The Gift of Feedback - How to Give & How to Receive

Feedback is important – it improves performance, develops talent, aligns expectations, solves problems, guides promotion and pay, and boosts the bottom line.

Sadly, the process of giving feedback has been pushed to the corner, addressed only a couple of times each year during the performance review. We save up all of our comments and document all of the things we note, no doubt in part because the process is unnerving and feared. This is a shame because giving and receiving feedback is some of the most important communication.

The good news is that feedback is something you can practice. Given the right way with the right intentions, you can build your confidence. Quality feedback exchanges also build trust between the giver and the receiver.

GIVING FEEDBACK

1. Make it a Positive Process and Experience – the purpose for giving feedback is to improve the situation or performance. Your delivery will set the receiver’s mind and attitude, influencing how your message is taken and the willingness on the part of the receiver to change. People react to a negative interaction six times more strongly than they react to a positive interaction, according to a study published by Professor Andrew Miner. Consider starting the conversation with “let me give you some feedback” which lets the person prepare emotionally.
2. Choose What to Correct – you need to weigh the tradeoffs involved in giving negative feedback. If an error is so minor that the value of correction doesn’t overcome the potential emotional result, consider keeping it to yourself.
3. Make It Regular – feedback requires constant attention. When something needs to be said, say it. You will increase their confidence because they will know right away where they stand. Feedback given on a regular basis leads to no surprises during the formal review sessions.
4. Criticize in Private – establish a safe place to talk where you won’t be interrupted or overheard.
5. Use “I” Statements – give the feedback from your perspective to avoid labeling the person.
6. Limit Your Focus – a session should discuss no more than two issues. Any more than that risks making the person feel demoralized or attacked. Be sure to stick to behaviors that the person can actually change or influence.
7. Talk About Positives Too – a good rule is to start off with something positive to help put the person at ease. Frame it so that the person can “see” what success looks like. Be careful not sandwich the constructive feedback between too many positives, which will water down the feedback.
8. Provide Specific Suggestions – make sure you both know what needs to be done to improve the situation. Your message should be that you care and you want to help the person grow and develop.
9. Ask Questions – give the other person a chance to process what you’ve said, and to give you their side of the story.
10. Follow Up – the whole purpose of feedback is to improve performance. Measure success and make adjustments as you go.

RECEIVING FEEDBACK

Improving the skills of the feedback giver won’t accomplish much if the receiver isn’t able to absorb what is said. The receiver controls whether feedback is let in or kept out, and decides whether or not to change. A critical performance review, a well-intended suggestion, or an oblique comment can spark an emotional reaction.

Developing your feedback receiving skill will help you identify and manage the emotions triggered by the feedback and extract value from criticism even when it’s poorly delivered. It may seem like there are a thousand ways feedback can push your buttons. In fact, there are only three:

Truth triggers are set off by the content of the feedback. When assessments or advice seem off base, unhelpful, or simply untrue, you feel indignant, wronged and exasperated.

Relationship triggers are tripped by your view of the person giving the feedback. What you believe about the giver and how you feel about your previous interactions will color how you take the message.

Identity triggers are all about how you view yourself. Whether the feedback is right or wrong, wise or witless, it can be devastating if it causes your sense of who you are to come undone. In such moments you’ll struggle with feeling overwhelmed, defensive or off-balance.

Recognizing when your response to the feedback is out of proportion to the delivery or content is something you can learn, and you can build your skill in finding the gift despite the package. Try to understand the other person’s point of view, and experiment with different ways of doing things. Be prepared to discard critiques that are genuinely not helpful or misguided. Use these steps to keep from throwing away valuable feedback, or acting on comments that are damaging:

1. Know Your Tendencies – consider the following questions: do you defend yourself on the facts, argue about the delivery method, or strike back? Do you smile on the outside but seethe on the inside? Do you get teary or filled with indignation? Does the hurt ease over time? Do you reject feedback right away, and then reconsider? Do you accept it first, and then later decide it’s not valid? Do you agree with it, but have trouble changing?
2. Separate the “What” from the “Who” – both in the case of the person giving the feedback and in making the feedback about who you are instead of what you are doing.
3. Treat it as Coaching – feeling judged is likely to set off your identity triggers and can drown out the opportunity to learn. Work to hear feedback as potentially valuable advice from a fresh perspective, rather than an indictment of what you’ve done in the past.
4. Open the Gift – before you accept or reject it, do some analysis to better understand it. What does it really mean? Exactly what prompted the feedback and what should you do differently and why? Further discussion could clarify.
5. Ask for Just One Thing – feedback is less likely to set off emotional triggers if you request and direct it. Find opportunities to get bite-sized pieces of coaching from a variety of people.
6. Experiment Small – after you’ve received feedback, it may be difficult to figure out which bits will help and which ones won’t. Design small experiments to find out. If it works, great, if it doesn’t you can try again, tweak your approach, or end the experiment.

