   50%

Beginning                        50% –   75%

Intermediate                   76% –   90%

Advanced                        91% – 100%

This is a significant change, but much more accurate relative to the skills of the employees by job function. It is important that we share this with you, our audience and clients. Thanks for your interest in our programs and we will continue to strive to improve and adapt our programs as the facts dictate.

The Time is Now

Out on a Ledge

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Out on a Ledge

Out on a Ledge

In this week’s guest blog, Sonya Law takes us Out on a Ledge with a look at the end of the year performance review.

How to jumpstart the EOY Performance Review to drive high performance in 2021? Out on a ledge … is how it can feel like sometimes for employees walking into their end of year review… It’s a mixed bag of dread and discomfort which only serves to weigh you down.  These negative feelings brought about by fear from past experiences where managers have got it wrong by using it as an opportunity to dredge up past mistakes for the first time.  Or worse they gloss it over and this indifference only serves to strengthen a performance culture of mediocrity and completely devalues the review.

As a Human Resources Manager, I feel like this is a missed opportunity to re-connect and re-engage the effort and performance of your employees leading into 2021.  After all, aren’t we all striving to create High Performance Cultures?

As managers we are really good at ‘what went well’ but often fail in asking employees what are our biggest challenges and what needs fixing.   Instead, we wait to ask the employee who has resigned in the exit interview, when it’s too late.    Organizations that facilitate honest, open dialogue will solve problems faster and improve overall innovation and performance against rivals.  Our ability to reflect on the year, our performance and grow together as human being’s and as an organization is a comparative advantage in Business.

So how do we conduct a good EOY review and what is it worth to the organization?

The three key success factors of a good EOY review are approachability, attention, appreciation.

Approachability: your manager is open and communicative in the review, in his or her language both verbal and non-verbal, this congruency builds integrity in the relationship and review.

Attention: the greatest gift, they give their employee their 100% attention.  That is, they don’t answer phone calls or send emails, they have committed to this time, they don’t re-schedule or put it off.  This is a big no-no rescheduling an EOY performance review! Where practical always commit to this meeting, it sends a bad message to the employee if you shift it, they feel deprioritised.

‘People want to feel heard, listened to’

Simon Sinek – virtual event – 24th November, 2020 – The Infinite Game.

When you do this well morale goes up, trust goes up they feel you have their back and it reduces fear and if you show care and exercise your empathetic listening skills your people will even be willing to suffer stress for you.

Encourage your employees to come to the meeting with what they see are the challenges and what needs fixing.  Resist the temptation as a manager to fix it for them, by giving them the responsibility it activates thinking.  Ask them what do you think? How would you solve it? Managers tell people what to do; but true leaders help people feel safe, promote thinking and drive a culture of Empowerment, where employees are empowered to make decisions impacting their work. You can take this a step further and if you here the language of blame, for example they ordered the wrong part, simply replace they with we ordered the wrong part. It’s a subtle way to encourage teamwork and accountability. To read more about this see Book titled: “Turn the Ship Around” by David Marquet, former nuclear submarine commander.

Appreciation – As the manager it is your role to show appreciation to your employee for their valuable contribution over the year.  You would be surprised how many managers fail to do this, and only tick the box – did they achieve goal – yes or no.  My top tip to get into the role of an appreciative manager, is to imagine that your star performer is walking out of their EOY review into a call with a ‘headhunter’ following your meeting!  What do you want your star performer to say when the headhunter dangles the carrot and tries to poach your star performer? You want them to walk out of the EOY review feeling inflated like a balloon filled with all the warm and fuzzy feelings that make us feel giddy when we are in love! Think about it like your most important relationship, reconnect, reengage them in the cause, vision, purpose, mission and the important role they have in that, we all want to feel connected and sense of belonging.

How do you prepare for this EOY review with your employee?

  1. Create an Appreciation folder in your Outlook for your employee.
  2. Collect things – throughout the year – note all the good things they do.
  3. Drop any emails into that folder – things you write yourself to remind you of the good things or emails you get from customers, suppliers or colleagues about how fantastic your star performer is, achievements etc.

Top 3 things to remember:

  1. All your employees are star performers
  2. You hired them or someone else in your organization did so and its up to you to make sure they fulfill their potential
  3. If they are a poor performer why did they make it to the EOY performance review – that’s a bigger organizational culture question, which would require some deep work.

