Chapter Ten
Building Stronger
Relationships with
Positive Energy
Chapter Preview: Building Stronger
Relationships with Positive Energy
• How positive energy contributes to
interpersonal relationships
• The need for encouragement and positive
feedback
• Use of positive reinforcement to improve
relationships and reward behavior
• Major barriers to use of positive
reinforcement
• How to reward individuals and team
performance
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Energy Defined
• The capacity for work or the force that helps
us do things with vitality and intensity
• Negative, stressful work environments results
in
– Physical fatigue
– Decreased optimism
– Lower morale
• Positive work climate makes workers feel
– Uplifted
– Encouraged
– Empowered
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Energy Force in Our Lives
• Energy has many intriguing dimensions
– Energy comes from food, exercise, sleep
and subtle forces
– Positive energy is supportive, loving, and
nurturing
– Negative energy is fearful, judgmental, and
depleting
– Some people make us more electric or at
ease
– Some people suck the life right out of us
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Actions and Events that Create
Positive Energy
• Organizations find new and creative
ways to generate positive energy
– Put people first
– Commitment to work/life balance
– Making work fun and entertaining
• Accentuate the positive
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Our Need for Positive Reinforcement
• Craving appreciation is a basic principle
of human nature
• Few people have the strength of ego to
maintain high self-esteem without
positive feedback
• Without positive feedback, employees
often suffer from an energy deficit
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Support from Maslow
• Hierarchy of needs provides support for
the use of positive experiences
• Security (second-level need) is satisfied
by positive feedback from a supervisor,
manager, coworker or friend
– One feels more secure when
accomplishments are recognized
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Support from Maslow
• Belonging (third-level need) can be
satisfied by actions that communicate
– Being part of a team
• Esteem (fourth-level need) would be
difficult without positive feedback from
others
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Support from Skinner
• Reinforcer is any stimulus that follows a
response and increases the probability
that the response will occur again
• Timing of reinforcement has an
important effect on behavior
– When the delay is too great, a change in
behavior is less likely to take place
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Support from Berne
• Transactional Analysis (TA) is a
simplified explanation of how people
communicate
• Most people have a strong need for
recognition, or “strokes”
• Strokes help satisfy the need to be
appreciated
• Necessary for physical and mental
health
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Support from Berne
• A physical stroke can be a pat on the
back or a smile that communicates
approval
– Infants who do not receive hugs, caresses,
and kisses often fail to thrive
• A verbal stroke includes words of praise
or expressions of gratitude
– Often more important in adulthood
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Total Person Insight
Successful people speak words of
inclusion rather than words of
separation, words of acceptance rather
than words of rejection, and words of
tolerance rather than words of
prejudice.
Jack Canfield
Author, The Success Principles
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Positive Reinforcement—
Creating Positive Energy
• Costs of negativity are high
• Rath and Clifton Theory of the Dipper
and the Bucket
– Full bucket, we feel great
– Empty bucket, we feel awful
– Can use dipper to fill others or ourselves
– Dip from others, we spring a leak
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Figure 10.2 - Dipper and Bucket Theory
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Positive Reinforcement Defined
• The goal of positive reinforcement is to
encourage productive behaviors
• Positive energy is an important form of
life enrichment
• Positive reinforcement is:
– Easy to use
– Inexpensive
– An effective way to generate positive
energy in the workplace
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The Power of Praise
• Today we have a recognition deficit
• How well am I doing?
– Praise makes an employee feel important
and needed rather than taken for granted
– Praise is an effective strategy that ensures
repetition of desired behaviors
– Try not to miss an opportunity to use praise
to generate positive energy
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Table 10.1
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Courtesy Can be Contagious
• “The greater the man, the greater the
courtesy.”
• Courtesy means being considerate of
others in small ways, showing respect
for what others revere, and treating
everyone, regardless of position, with
consideration
• Rudeness flourishes in our society
• Say “thank you” to someone who has
been helpful to you
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Figure 10.3 - Congratulatory Letter
Reinforcing Desirable Behavior
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Active Listening
• Process of sending back to a speaker
what you as a listener think the speaker
meant in terms of content and feelings
• Everyone feels a sense of value when
speaking with a good listener
• People long for authentic interaction
• Dialogue groups promote self-reflection
and self-awareness
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Pride as a Source of Positive Energy
• Pride is the emotional high that follows
performance and success
• Katzenbach notes that the power of
pride is obvious when you observe highperforming workforces
• Pride-builders can be found at all levels
of the organization
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Barriers to Positive Reinforcement
• People prefer negative feedback to no
feedback at all
• Barriers
– Preoccupation with self
– Pride
– Misconceptions about positive
reinforcement
– The “too busy” syndrome
– Failing to identify commendable actions
– Not knowing what to say or do
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Preoccupation with Self
• Narcissism is a major obstacle to
providing positive reinforcement
• Learn to give, in order to receive
• Helping others helps us
• Use Random Acts of Kindness
– Little things we do for others that have no
payback
– Giving freely, purely, for no reason
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Total Person Insight
Feeling grateful is good for us. Gratitude
is the opposite of the qualities of selfcenteredness, indifference, and
arrogance. Expressing gratitude affords
each of us unique opportunities to reach
out in love and share happiness. Saying
thank you is a very positive thing to do.