Research has shown that those who intentionally seek feedback tend to get higher performance ratings. Why? Mainly because someone who seeks is more likely to take what is said to heart and genuinely improve. Also since you ask for feedback, you not only find out how others see you, you also influence how they see you. Seeking constructive criticism communicates humility, respect, passion for excellence, and confidence – all at once.

Performance Goals to Fill the Gaps

One of the common problems that new supervisors experience is no clear, strong sense whether their employees are really being effective or not.  The first step toward solving this problem is to establish clear performance goals.

Some people have a strong negative reaction toward setting goals because they fear goals as “the law” that must be maintained and never broken.  Some people fear they will not achieve the goals.  Others have disdain for goals because goals seem to take the “heart” out of their work.

Goals can be established for a variety of reasons, for example, to overcome performance problems, qualify for future jobs and roles, take advantage of sudden opportunities that arise and/or give direction to training plans.

Performance gaps are identified during the employee performance management process.  Ideally, performance gaps are addressed by performance improvement plans.  In these plans, goals are established to improve performance and may include increased effort on the part of the employee, support from the supervisor, and certain training and resources to assist the employee in their development.  Dedicated employees can greatly appreciate having specific performance goals for them to achieve in order to keep their jobs, verify their competence to their supervisor and accomplish overall professional development.

Growth gaps are identified during career planning.  Employees perceive certain areas of knowledge and skills that they would like to accomplish in order to qualify for certain future roles and positions.  Employees often appreciate having clear-cut goals that mark what they need to do to advance in their careers.

Opportunity gaps are identified when a sudden opportunity arises for the employee.  If the employee is highly interested in taking advantage of the opportunity, then he or she will appreciate knowing exactly what they need to accomplish to grab the opportunity.

Training gaps are identified when hiring a new employee, during employee performance management, or career planning.  Gaps are usually in terms of knowledge, skills, or abilities.  Training plans can be designed with clear-cut training goals to give direction to the employee and the trainer.

Strategic Workforce Planning

Workforce planning is a systematic process for identifying the human resources required to meet organizational goals. Specifically, the plan involves having the right number of people; with the right knowledge, skills and abilities; in the right positions; at the right time. Often companies choose to grow organically, by using existing employee personalities and abilities to determine roles and responsibilities. Planning happens “on the fly” and job duties end up leaving gaps or having overlaps. This is costly to the company and can lead to frustrated employees and supervisors, as expectations keep shifting or an employee migrates out of their intended position.

Workforce planning allows for a more effective and efficient use of staff. It helps ensure replacements are available to fill key vacancies. It makes it possible to make staffing decisions based both on the work needed and the funds available. It provides realistic and accurate staffing projections based on skills needed to do the work. It provides clear training and development goals and priorities focused on the work that needs to be done. It may also help the company prepare for restructuring, reducing, or expanding its current workforce.

Workforce planning requires an analysis of numerous factors, including current staff, short- and long-term needs, and weaknesses in the talent pool. Proper planning calls for a detailed understanding of the skills of the workforce and decision tools to maximize the company’s talent pool.

Planning the workforce requires an overall understanding of the company’s goals and strategies. The skill set of the workforce should align with these goals. If the company is planning on expansion, for example, the workforce to support the expansion needs to be identified, put into place, and trained before the expansion rolls through the company.

Some of the steps to consider when planning your workforce are:

1.        Review your organization’s strategy, for your area. What are your current workforce needs? Start with a clean piece of paper and draft the deliverables, duties, tasks, and outcomes necessary to run your area and meet your strategic goals. What are your future workforce needs? Write down the “future state” of your organization if your goals are met.

2.        Document your existing workforce competencies, job levels, certifications, etc. Also document turnover and time in position in order to assess how often you may need to (re)fill the position. Consider time to train the position as well.

