How Long Can Employees Live on a Compliment?

Most companies tend to over-engineer employee recognition, believing it takes a corporate movement to motivate and reward employees for jobs well done.

Once they start the initiative, executives get to feel good about their culture; directors and managers get to feel good about themselves. In some companies, leaders even recognize each other for recognizing subordinates, rewarding themselves for navigating through the carefully designed steps in the "Fairness And Kindness to Employees" (FAKE) Process.

Look at this from the employee's chair to get the best perspective:

"All that recognition you so happily, so consistently, imposed upon my colleagues and me felt 'canned,' even forced. It didn't really mean a lot, because I don't think you meant it."

How about company execs creating a culture of respect by allowing leaders to bestow that respect in their own personal styles? They do have strong personal styles. That's why you hired or promoted them, right?

Don't make leaders read from a script, let them write the script.

Mark Twain once said, "I could live two months on a good compliment." I use that quote often when helping businesses understand how to motivate and engage employees.

If you're an employee, be bold about showing your bosses how your personal skills and style make you different and give value back to the organization.

If you're a leader, remember that a sincere compliment might just be the best motivator you have.

'None of us stands out.'

When I opened a trade magazine this morning, I was reminded of getting ready for high school while my dad dressed for his workday at IBM: white shirt, blue tie, dark suit. Everyday the same.

There, in the middle of this magazine, was a two-page ad for a large, reputable printing company. It featured the company's employees standing in its production facility, smiling at the camera.

Cool, right? Could have been. Except that every single one of them was dressed in the exact same blue shirt branded with the company logo. Over 100 men and women, all looking the same. The headline might as well have read, "Do business with us, because none of us stands out."

Why didn't someone in leadership think to say, "Hey, everyone, we're taking a company snapshot tomorrow and we want to feature YOU—the people who make us the company we are. Show some personality and wear your favorite shirt. Better still, why not your favorite hat!"

I bet the customers of this company care more about who is in the shirt than they do about what's on the shirt. Those customers have come to know the company and its brand through those people. They might even be able to look through the crowd and pick out the people they've dined with, fished with, bought from—if only they could tell one from another!

While an organization's brand image might have been concocted by smart executives and marketers, employees are the only ones that can bring your brand to life, by sharing its values with other people.

Even my dad got the chance to dress more individually once IBM learned that people built relationships with other people, not ties.

A Brand Fit for a Princess

The royal wedding reminds us how a brand is created and brought to life by people.

An international organization with 1,200 employees and millions of global customers, the brand of the royal family (let's call it Royal Inc.) is as strong as any in the world. And it's build solely on people.

Kate's smiles and waves, the married couple's balcony kiss, the secrecy surrounding the dress and its designer--all well-choreographed personal brand moves that contributed to the corporate brand.

Played right, like last Friday, the "brand" with a little b (that of company employees and leaders) can thrive and grow alongside the "Brand" with a big B (the organization, Royal Inc.).

Did Queen Elizabeth, the 85-year-old CEO of Royal Inc., agree with all the ideas submitted: employing the dress designer from a controversial fashion house whose founder killed himself a year ago, hauling live trees into Westminster Abbey, or allowing Prince William to drive himself and his bride around London in a convertible? Not sure. But, did she approve the moves, knowing if they were executed properly they'd help Royal Inc. diversify and grow? Bloody right.

Leaders often try to communicate their brands through traditional means like elaborate logos and websites, image-appropriate office space or elaborate marketing strategies. Will and Kate showed us just how important employees are in bringing the brand to life through connections they build with constituents.

No matter what image Queen Elizabeth has established over the years, the new duke and duchess of Cambridge are dusting off and revitalizing Royal Inc.'s brand message.

That's what engaged employees can do for any company when they understand the brand message and are trusted to represent the brand in their own ways.

We may never become kings, but we will continue to be the brands for our companies.

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.

Walgreen's Strategy Paying Off

In my last post, I noted that Walgreen's has embarked on the people-based strategy of training pharmacists to spend more time helping patients with chronic illnesses.

Building relationships with customers, to proactively drive customer engagement vs. delivering reactive customer service, leads to strong and sustainable growth, at least in my book (literally).