So, what’s it worth to you?

If you don’t get this right – Instead of putting a STAR on top of the Christmas Tree this year you will be putting a job vacancy up online to look for a new STAR performer.

An EOY review is a great opportunity to unite your people in the cause so they are bursting with new energy heading into 2021, ready to face new challenges, refreshed and reinvigorated.

For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

Call Reporting

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Call Reporting

Call Reporting

Virtual Selling Tips related to Vital Selling Regimens, by Don Buttrey, President of Sales Professional Training, Inc. Today, Don shares with us the importance of Call Reporting in Customer Relationship Management.

Let me discuss some items requiring more discipline and attention in this “Virtual” world we are living in today.

Call Reporting

  • If working remotely, it is even more critical to include to define your commitment to some specific start/stop times and aggressive guidelines on how many calls you will make each day. Own it. Be accountable. Do the grunge work. It will pay off in the long run! If you coast or get distracted it will bite you. Get fired with enthusiasm! . . .or . . . be ‘fired up’ with enthusiasm!
  • Set target ‘guidelines’ to make more calls/touches in this current market! And that is now feasible due to elimination of travel time. Use that to your advantage and be tenacious with the discipline of proactive calls! The slower the market, the harder we must work as salespeople! No excuses.
  • Mix up your touch points such as phone, email, video etc. Try multiple approaches until you connect. Do not give up.
  • Monitor and document communication preferences in your CRM for each contact (such as email, text, call, video –Zoom, Meet, TEAMS, FaceTime, etc.)
For more information on our classes and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

It’s the Little Things

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It’s the Little Things

It's the Little Things

I met Ed Wallace a number of years ago and developed a wonderful relationship with him that continues to this day. Ed wrote a very meaningful book in 2010 titled “Business Relationships that Last.” He has kindly allowed us to use excerpts from this book in our blog. We start the first of a three-part series today with “It’s the Little Things.” You will see the follow-on blogs in the coming weeks. I have found there to be terrific value in this book and feel honored that Ed would allow us share his wisdom with you. I hope you enjoy and it gives you serious food for thought. Ron   

It’s the Little Extras!

Little things make big things happen. —John Wooden

Imagine that today is the last day of your sales cycle and you still have not made your monthly quota. This scenario was all too often a reality for me during my early years in sales. Now imagine that you have built such outstanding business relationships that you could contact any number of your clients and ask for their help with your quota shortfall. Imagine a level of mutual trust and commitment so deep that this request will be as easy for you to make as it will be for your clients to understand. And, finally, imagine they not only understand your need but also offer to fulfill it by signing a contract or placing an order earlier than they had planned. My passionate belief after a twenty-five-year career in sales, executive leadership, and now business ownership is that creating business relationships that last is the secret to success. As I reflect on all of the amazing technological advances that have evolved during my career, I find one remarkable, simple constant: business is still driven by people and relationships. Eventually, human beings need to interact with one another in order to work through all of the details associated with their organizations doing business together. Whether it be the use of a product or service or the acquisition of a new business, humans— with all of our knowledge, skills, goals, emotions, biases, and fears—need to collaborate to get things accomplished. Developing business relationships that last with your clients sometimes seems like a lot of extra work, especially if you cannot ensure a predictable return on the investment from all of your efforts. But even though lasting business relationships can seem as elusive as holding on to sand, learning and applying a process to help you “cup them in your hands” makes it much less challenging than you might think.

We will share with you next time the story about Ed’s friend Max.

The Time is Now.

For more information on our programs and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

From My Perspective

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From My Perspective

From My Perspective

From My Perspective is the latest guest blog by Don Buttrey, President of Sales Professional Training.

We have covered the headlines and some thinking on Customer Relationship Management. Let me wrap it up with these final thoughts.

HELP! I’m in CRM hell!

My position is that the “software” is not a solution per se.  The solution is getting the entire organization to embrace the power and value of knowledge with effective team selling.  Call documentation, account strategic planning, pre-call planning, post call documentation, customer profile completion, account tiering and prioritization, calendar management, and whole team communication must be taught and expected first and foremost. Then, CRM can and will be embraced by all as a powerful technological tool that makes doing all these things easier—and actually possible! As an analogy, this is similar to learning the concepts and discipline of mathematics first – then seeing the time savings and exponential power that a calculator or computer can provide.