3.        Create a projected workforce based on your goals and existing trends. Ask yourself questions like:

a.        What changes (technology innovations, process developments, organizational structure) are expected?

b.        How will these changes affect the work? How will they affect the skill requirements?

c.        What will the planned organization look like – number of employees, competencies, certifications?

4.        Align your existing workforce with your projected workforce. Identify gaps or excesses in headcount, knowledge, skills, abilities and experience. During this process you will: identify skills needed for success; develop retention strategies; consider training versus recruiting to fill gaps; consider contractors versus hiring; and create mentoring programs for staff needing nominal development.

5.        Review your plan with your supervisor to get approval and spot any weak areas in your plan.

6.        If your plan calls for a new role, ask yourself the following questions:

a.        Will structure changes better allow the company/ department to achieve its goals?

b.        Where are more people needed?  Fewer?

c.        Which skills are lacking? In surplus?

d.        Will the tools used in the past support the future direction?  Will the tools needed to support the strategy require new skills?

e.        How expensive will the change be?

f.         What are the critical positions?  Where are the retention risks?

7.        Draft a job description

a.        Define the position – write down everything you want in a new hire before you assign a title to the position. Think about desired outcomes, specific deliverables, as well as duties or tasks critical to success.  You may have to eliminate some as you hone the list to acceptable professional standards and the market, but you will start with a better idea of what you are hiring for.

b.        Title the position and the department to whom the new hire reports.

c.        Write a summary overview of what the position entails, followed by a bulleted list of job duties and responsibilities.  Include all key areas of responsibilities.  Include a catch-phrase line to include additional “duties as assigned” to prevent a “that wasn’t in my job description” conflict later on.

d.        You may want to include a list of people and positions the hire will consult with on a regular basis.

e.        Qualifications should be in a separate paragraph.  Reflect any particular skills, attributes, or credentials necessary to perform each responsibility on the list. 

8.        Determine the best way to change the workforce:

a.        Buy – recruit and hire talent

b.        Build – develop and promote talent from within the company

c.        Borrow – contract

d.        Trim – reduce the number of employees

9.        Determine approximate cost of the new role - Each initiative must be evaluated on cost, benefit, and value.  Create budgets for each option, evaluate opportunity costs, determine capacity requirements, and check in with financial goals.

10.     Get authorization – give your job description and completed Intent to Hire form to your supervisor for approval.  Once you have supervisor approval, give to the HR office for review and approval.

11.     Finalize the job description – make any necessary changes to the job description and post.

How to Delegate Meaningful Work

          The hallmark of good supervision is effective delegation.  Delegation is when supervisors give responsibility and authority to subordinates to complete a task, and let the subordinates figure out how the task can be accomplished.  Effective delegation develops people who are ultimately more fulfilled and productive.  Supervisors become more fulfilled and productive themselves as they learn to count on their staff and are freed up to attend to more strategic issues.

Delegation is often very difficult for new supervisors.  Many supervisors want to remain comfortable, making the same decisions they have always made.  They believe they can do a better job themselves.  They don’t want to risk losing any of their power and stature.  Often, they don’t want to risk giving authority to subordinates in case they fail and impair the organization. Finally, delegating takes time and effort to prepare the information and communicate desired results. It may seem easier to do it yourself, rather than take the time to show someone else how.

Delegating the tasks you have mastered will free you up for more challenging work that develops you; and will build your employees’ skills and abilities. You want to foster employee involvement and employee empowerment to enable your team members to deliver their best effort at work.  These tips for successful delegation will help you help your employees succeed when they are most empowered. 

Employee - select an appropriate employee, one with the right level of experience and time.  If you select an employee who will need training, be sure to account for this in your presentation of the project or task.

Big Picture - whenever possible, give the person a whole task to do.  (If you can’t give the employee a whole task, make sure they understand the overall purpose of the project or task.  If possible, connect them to the group that is managing or planning the work.  Staff members contribute most effectively when they are aware of the big picture.)

Establish Expectations - make sure the employee understands exactly what you want them to do and when you want it completed.  Ask questions, watch the work performed, provide examples, or have the employee give you feedback to make sure your instructions were understood. Include in your expectations a list of outcomes or ways the task must be completed grouped by importance: “must haves,” “nice-to-haves,” and “non-directed.”

