Cathing them when they're right ...
From: “The Heart of a Leader”: Blanchard Family Partner, The Ken Blanchard Companies
ISBN 1-56292-488-5
pp. 4
“The key to developing people is to catch them doing something right. Catching people doing things right is a powerful management concept. … Effective praising must be specific. Just walking around saying, “Thanks for everything” is meaningless. If you say, “Great job,” to a poor performer and, “Great job,” to a good performer, you sound ridiculous to the [poor performer and you “demotivate” the good performer. … But remember, give praise immediately, make it specific, and finally, encourage people to keep up the good work.”
My interpretation of this is as follows: Development means to build up with intention and purpose. Not to tear down without giving hope for the person to rebuild. To catch people doing right means paying attention to the people. Be among them and learn their individual and group strengths and weaknesses. Use this information to help them strengthen their weakness while rewarding their strengths. This does not, however, mean to ignore poor performance. A poor worker needs to be motivated by the rare occurrences of doing right of course, but they should not be allowed to slack off. A person, or group, a company or even a society has strong members as well as weak ones. Weak does not mean poor performance in all cases. But poor performance does mean having a weak part in the system that needs to be removed if it cannot be fixed with proper motivation or technique. A good working system is one where all the parts work in unison, and when there is a kink in the system the system needs to either fix that kink or replace the weak part with a stronger one. Companies, clubs, organizations, faculties, societies … the one’s that work are the one’s that know each member individually and that individual’s purpose in the group as a whole. When a group knows each member and what they are apt to do best within the goals of the group, then there are no flaws and all flows without disturbance or disruption. A well working group that is made up of strong members is able to absorb a new, raw, member and allow for alterations and a kind of assimilation within the working whole. Flexibility takes place of strain and every individual is able to uphold their part while maintaining the flow of the group. A leader needs to know his or her group and its individual members in order to know who is best to hire or bring into the group with knowledge that the new member will enhance the flow of the group and not disrupt it or cause a kink to occur within the working system.
*Has a light bulb go off with an understanding of something I did not understand before*
ISBN 1-56292-488-5
pp. 4
“The key to developing people is to catch them doing something right. Catching people doing things right is a powerful management concept. … Effective praising must be specific. Just walking around saying, “Thanks for everything” is meaningless. If you say, “Great job,” to a poor performer and, “Great job,” to a good performer, you sound ridiculous to the [poor performer and you “demotivate” the good performer. … But remember, give praise immediately, make it specific, and finally, encourage people to keep up the good work.”
My interpretation of this is as follows: Development means to build up with intention and purpose. Not to tear down without giving hope for the person to rebuild. To catch people doing right means paying attention to the people. Be among them and learn their individual and group strengths and weaknesses. Use this information to help them strengthen their weakness while rewarding their strengths. This does not, however, mean to ignore poor performance. A poor worker needs to be motivated by the rare occurrences of doing right of course, but they should not be allowed to slack off. A person, or group, a company or even a society has strong members as well as weak ones. Weak does not mean poor performance in all cases. But poor performance does mean having a weak part in the system that needs to be removed if it cannot be fixed with proper motivation or technique. A good working system is one where all the parts work in unison, and when there is a kink in the system the system needs to either fix that kink or replace the weak part with a stronger one. Companies, clubs, organizations, faculties, societies … the one’s that work are the one’s that know each member individually and that individual’s purpose in the group as a whole. When a group knows each member and what they are apt to do best within the goals of the group, then there are no flaws and all flows without disturbance or disruption. A well working group that is made up of strong members is able to absorb a new, raw, member and allow for alterations and a kind of assimilation within the working whole. Flexibility takes place of strain and every individual is able to uphold their part while maintaining the flow of the group. A leader needs to know his or her group and its individual members in order to know who is best to hire or bring into the group with knowledge that the new member will enhance the flow of the group and not disrupt it or cause a kink to occur within the working system.
*Has a light bulb go off with an understanding of something I did not understand before*