Management

You know a "praise" sandwich. It's when you need to reprimand someone for doing something wrong or for not doing something they should have, you wrap something good around it. For example, you might say, "Bob, I know you work really hard, but you've been late three times this month with your report. I need you to make sure I get it on time every day. So keep that positive attitude you always show and let's keep going forward".

Is this an effective management tool? If so, why? If not, why not? Reply to this post with your thoughts and be sure to take our poll, too.

The GRID Theory of management would have you believe that Joe Lueken is a 0,9 manager, a country club manager, because he puts his interest in people over profits. But this approach has made Joe Lueken a very wealthy man. And now that he is retiring, he is choosing to continue to follow that style. As Lueken put it, "The whole move revolves around people, not things or money". In this case, "the whole thing" is the sale of his three grocery stores to his employees.

According to the Star Tribune, "Lueken said he had multiple offers to sell to large independent chains and might have gotten more money that way. But he and his family believe that selling to workers will be better for them, the business and this north-central Minnesota city (Bemidji MN where Lueken lives) of 13,000 people".

The same article quotes his front-end manager as noting, "Being owners will make us care more about our work. It gives you something to call your own and gives you a more comfortable retirement to look forward to." This sense of employee ownership is very important to the success of your business. You won't get the best ideas, the best quality work, and the highest productivity from employees who aren't motivated and engaged.

More articles about Employee Motivation

We have learned by now how important customer satisfaction is. Many businesses focus on ways to make sure their customers are satisfied with their purchase. The problem is that many businesses stop there. They never follow up after the product or service is delivered to make sure the customer remains satisfied. The article Check Your Own Work: Make Sure Your Customers Are Still Satisfied explains why this is so important, how to find out, and what to do if your customers aren't still happy.

No, not that kind of engaged. Get them engaged in their job, committed and motivated to excel. Read the Scrap Paper Test to find out how engaged your employees are and what you can do if they aren't.

The CEO of Next stores gets it. The Swiss people get it. But McDonalds demonstrates that they still don't get it. Announcing that they based their CEO's pay on "comparable" companies sounds good. But then you learn that they have stopped using Costco as one of the copmpanies they compare to. Why is that, you wonder? Could it be because Costoco is one of the few companies that compensates their senior executives fairly; a company that pays senior executies relative to employees rather than bleeding shaeholders for all they can get?

We will never get maximum productivity from our workers until we begin to demonstrate that we value them for what they do.

Like the British CEO who gave his annual bonus to his employees, the Swiss people recently demonstrated that they understand the inequity of huge CEO bonuses. Now the Swiss people have done something about it by overwhelmingly passing an initiative to give shareholders a binding vote on compensation for CEOs and other company executives. It also bans "golden hellos" and "golden parachutes", the special deals paid to executives to bring them to the company and pay them bonuses when they leave.

Events like these move us back closer to a time when CEO compensation reflected their value to the company and its stakeholders rather than the size of their egos and the depth of their greed. Companies with the greatest successes achieve it without superstar CEOs, so there is no benefit to a company to give a CEO outlandish compensation.

I write frequently about the ridiculous compensation "given to" (not "earned by") CEOs of major corporations, so it's rewarding when I can point out the rare instances when one of them demonstrates common sense. ABC News reports that Lord Wolfson, CEO of Next, the U.K.'s largest department store chain, gave his annual bonus of $3.6 million to his employees. While it only amounted to about 1% of each employee's salary, it was an appropriate indication of the understanding that the CEO would not have made the profits that earned him the bonus without the support of the employees.

The MSN Money article Why older people work acknowledges that for a growing number of them the answer is economic necessity. They work because they have to. They can't afford to stop earning a paycheck.

Because Older Workers Are Staying At Work Longer, here's what managers need to know about How To Manage Older Workers.

Most people would consider annual compensation of almost $1.9 Million a pretty nice paycheck. For Ron Johnson, CEO of JC Penney for the past two years, it's a major cut from the $53.3 Million he made the previous year. Considering that JC Penney stock has slid almost 60% in the past year, due in large part to Johnson's decisions, it's not surprising that he took such a substantial reduction in pay. On the other hand, it is surprising that the inbred CEO culture of American business allowed one of their own to actuallly be held accountable for his performance. Surprising, but also a good sign.

• CEOs Are Overpaid
• Are You Worth $11.9 Million
• "Not out of line." Maybe It Should Be.
• Stupid, Just Stupid

There is a lot written about customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. One key aspect of both of those is the power of dissatisfaction. Read Dissatisfaction Causes Change to learn how to use this powerful technique in the manager's tool kit to help you improve the perfromance of the slackers, protect the performance of your stars, and more easily lead your team when facing difficult situations.

Related Management Topics:

• Employee Motivation
• Managing Yourself
• Manage Conflict and Workplace Violence