Positive Reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement

Motivational skills are very important on a workplace. Highly motivated employees will work harder and be more productive than those employees without motivation. There are many ways to motivate employees and a good manager will develop several motivation skills to be effective. However, we are going to focus on Positive Reinforcement and how it can be use to motivate employees.

Words have power and they can be use as very powerful motivational tools. Recognition is a basic human need and positive reinforcement fulfills this need. For positive reinforcement to be effective we need to follow some simple rules. First, we need to deal with the bad and the good. In the same way that is not good to just point out what is wrong, it is not good to just point out what is right. There has to be a well balance between the two. Second, do not over use it. Positive reinforcement will start to loose it meaning and benefits if it is done constantly for anything and everything. Third, positive reinforcement should be done as soon as possible when the work is done and the results are positive. This way the employee relates one with the other. The self-esteem rises and the attitude toward the job will change. Forth, it should be genuine.

Michael Rose, director of reward & recognition at Aon and author of Recognizing performance; non-cash rewards (CIPD, 2001), says: β€œThe bottom line in terms of motivating people is that employees do need to understand that what they have done has had an impact and is appreciated. If people receive positive reinforcement for what they have done, they are more likely to do it again.”2

John Mariotti in his article The Power of Praise makes reference to two books: The One Minute Manager (Morrow, 1982) by Kenneth Blanchard and Zapp! The lightning of Empowerment (Harmony Books, 1998) by Williams C. Byham and Jeff Cox. These books deliver a very clear and simple message:
οƒ˜ Praise in public and criticize in private.
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