Authority - give authority to match the level of responsibility.  Be sure to let the employee know when they can make decisions and when they need to consult you.  Below is a list of delegation levels with examples of when to use each one:

·         Tell – the delegate has low ability; the project must be done a particular way; surprises are not acceptable

·         Sell – the delegate has moderate ability; the project must be done a specific way

·         Test – you have ideas but are open to other ideas and insights

·         Consult – the delegate has moderately high ability; others might have innovative ideas or know more than you do

·         Delegate – the delegate has high ability; you can define the vision and don’t need to know the how

Checkpoints – identify the key points of the project or dates when you want feedback about progress.  This is the critical path that provides you with the feedback you need without causing you to micromanage your direct report or team.  You need assurance that the delegated task or project is on track.  You also need the opportunity to influence the project’s direction and the team or individual’s decisions.

Closure – after the task or project is completed, meet with the employee to review how the delegation went. 

·         Did you select the right employee?

·         Did the employee have enough authority to keep the project moving? 

·         Were the timelines realistic? 

·         Did the employee have access to tools and training necessary to complete the project? 

·         Were the instructions clear and concise?

When you receive the delegated work back, give yourself enough time to review it thoroughly. If you accept unsatisfactory work, the employee does not learn how to do the job properly. Go over your review with the employee step-by-step, so that they can learn your review process and understand more about the desired results. Of course, if their work is good, make sure to reward the results using your highly-honed feedback skills.

Roles of Supervisors

At times, we've all felt like Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz – in a strange place, surrounded by people from a different culture, wearing shoes that we would never wear at home. Take heart: Dorothy soon found her way home, making friends and learning something about herself along the way.

Dorothy’s journey through Oz was guided by a well-defined path and kind people playing critical roles along the way. Some of them merely pointed the way (think of the Lollipop Gang) and some were vested in her success (the Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man). Without each of these types stepping in and playing out their roles during Dorothy’s struggle, she may never have made it home to Kansas.

Today's supervisors are expected to provide the same kind of guidance and support for their employees. At different times during their career, the employee needs different types of support. While we’ve all had days where we just wish we were home, as supervisors, it’s up to us to give our employees the right kind of guidance at the right time. Below are four roles that supervisors can play – not just for their employees, but for others too.

Coach

A good supervisor places a high priority on coaching employees. Good coaching involves working with employees to establish suitable goals, action plans and timelines. The supervisor delegates and also provides ongoing guidance and support to the employee as they complete their action plans. Rarely can job goals be established without considering other aspects of an employee’s life, e.g., time available for training, career preferences, personal strengths and weaknesses, etc.

Mentor

Usually the supervisor understands the organization and the employee’s profession better than the employee. Consequently, the supervisor is in a unique position to give ongoing advice to the employee about job and career. The employee can look to the supervisor as a model for direction and development. A good supervisor can be a priceless addition to the career of an employee.

Advocate for the Company

The supervisor is often the first person to tell employees about new policies and programs from management. It’s not uncommon for employees to be confused or frustrated by these new actions, and need further clarification and support from supervisors. In the rapidly changing world of today’s organizations, it can be a major challenge to present new programs to employees. The supervisor must be authentic, yet tactful.

Advocate for the Employee

The supervisor is often responsible for representing the employee’s requests to management, along with making a case for a deserving reward. If the employee has a rather unique personal situation that warrants special consideration by the rest of management, the supervisor must tactfully explain that situation and how it can be handled. It’s not unusual for employees to sometimes see the supervisor as part of “management” while at other times seeing the supervisor as a friend.

Next topic: Problem-Solving

What is a Supervisor?

Supervising involves securing, developing, and using essential resources to ensure the company's success. Supervisors are effective if they achieve their goals and efficient if they do it with a minimal amount of resources. One of the company's most important resources is their employees. Supervisors spend a lot of time and effort planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling the work of employees (and other resources, such as equipment and inventory).

Origin of the term “Supervisor” – the term supervisor has its roots in Latin, where it means “looks over.” It was originally applied to the master of a group of artisans.

Characteristics of a Supervisor

The job of supervision is so demanding that companies tend to look for super people to fill the role. Some of the characteristics companies are seeking in their supervisors are:

·         Job knowledge

·         Results orientation

·         Problem-solving

·         Communication

·         Leadership

·         Teach-ability

·         Adaptability to change

·         Ability to build a team

·         Integrity and credibility

·         Tenacity and perseverance

·         Willingness to take initiative

·         Positive attitude

·         Dependability and reliability

·         Demonstrating a customer-service attitude

Five Stages of Transition

Typically, supervisors have greater experience, have held a greater variety of jobs in the company, and have more education than the employees they supervise. The fact that someone is named a supervisor doesn’t mean that a complete change happens overnight. Most often, the transition takes place through five stages:

1.        Taking hold: learning how to run the department, establishing personal credibility, and beginning to build a power base.

