Encouragement goes beyond catching people doing things right

When I was a young manager, I read “The One-Minute Manager” by Blanchard and Johnson.  I learned to “manage by walking-around” and “catch people doing things right”.

As a motivational tool, catching people doing things right is effective.  But it doesn’t work long term if all you is praise their results.

I led the winning team on a bid worth $85 M in Hong-Kong.  It was complex, with months of technical, commercial and legal negotiations. The team gave all it could, and then some.

Coming off the plane, I went to the office and attended the celebration party. Executives, heads of department and the entire team drinking champagne (yes, they allow this in France). Speeches.  How happy the executives are. Proud of the team who worked so hard.

It was nice.  The bonus was nice too.  But it did not change much. Business as usual the next day.

But not for me. I had been debriefed, the “Encouragement” way.

Pierre-Louis Bertina – my VP of Sales at Alstom Signaling Group (then GEC-Alsthom), went beyond congratulating me for doings things right.  He commented on “WHAT” I did right.  He took the time to observe my work.  He noticed what I was doing right, and re-enforced it by focusing on it. This is “Encouragement”.

He never said “you did well” and stopped there.

After an intense negotiation session, which he attended, he told me:

“You did great. We got what we wanted, because you always knew, almost before they did, what part of the spec affected the discussion. You’d turn to the right page faster than they – who wrote the spec.  That’s a great skill you should cultivate. I wonder what we’ll do after we win this and you move on to something else.”

Another time, he learned the fellow in charge of installation had moved his vacation (rare in France), to finalize his part of the bid.

“You know, why they do this don’t you?” (I didn’t’ – but said nothing) “You make them feel that what they do is important to winning the bid.  You should keep that up.”

Let’s face it. We all like our boss to tell us he’s proud of our good results. It’s nice. But it does not make a huge difference in our work.

Pierre-Louis went beyond congratulations.  He notice how I did my work.  He connected it to the results.

• It gave me confidence. A manager with his experience confirmed what I did was the cause of my results – I was emboldened to continue.
• It felt like he really cared about the team’s success, since he took the time to notice.
• It opened the door to discussion. I’d feel comfortable discussing my plans with him, because we focused on the how-to, the process, instead of only the results.

I spoke to Pierre-Louis before writing this to get his permission to quote him. I learned that three people in his latest team have now become Directors.  I am not surprised.

It’s called encouragement.  It uses words that notice.  It works equally well with successes and failures.  Notice the process – what works or does not work.  Encourage what works, coach what does not. It sets up improvement. It sets up growth.

All you need is to take the time, start noticing what the team does right, and tell them about it.

Blanchard and Johnson were right.  It really works.  But I disagree with them on one point:

It does take more than one minute.  But it’s a great investment of your time.