In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise

for doing good work.

Most employees feel that their work goes unrecognized and
unappreciated. Showing appreciation for your employees is one of the
most powerful tools at your disposal, so use it generously. Sincere
praise triggers a pleasure response in the brain, a feeling people want
to repeat. The rewards of positive feedback far outweigh the time and
energy you invest.
The 12 Elements of Great Managing
4.Recognition and Praise
Less than one in three employees can give a strongly positive answer to the
statement, “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for
doing good work.”
Excuses: ‘If I don’t say anything, you’re doing a good job.’ or ‘I’m just not very
good at giving praise.’
Positive words specifically have been found to activate regions of the brain
related to reward.
Teams with a high quotient of recognition and praise perform better than
those with relatively more correction and sniping.
Without a conscious effort to maintain recognition, the negative
events will continually jump in line before the positive ones.

One of the most effective ways of improving recognition of

employees is to discover the forms of feedback that mean the
most to them.

Managers who fail to deliberately use the power of positive

feedback are handicapping their own managerial effectiveness.
In the days before air conditioning, a husband and wife were visiting
her parents in a small West Texas town. As they were relaxing one
Sunday afternoon, the wife's father suggested that they all drive to
Abilene for dinner at a cafeteria. The son-in-law dreaded the hot, dusty
drive to a town 53 miles away, but said OK to avoid being a rude guest.
The wife and mother-in-law both said it sounded good to them, so off
they went to Abilene.
The cafeteria food wasn't very good, and after returning home hot and
sweaty after the 106-mile round trip, the complaining commenced. The
mother-in-law said they never would have set out on the abortive trip if
it had been up to her. The son-in-law objected, saying that he never
wanted to go, but acquiesced because the others wanted to go. His
wife said she just went along with the Abilene suggestion to be
agreeable, but would have preferred not to take a road trip. Finally, the
father-in-law said he only suggested it because he thought the younger
couple might be bored sitting around the house.
Sometimes a consensus of opinion can be counterproductive to
achieving a desirable outcome. It can, in fact, produce adverse
consequences.
The Abilene paradox sounds like groupthink, doesn't it? And it is
similar—but with one important difference: In groupthink, the
collective individuals actually agree with each other, both privately
and collectively. The Abilene paradox describes a situation in which
the members privately disagree with the collective unanimous
decision. In short, groupthink members are voting their conscience
while Abilene "paradoxers" are not.
Whether in social situations or in an organizational context, going
along to get along arises from a desire to avoid conflict and a
reluctance to be seen as the "spoiler" who criticizes ideas and plans
that others favor. The choice to follow one's conscience or go against
it to please the group produces cognitive dissonance (which requires
some character and discipline to overcome) and could involve
The only absolute preventative for either
groupthink or the Abilene paradox in planning or
decision-making situations is to avoid agreeing
overtly with something you disagree with
privately. You can't control what others in the
group do. But if at least one person speaks up in
the right way, there is a good chance at avoiding
the Abilene paradox and a dysfunctional
outcome.
Three Levels of Personal Moral Development

Sources: Based on Lawrence Kohlberg, “Moral Stages and Moralization: The Cognitive-Developmental Approach,” in Moral Development and
Behavior: Theory, Research, and Social Issues, ed. Thomas Likona (Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976), pp. 31–53; and Jill W.
Graham, “Leadership, Moral Development, and Citizenship Behavior,” Business Ethics Quarterly 5, no. 1 (January 1995), pp. 43–54.
Leadership Vision

A vision is a vivid mental image of what the organization will

accomplish in the future.
Leadership Vision
• Vision Links the Present to the Future
• Vision Energizes People and Focuses Attention
• Vision Gives Meaning to Work
Vision Statements
Examples of Brief Vision Statements
• McDonald’s: Be the best quick service restaurant experience.
• Nike: Bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world. (*If you have a body, you are an
athlete.)
• Oxfam: A world without poverty.
• Zoom: Video communications empowering people to accomplish more.
• Four Seasons: Be recognized as the company that manages the finest hotels, resorts, and residence clubs
wherever we locate.
• BAE Systems (defense company): To protect those who protect us.
• Patagonia: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement
solutions to the environmental crisis.

Sources: These examples are from Stephanie Ray, “A Guide to Writing the Perfect Vision Statement (with Examples),” ProjectManager (May 16, 2018),
www.projectmanager.com/blog/guide-writing-perfect-vision-statement-examples (accessed April 15, 2021); “About Us,” Zoom Web site, https://zoom.us/about (accessed April 26, 2021); “Four Seasons
Service Culture,” Four Seasons Web site, www.fourseasons.com/about_four_seasons/service_culture/ (accessed April 26, 2021); and “We Protect Those Who Protect Us,” York Daily Record (May 12,
2010), www.ydr.com/ci_15067292 (accessed May 16, 2013).
Use Strategy to Achieve the Vision

Strategy can be defined as the general plan of action that

describes resource allocation and other activities for dealing
with the environment and helping the organization attain its
goals and achieve the vision.
Use Strategy to Achieve the Vision
• Leaders ask questions such as:
• Where is the organization now?
• Where does the organization want to be?
• What changes and trends are occurring in the competitive environment?
• What courses of action can help us achieve our vision?
Mission

The mission is the organization’s core broad reason for

existence. It defines the company’s core values and reason for
being, and it provides a basis for creating the vision.
The Power of a Strong Mission

Source: Susan Ellingwood, “On a Mission,” Gallup Management Journal (Winter 2001), pp. 6–7.
Typically, the mission is made up of two critical parts:
Core Values: guide the organization no matter
Core Purpose: allows the organization to grow and change

E.g., Zenith and Motorola

one remained stationary while one continued to move forward to
microprocessors, integrated circuits, and other products

Zenith defined its purpose as ‘making television sets’

Motorola defined its purpose as ‘applying technology to benefit the public’
Leadership Style f(C,p,F)
Leadership style and the readiness level of followers

Follower Readiness

Incapable/Insecure Directive…………give specific instructions/closely supervise

Incapable/Confident Persuasive………clarify and explain decisions as needed

Capable/Insecure Consultative…….share ideas with followers & facilitate decision making

Capable/Confident Participative (delegate)…….empower followers to make the decisions