2.        Immersion: the supervisor gets to know the real problems of the department and becomes fully informed about the operations there.

3.        Reshaping: the supervisor gradually rebuilds the department to fit their style, making meaningful contributions to operations, and placing an “imprint” on the way of doing things.

4.        Consolidation: the supervisor works to remove deeply rooted problems while perfecting the changes previously made.

5.        Refinement: fine-tuning the operations, consolidating the gains, and seeking new opportunities for making improvements.

Which phase are you in? How do you see yourself transitioning to the next phase?

Henry Fayol, a French industrialist, believed that managerial excellence is a technical ability and can be trained. Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management (1916) still meet the requirements of modern management.

Practical Guidelines

1.        Study the job of supervising and keep learning.

2.        Maintain a focus on your key tasks (planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling) despite daily crises.

3.        Recognize that your job must mesh with the priorities, demands, and goals of the company.

4.        Find ways to involve employees in key tasks and use their input.

5.        Follow the chain of command whenever possible.

6.        Treat employees fairly.

7.        Be patient with your own developmental progress, remembering the stages of transition.

8.        Display integrity, consideration, energy, patience, and flexibility.

9.        Find creative ways to achieve results.

10.     Strive for balance between being employee-centered and task centered, between pressures from higher management and employees, and between your work and your personal life.

For more information about what a supervisor is and their role in management, go to McGraw-Hill’s Higher Ed, Chapter 1: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073545082/323131/Chapter_1.pdf.

4 Steps to Hiring New Employees

          Guest post from Kelly Stanton (bio is at the end):
Being a hiring manager comes with great responsibility. You won’t hear much about it when you make good hires, people just enjoy having another good team member. But boy howdy will you hear about it  if you make a bad hire! Generally you won’t be alone in those decisions, even at my 18 person company, at least 3 of the management team interviews a candidate, but you’re still somewhat responsible for bringing in good quality candidates. 
          I've been involved in the hiring process for several organizations through the course of my career, and am currently heavily responsible for bringing in candidates at my small consulting firm. Here are some tips from my trial by fire experience.  One would think in this economy with millions of unemployed out there, hiring would be easy. Boy has that not been the case!

1)  Have clearly defined job descriptions and skill sets required. Prioritize those skill sets!

I recently had the experience of trying to hire another field service technician for my
organization. I pulled an old job description and sent it to my colleague, to whom this position reports. He replied that it looked fine, so I posted it. I began filtering resumes with experience that matched the technical details of the position, and had what I felt were some very good candidates. 
          He would phone screen, and none of them were passing. I finally pushed him one day after about a month of this on why none of these seemingly qualified people were meeting his needs. He replied “I need someone who has actually done field service work, not just done calibration for one organization as a direct employee. They don’t have the customer
service experience to keep our customers happy.” Ohhh…interesting. That was listed on the
job description down near the bottom in a “nice to have” sort of way. It wasn’t an actual
requirement, nor was it communicated that it was actually more important than technical
experience.

2) Be willing to train some, or be willing to wait a long time on the perfect candidate.

It happens. Occasionally the perfect fit to your team falls into your lap, or someone you trust knows someone who might be open to considering your position. It happens. But let’s face reality, most of the time, you’re going to have to pick and choose what is most critical about the position and look for just those traits, knowing that you’ll have to train the rest. (see above about prioritize!). 
          Unless you’re willing to up the game by increasing salary, paying a recruiter tens of thousands, or waiting several long months with an open position, the perfect candidate who has every skill you’re looking for and is the perfect fit to your team isn't going to just fall into your lap. If you’re a small organization, the waiting game is painful! You've decided you need the help, and in a small company that usually comes well after you’re overwhelmed with work and are ready to staff up a bit. If you’re in a large organization, you have to weigh the risks of burning out your very good team members left behind by the vacancy as they pick up the slack. Either of these scenarios is tough on existing team retention.

3) Realize that hiring is going to take a good chunk of your time.

