Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Rewarding Employees Not So Tough

My first job was as a paperboy. Once I learned how to wake up early, it was a good way to earn money.

I was lucky. My boss was a skilled leader and my first professional mentor.

When I "interviewed" with him over a soda, he asked if I knew much about delivering newspapers. "I can do this," I said, and showed him how I could fold a paper into thirds and tuck one end into the other to make a nice, compact bundle of news. Ideal for tossing onto doorsteps.

"Wow, that is great! Where did you learn to do that?" he asked. Proud of my skills, I told him I had friends in the business.

Of course, this guy had seen the "tuck and roll" hundreds of times. He invented the move, for all I knew. But that day he made me feel talented and appreciated. I pedaled my bike faster on the way home, excited to tell my parents about the new job and how my superior said I was going to become "one of the best."

Every time I tossed a paper onto a stoop I was a master at my trade, perhaps the greatest delivery boy these parts had ever known.

Obviously, I remember and am affected by that guy's leadership to this day. He engaged me in my work. And can you think of a less-interested employee than me, a teenager wanting to do nothing but play hockey and hard rock?

He acknowledged what I was doing well and helped me with things I struggled with, like how to graciously collect money from late-paying customers.

If you're a leader, you have your own story like this or you wouldn't be one. Remember how important your first good coach, teacher or mentor made you feel? Pass it on.

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