Every dealer I have trained in the last 20+ years has seen the need – and is at some stage of CRM initiation or operation. Like cell phones or any other technology it has become a part of being a sales organization. I do not sell or promote any particular CRM.  However, due to the inevitability of dealers needing and using it, my training addresses it throughout my curriculum. As a sales trainer, my service to dealers is to support and promote buy-in and implementation of all the selling and service activities that CRM documents, tracks, and manages. I teach the “why” of CRM and make sure that leaders do not dictate it – but that all levels of the dealership accept the duties of data entry, maximize it’s use, and are involved in continuous improvement and ongoing customization of the tool.

For more information on our programs and assessments, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.

Apprenticeship Holds an Important Key to Workforce Solutions

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Apprenticeship Holds an Important Key to Workforce Solutions

Don Shilling

Today’s blog post, “Apprenticeship Holds an Important Key to Workforce Solutions,” is a new contribution from Don Shilling.

Brandeis Machinery Inc was recently recognized by the Associated Equipment Distributors trade association for their Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Program (IRAP’s) a program which they initiated in 2015. They are “Growing Their Own” as I have mentioned in my previous blogs. Apprenticeship Programs may be an important key for your organization to participate also in “Growing Your Own”.

Our company developed two Department of Labor Certified Apprenticeship Program a few years back and I must say when you throw around words like “Certification” or “Department of Labor” into the discussion it may sound a bit scary, or cumbersome or onerous. Not True. Let me explain by describing our experience, hopefully after this exercise your organization might be comfortable in developing your own Apprenticeship Program and start solving your own workforce shortages.

The Department of Labor has literally scores of certified apprenticeship programs reviewed and approved each with standards to follow and give guidance. If you go to their website you probably identify an apprenticeship program that exists and fits your needs. Great if that works. If you call your local Department of Labor Apprenticeship Office, they can help you in setting up your own program that follows those existing standards.

In our case, it was not so simple. The two programs we developed were not on the existing DOL list of apprenticeships. We decided to develop our own and not to jump to far ahead in this story but with the help of the Apprenticeship Director at our local DOL Office he approved the elements of our program that were different and married them with an existing program, to catalog a new unique program which is what we have.

A typical Apprenticeship Program is three years in duration and 6,000 man hours of mentoring and on the job training. Your supervisors are the ones monitoring and mentoring the Apprentice and they sign off on completion of each phase of this training.

In our case, we identified skill areas that we felt were more important than others and those areas needed additional skills training for an apprentice in our industry. We also identified Technical college classes we required the apprentice to enroll in, whether On Line or in the Classroom. Our goal was to fit some classroom work into a schedule the apprentice can handle and the On the Job skills training in most cases paralleled the classroom work.

When you break down our Apprenticeship Program it is more like 4,000 to 5,000 man hours of On the Job Skills training and about 1,500 man hours of classroom and on-line learning. On line learning does not have to be limited to Technical College credits but Certified Programs with measured results are important. Besides technical classes we also selected important classes like Safety, First Aid, Forklift Operation, Customer Service, Marketing and Inventory Analysis.

Once reviewed by the DOL Apprenticeship Director our program was signed off on and approved for Certification. As the Apprentice completes each phase of this program, we report to the DOL and at the end a Certification will be awarded to the Apprentice. The Apprentice owns that and takes it with him/her just like a diploma from a Technical College.

What is wonderful about the program is these individuals working through our apprenticeship program have exactly the skill sets we want and we needed. Very positive for us. The real winner however is the apprentice. An apprentice that has worked for you for three years and has achieved his certification is not only proud and loyal to your company but is on a career track with the skills to advance within your system.

Finally, the Department of Labor currently has a major push in place to expand on Industry Recognized Apprenticeship Programs (IRAP’s) thus many local State Agencies have access to funding from the DOL to develop and support these new Apprenticeships. It would be well worth your time to identify where an apprenticeship might work in your business and how that apprenticeship position needs to be configured to best fit your needs. Seek out help from the DOL and local agencies to bring this initiative into your organization. Today the skilled workforce will no longer be just “delivered to your door step”, instead you must develop a pathway for careers in the industry and ways for our youth to access those pathways. Good luck on your Workforce Development journey.