There are literally millions of unemployed people out there. There are also thousands of those who are currently employed and perhaps unhappy where they are and want to make a change. Be prepared to get bombarded with emails, especially if you post on sites like CraigsList. Set up a generic email address like jobs@yourcompany.com to catch all the fray. Set aside time each day to filter applicants, and keep track of the ones you’d like to contact. Come up with a system that works for you to filter those candidates. 
          In my world (FDA and ISO regulated industries), attention to detail is critical. So one of my very first checks is just that, are there type-o’s and obvious grammatical errors in their cover letter or resume? Written communication is still very important even in this electronic age. Can they write a cover letter/email and not sound like a 3rd grader? Harsh? Perhaps. But remember, we are a consulting firm. We can’t have technicians dealing with customers and sounding like they barely made it through high school English. I’m amazed at how often someone tells me in their description of themselves that they have great attention to detail, and yet I find several misspellings on their resume! 

"Can they write a cover letter/email and not sound like a 3rd grader?  Harsh?  Perhaps."

          My second filter criteria is to scan the cover letter and resume for keywords/phrases that tell me they actually read my posted job description. I will even consider a candidate who comes right out and says something like “while I do not have specific experience with a Siebel database, I am familiar with other databases such as…” This tells me they understand I need someone who can find their way around a database, and that they are willing to learn.
          My third filter can be in the initial letter from them or the phone screen: “Have you visited our website?” This speaks volumes to whether they are just blasting their resume out there trying to get lucky, or are genuinely interested in joining your organization. This may not be so important to an organization like McDonald's, but in our industry it’s pretty important. Motivated individuals will take the time to understand what you do, and will have some intelligent questions prepared to ask you during the interview process.

4) Finally you get to the face to face interview.

If you’ve followed the tips up until now, face to face should be pretty easy. You already know from this person’s resume and preliminary interactions they are qualified for the job. The face to face interview should be more about determining how this person will fit the team.
          The other big thing I look for in an interview is actual experience – tell me about a time when you were at ABC company and XYZ scenario happened. How did you handle it? I find these interactions tell the rest of the story. Did they actually do the work on their resume? Or are they just padding with catch phrases that talk the talk because they read a book, but don’t necessarily translate into real experience? Do they have problem solving skills? Do they take initiative? All these traits will come out in the stories they tell. You’ll also get a good idea about personality and professionalism. Are they bitter and bad mouthing their last boss? Are they a constant victim, or are they positive and view challenges as learning opportunities?

All in all, hiring is one of the most difficult, yet most critical activities that go on in a business.  A new hire can make or break a team, and it’s up to you as the hiring manager to be  organized in your approach and make the best decisions you can for your organization. No pressure of course.

About the writer:  Kelly (Brown) Stanton is the Director of Validation Services at Anacor Compliance, a Pharmaceuticals company in the Greater Denver Area.  She provides validation solutions to customers across the US and Canada in the areas of Equipment, Facility, Laboratory, and Analytical Instrumentation.

It's Not (Always) About the Money - Employee Motivation

          What if you could pay your employees the same amount for more work?    As a new generation joins our workforce and company resources are scarce, understanding employee motivation has a new urgency.  
          Many businesses use the carrot-and-stick approach to motivate employees.  The carrot is the promise of more money that's dangled in front of the employee to improve performance.  This approach is like using a sledgehammer to hang a picture:  it gets the job done, but it's not pretty.  

Photo courtesy of profitclinic.com

          I recently attended a class taught by Art Pulis, where he listed four employee motivators.  Surprisingly, money is the fourth. 

•  We are first motivated by autonomy.  We want to define our work, and how we do it.  Give us the task and the tools, but leave the how to us.  As an employer, focus on the outcomes or results of our work.  Ask us how you can help us do our job better, and then review only the results.  
• Our second motivator is relevance.  We want to know that what we are doing has meaning.  Show us how our work is part of a big picture and we'll buy in.  Share a written vision and related goals with us.  Share your progress towards the goals and invite us in to solve the problems and celebrate the victories. 
• Thirdly, we are motivated by mastery.  We want to learn and get better at our job.  Teach us so that we can grow, give us the opportunity to take classes or do research, and let us try new approaches to our work.  As we master our jobs, give us new work and new challenges.

          It isn't about the money, it's about feeling successful in the workplace.  When employers use these motivators to get work done, they are giving employees the opportunity to exceed expectations, to do fulfilling work, and to grow.