Incentive - September 2008 - (Page 36) INTERVIEW west Airlines’ Herb Kelleher and Cirque du Soleil President and CEO Daniel Lamarre. From this information, Edelman developed the Nice Guy Bill of Rights (far right), including the rights to Be Bold, Set Boundaries and Expect Results. Which, if followed, will keep “effectively nice” guys from becoming “overly nice” guys. Even in customer service it is important to be the right kind of nice. For example, Edelman is careful to set clear expectations with his clients before dedicating the time to put a proposal together. “You want to be smart about the investments you are making at that point in time. So you really go through a process where you define boundaries to the client. You say, I am willing to write all this, however I just want to make sure I really understand where you are at in the process.” In the end, this kind of openness and consistency will strengthen relationships with clients and coworkers alike, says Edelman. reward most appeals to them. Edelman gives the example of Ross Perot’s company, EDS, where, soon after being hired, salespeople would be asked by the manager about what they would value as a reward, even breaking it down into various price levels. Instead of rewarding with an impersonal cash bonus, explains Edelman, “they would then have some way to actually say, alright, 200 extra bucks to this guy. But now it’s lined up with something that the guy or the girl has expressed an interest in.” Beyond rewarding a nice guy’s performance in the appropriate way, incentives can help to encourage an overly nice person to be more “effectively nice” by rewarding specific results. Since nice guys are willing to “accept ambiguous definitions and assume that everything is understood,” according to Edelman. “One of the biggest challenges that a manager faces with employees (especially overly nice guys) is ensuring that expectations are clearly understood and that they are realistic.” Edelman describes having used both highly complex sales incentive plans as well as simplified ones, and says that when they get too complicated, participants tune out or are unable to internalize what results are expected of them. He emphasizes keeping things as quantitative and clear as possible, even if working with such qualifiable data as customer satisfaction scores. “So that’s where you say, ‘let’s just keep it simple; were they happy, yes or no? Will you refer us, yes or no?’ ” says Edelman. Nice Guy Bill Of Rights If you are overly nice or manage overly nice guys, embracing these rights and learning these strategies will serve you (and them) well Self-Awareness know your strengths and weaknesses Speak Up learn to express your opinions and be heard Set Boundaries set them and respect them Confront address issues directly and without fear Choose make choices without guilt Expect Results learn to hold others and yourself accountable Be Bold reach beyond your comfort zone Win compete and succeed Motivating Nice Guys As important as it is for nice employees to strengthen their spine in workplace situations, Edelman also offers “Nice Company Strategies” to extend the effective ways of handling overly nice behavior to an organizational level. Among the strategies he discusses is recognizing and rewarding employees. While they might shy away from the spotlight and might even be demotivated at the thought of a highly public kind of recognition, nice guys thrive when their successes are acknowledged. Managers just need to learn what type of “You have got to really make sure it’s a super, super clean model, and very black and white.” In this sense, incentive programs themselves can suffer from “overly nice” behavior. Giving awards indiscriminately or without clear criteria can have the opposite impact they were intended to accomplish. Just as with employees, salesmen or bosses, being bold, clear and results-oriented is the truly nice way to run a program. s Send comments to alex.palmer@incentivemag.com 36 | Incentive | September 2008 | incentivemag.com http://incentivemag.com
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