Malcolm Boyd
Episcopal Priest; Author, Volunteering Thanks
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Misconceptions About Positive
Reinforcement
• Belief that praise leads to demands for
tangible evidence of appreciation
• Perceived as losing power or control
• In the absence of praise, people often
demand greater tangible rewards
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The “Too Busy” Syndrome
• When we are too busy or stressed it is
easy to forget or postpone thank-you
notes or praise
• The solution to this problem is planning
• Set aside a few minutes each day to
work on positive feedback
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Failure to Identify Commendable Actions
• Many opportunities to recognize the
people with whom you work
• Use creativity to discover many actions
that deserve to be commended
• What types of behavior can you praise?
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Not Knowing What to Say or Do
• Praise, recognition, and rewards can be
presented in a variety of ways
• Use thoughtful, personal kinds of
recognition that signify true appreciation
• “Good thinking!”
• “Excellent idea.”
• “Thank you.”
• “Keep up the good work.”
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Table 10.2
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Activities
• Send employee to workshop or seminar
in which she or he is interested
• Ask for advice
• Ask for a demonstration of a correct
performance
• Display or discuss another’s work or
ideas
• Recognize someone’s work at a staff
meeting
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Rewarding Individual and
Team Performance
• Traditionally, managers and supervisors
were responsible for reinforcing workers
• Today, co-workers, supervisors,
subordinates and customers recognize
the accomplishments of others
• The concept of teamwork is changing
the way companies structure their
reward systems
• Some organizations emphasize group
rather than individual performance
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Figure 10.4 - Shared Responsibility
for Positive Reinforcement
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Incentive Programs
• Planned activities designed to motivate
employees
– Vacation trips
– Plaques or pins
– Certificates
– Stock options
– Merit pay
– Cash bonuses
• Organizations spend billions of dollars
annually on incentives
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Incentive Programs
• Today, innovative incentive plans
reward
– Increased productivity
– Improved quality
– Lower operating costs
– Some combination of these factors
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Incentive Programs
• Common objectives include:
– Improve quality
– Increase sales
– Ensure safety
– Decrease absenteeism
– Foster teamwork
– Reward participation in wellness programs
– Improve customer service
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Table 10.3
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Criticisms of Incentive Programs
• Most companies use some type of cash
or noncash rewards
• Criticisms still exist
– Pay is not an effective motivator
– Rewards can punish
– Rewards can damage relationships
– Rewards may mask real problems
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Overcoming Criticisms of Incentive
Programs
• Many organizations have achieved
positive results
• Consider long-term impact
• Establish specific, achievable goals
• Seek employee input
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Re-examining Our Ideas
About Productivity
• Overtime pay is often used to reward
employees
– Employees perform optimally for six or
seven hours, then the fatigue factor
surfaces
• Will the employee who is rewarded for
working faster be more productive?
• Pink says we are progressing to a
society of creators and empathizers
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The Critical Importance of Environment
• Positive energy flourishes in a
supportive environment
• Positive energy comes naturally in
positive environments
• People must feel good about the
organization, its leadership, and other
employees
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Chapter Review
• How positive energy contributes to
interpersonal relationships
– Major influence on employee morale and
productivity
– Encouragement and positive feedback are
important ways to create positive energy
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10 | 41
Chapter Review
• The need for encouragement and
positive feedback
– People feel good when accomplishments
are recognized and become upset when
they are ignored
– Positive reinforcement is a powerful
motivator
– Everyone needs to receive personal
recognition for work well done
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Chapter Review
• Use of positive reinforcement to
improve relationships and reward
behavior
– Studies indicate that recognition is an
important employee reward preference,
often ranked higher than monetary rewards
and job security
– Praise, pride, courtesy, active listening,
incentives, and awards can be used to
instill positive energy
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Chapter Review
• Major barriers to use of positive
reinforcement
– Preoccupation with self
– “Too busy” syndrome
– Blind to praise-worthy actions
• These tend to minimize the use of
positive reinforcement
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Chapter Review
• How to reward individuals and team
performance
– Most common incentive programs involve
• Gain sharing
• Profit sharing
• Production incentives
• Pay for knowledge
• Suggestion programs
• Employee stock options
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