 

The Law of the Carrot

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The Law of the Carrot

Today’s post, The Law of the Carrot, is written by guest blogger is Ryszard Chciuk. In his own words:

For the first half of my professional life I worked for Hydrobudowa-6 SA. At that time, it was one of the biggest construction companies in Poland. There, I was responsible for technical availability of all kinds of heavy construction machines and equipment, mobile cranes and trucks. We needed them on projects like constructing long distance pipelines, subway stations, expressways, airfields, industrial buildings or pumped storage power plants. I was in charge of up to 440 people, including mechanics and field technicians, machine operators, truck drivers, procurement, warehouses, and administration.

In the period of 22 years, I learned how my colleagues, project managers, utilized machines and equipment and what they needed to complete their projects on time and within the budget. It gave me a solid foundation to undertake a commitment to create the best after-sales organization in Poland for my new employer, Volvo CE.

The core of my service management team comprised of several highly motivated people who shared my idea of service excellence. Together, we built a very successful service organization. Within 10 years, we multiplied the number of employees ten times, up to almost 150 people in 2013. We generated average service and parts sales growth 22% yearly. My team established new standards on the demanding, after-sales market.

The Law of the Carrot

Seven years ago, I decided to retire, though I have not fully accomplished my goal to create the best construction equipment service organization in my country. Since then, I have posted over one hundred articles on my blog (in the Polish language) to support all the people focused on service excellence. My blog is directed to the construction equipment users and service managers, because I see both groups as complementary parts of every construction activity. They should know their expectations, which are very often completely opposite. They should also understand their daily limitations.

When my guru Ron Slee asked me to write a short article for this blog, I decided to follow Steve Day, a guest blogger for Learning Without Scars: “I thought that I might write about something important that I did not focus on enough until way too late in my career”. In my case this is about motivation. Truly speaking, I hate that word. This is because my superiors used to do their best to demotivate me during almost all of my professional life.

As a deadly enemy of negative motivation, I always tried to motivate my people in a positive way. I spent a lot of time and energy designing and implementing motivational systems for many teams I was in charge of. Those systems were mostly based on financial incentives, though fortunately not all of them.

Since I got retired, I have had enough time to look back. I learned about the Law of the Carrot on the seminar of Andrzej Blikle (Professor in mathematics and computer science at the Institute of Computer Science of the Polish Academy of Science and in the years 1990-2010 the president and CEO of A. Blikle Ltd, a family firm established in 1869 in Warsaw, known for its luxury pastry shops). His Law of the Carrot says: “The sole purpose of each carrot is to make a stick out of it”.

When you are rewarded with a carrot, you seem satisfied (please pay attention that it works only for a very limited time). Your superior gave you a tasty carrot but now it’s already been eaten.

If you were not rewarded with a carrot you looked very unhappy. Almost imperceptibly a carrot transformed itself into a stick.

What about your improper behavior (according to your superior)? You are punished. It’s a stick motivation. Next time, you will do your best to avoid the stick on your back. It does not matter if the way you avoid punishment has a positive impact on your company. You feel as comfortable as when you are awarded with a carrot. So, this time a stick has transformed itself into a carrot.

Too many managers still believe people must be awarded or punished to work well. They say it is human nature to be lazy and dishonest. Of course, the manager himself is not lazy and dishonest. Conclusion: a manager is not a human being. Am I wrong?

I am ashamed I did not notice that my very fast-growing service team was the most effective and happy, during at least the first three years of building our countrywide organization (we began in 2002). Those times, almost all of us used to spend five days a week in service cars and hotels, solving problems of customers with their heavy machines, in the field, despite the weather, lack of parts stock and no administrative procedures. It was the time all of my team members including field technicians, service supervisors, and parts personnel were paid only monthly salary – no bonuses, no financial incentives, and no paid overtime. We did not register work hours. Field technicians decided on the spot, how many hours they were to work to solve customers’ problems, before going asleep. You do not believe it worked? Nobody quit during the first three years, though the core people could easily find better paid jobs. Then and later on, many new people were hired and almost all of them were brought on board by our team members. The only visible incentives for field technicians were mobile workshops, equipped with all indispensable tools, so that nobody in the market could compete with us – we were proud of our service vans.

How was it possible? We were pioneers and we felt like ones because we had a common goal to build something much better than anything we could observe around. That was power of internal motivation, neither a carrot nor a stick incentive.

For more information on our programs, please visit us at Learning Without Scars.