A strategy like this sounds good in the boardroom and looks good on paper, but means nothing if it doesn't drive results, right?

Early results are in, and they couldn't be better. Here's what The Wall Street Journal just reported this week:

"Walgreen Co. said June same-store sales rose 2 percent, a reversal from two straight months of decline, as discretionary sales in the front end of the store improved. Overall, sales jumped 8.4 percent, to $5.67 billion" for the company."

This is a sound example of how employees who are aligned with your brand can create real relationships with customers, based on shared values. By improving each "moment of impression" a customer has with a pharmacist--or any employee in the Walgreen's organization--the ripple effect spurs growth in the different products and services a brand offers.

I will keep you updated on AmEx and Comcast, two other companies I applauded in my last post for installing people-centric strategies for growth.

Moving From Customer Service to Customer Relationships: The Way to Grow.

Walgreen's is training pharmacists to spend more time helping patients with chronic illnesses.

American Express is expanding a program aimed at getting agents to build better relationships with customers.

Comcast is putting call-center reps through new training and instructing supervisors to coach their agents more.

These are Brandtenders in action: moving from "customer service" to "customer engagement."



Over 25% of the 1,400-plus companies surveyed by Accenture said that customer service is the first area to get increased funding as the economy recovers, according to The Wall Street Journal. More importantly, these companies are changing how they perceive and approach customer service.

Customer service is reactive and transactional: taking customer orders and dealing with customer frustrations. The Brandtender approach is proactive, linking employees who are interested in the brand they work for—because of their company's unique culture (the DNA of a brand)—with customers who value their relationships with those employees.

I've found that the most customer-satisfying brands in the world do three things:

1. Help employees understand and become interested in the brand. (Don't over-engineer the brand message, make it simple and allow employees to relay it to customers in their own style.)



2. Give employees the tools to communicate the brand message at every turn, making every moment of impression with customers a strong one. (They should know what to say and when, consistently and effectively.)



3. Trust employees to represent the brand in the marketplace. ("Empowerment" is an overused word. It's about trust. If you don't trust employees, they know it and won't trust your brand. And if your employees can't represent your brand, then who can?) 



Best Buy Employees Deliver a Strong Brand Message. So Can Yours.

You’ve seen Best Buy’s television commercials featuring real, live “blue shirts”—employees of the electronics retailer—describing their real experiences with customers. The employees volunteered their stories, which have been captured intensely by director Errol Morris for BBDO.

One spot shows an employee helping a blind man learn to use his home-theater system. Another recreates a husband and wife’s spat over what kind of computer to buy. Over the holidays, some blue shirts even caroled their way onto the small screen.

No sales pitches, no prices, not even any exclamation points! The campaign’s theme is simply, “You, Happier.”

A great example of a company that understands what a brand is and isn’t.

Is: The relationships built between employees and customers.

Isn’t: The latest iThing, a sale, cool logo or fancy packaging.

As companies try to find ways to build relationships with customers to grow—or even maintain—business in a wobbly economy, Best Buy CMO Barry Judge found the inspiration for his branding strategy literally surrounding him, in the form of employees.

In the commercials, “we try to demonstrate how it’s our people (not the stuff) that make the difference,” Judge said.

He’s on to something.

The Gallup Organization found that 80% of the market value of the average S&P 500 company is made up of intangible assets like brand, customer base, innovation and talent of its employees.

It’s what separates one brand from competitors, regardless of industry. No two businesses have the same blend of individual styles, generations and cultures spread amongst their employee population. This unique mix becomes a differentiation that can’t be duplicated, the DNA of a given brand. That differentiation can be used to strengthen the connection to customers.

Traditional consumer marketing methods—special promotions, points-based loyalty programs—are tired, and consumers are skeptical of them. But, grow a brand through stronger bonds between employees and customers, and the overall business grows as well. Consumers turn to value and brands they can trust, making relationships critical to every business situation.

And it’s cheaper. This kind of marketing strategy leverages existing investments—employees.

Best Buy is, in essence, declaring: “Here are our employees, and we’re proud of them. We don’t need models or actors to help us connect with you, our customers. That’s not genuine. These are real people who can really help you. We care about them and we care about you.”

The company is personifying its brand, in the form of people who need people to succeed, who want to build relationships.