The Power of a Positive Work Environment

Melissa was the daughter of a general contractor and she really knew her way around a construction site. She could frame a wall, mix concrete, and saw a straight line by eye. Melissa taught me a very important lesson when I worked with her on a volunteer mission project. We were leading a team of high school students who were mostly inexperienced with tools. Before we began work for the week, Melissa knew she had to teach a few basic skills.

We gathered in a circle around her toolbox. She asked the team members "What's the most powerful tool in this box?" A few thought it was a hammer; others named the measuring tape. "It's this," she said, holding up a pencil. "With this you write down your plans and put accurate measurements on your work. If you use this tool well, it will guide you to doing good work. If you use it poorly, or forget to use it, your work will fail."

I thought of Melissa's pencil lesson when I read about some recent work by the Gallup organization on the positive work environment. Let me explain.

Praise is far too rare in the workplace. Even though appropriate and well-timed praise is one of a manager's most powerful motivating tools, few make good use of it. In fact, a Gallup study of over 4 million workers worldwide produced some alarming facts:

Nearly two-thirds of American workers (65%) reported receiving no recognition for good work during the past year.

An astounding 99 out of 100 workers said they wanted a more positive environment at work.

Of those surveyed, 9 out of 10 said they were more productive when they worked around positive people.

The most common reason people give for leaving their jobs is that they "do not feel appreciated."

Employees who work for a boss they dislike are significantly more likely to have high blood pressure. This is based on a study done with health care workers in Britain. Many of us have joked about getting high blood pressure from working with our bosses - but in this study people actually developed enough high blood pressure to be at significant risk for stroke or heart attack. Yes it's true: if you work long enough for a boss you hate, it could kill you.

Overly negative employees cause expensive problems for their organizations. Gallup estimates that there are 22 million overly negative workers in the United States and that the cost of their low productivity is between $250 and $300 billion dollars every year. When you factor in the added costs of their workplace injuries, illnesses, turnover, and fraud the total could approach $1 trillion dollars. That is nearly 10% of the entire United States Gross Domestic Product!

The positive side of the story is that the same Gallup study also showed that individuals who receive praise and recognition regularly are much better employees for a number of reasons. When employees receive praise and recognition on a consistent basis, they:

• Are more productive individually.
• Work more cooperatively with their colleagues.
• Stay with their organizations longer.
• Are judged superior in loyalty and satisfaction by customers.
• Have better safety records and fewer on-the-job accidents.

The solution is quite clear: give your employees appropriate praise and recognition. Not all recognition works well, though, so you might ask what's the best way to create a positive environment with praise and recognition? In two words: frequency and sincerity.

The positive impact of praise can come from a variety of sources. A simple "good job" is often enough. Even when it comes from a co-worker and not the boss, a word of praise can make a difference. More than that, simple things like positive interactions with co-workers have a large effect on the overall environment in an organization.

One Gallup study investigated the impact of brief positive interactions between employees. The results showed that workgroups that had three times as many positive interactions (which could be as brief as a few seconds) as negative ones were significantly more productive than workgroups with fewer positive interactions.

There is a limit to the impact of praise. That limit is reached when employees start to think that the praise they receive is unwarranted or insincere. This is the reason why programs such as Employee of the Month don't work. After a while all the productive employees have been recognized. Once that point is passed, employees realize that the "honor" is no longer worth much. And how would you like to be the very last employee to receive the Employee of the Month award? Somehow I don't think that would be very motivating at all.

Have you ever stopped to think of how much influence you might have on others? It could be much greater than you imagine In the book, "How Full is Your Bucket?" by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton, the authors recount a story that captures the power of praise. Here is the story, taken directly from the book:

".we asked Kristin, a management consultant, "What is the greatest recognition you have ever received? Her answer: "Three words in an email." We then found out that when Kristin's mother passed away, a mentor at work whom Kristin had admired throughout her career wrote her a special note. Her mentor's email concluded by saying, "Your mother was very proud of you, and so am I." After 25 years with her company, three simple words ("so am I") carried more meaning than any other recognition Kristen had received in her entire life."

If you pay attention to giving appropriate and timely praise to those who work for you, your impact could be far-reaching. After all, if only one-third of all American workers can remember being praised in the last year, imagine the good you could do by praising everyone who works for you on a regular basis.

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