It's nice that businesses are grasping the concept of less stick, more carrot. Of course, if the person you're rewarding is a carnivore, they're not going to see the carrot as recognition; they're going to see it as yet more evidence that you don't know them, or don't care about them.

I had an employer who, to reward me for my efforts, announced at a company meeting that he was buying me a car. Impressive, eh?

Well, sort of.

What they did was picked out a vehicle, let me register it in my name, and made the monthly payment. Nice vehicle, but it was red. Without a doubt my least favorite car color. Honestly, I would prefer little-girl pink to red. Oh; and when I quit the job about a year later, I took over the payment, of course. So, in reality, it was a $200/month raise, not a new car.

Now, it wasn't a total wash. I did need a more dependable vehicle, and it was a small truck, like I already drove.

But it wasn't the recognition I wanted. What I wanted was, well, recognition. Sincere notice for my ingenuity and willingness to get the job done. What I got was a public announcement which made the boss look like a hero, and made it critical that I act enormously grateful since I'd obviously been rewarded beyond what I deserved. Nobody else knew that they hadn't paid cash and handed me the pink slip, which is the clear impression I got when the announcement was made. (See my article on how nobody likes surprises . . . )

A little discreet inquiry would have uncovered the fact that what I really needed was a few bucks to fix up the old truck I loved, and what I really wanted was appreciation.

Good friend Jule Kucera wrote "The work and the joy of leadership is to:

• Communicate a compelling vision of where we are going and why.
• Ensure that each member of the team has the ability and the heart to do the work.
• Create an environment that supports success.
• Get out of the way, so that when the vision is accomplished each member of the team stands back, impressed with themselves and with each other, and says, “Look what we have done!”

to which I responded

I'd say almost exactly what you've said, Jule, but as usual, twist it around just a bit:

• Find out what each member's abilities and heart are
• Find out where we can go with those
• Create the environments that support success for each participant
• Hover anxiously in the background like an expectant father, then give all the credit to the Mothers of Their Own Success

and added

Actually, I'm living an example of Jule's philosophy at February Album Writing Month right now. You, too, can create this, if you follow this simple (hah!) recipe:

Burr Settles, the real honest-to-goodness leader of FAWM, had a compelling vision and attracted others to it: jump-start the song-writing process by forcing yourself to write 14 songs in the 28 days of February. (Burr does not call himself the leader of FAWM, yet every single other person on the website forums does.)

Anyone is welcome to participate, and songwriting newbies are nurtured and congratulated and taught by the 500+ active members of the tribe. This nails criteria 2 & 3 on the list.

Burr has never set any rules except the original three: all writing has to be done during February, a song is whatever you think a song is, and while the goal is to write 14 songs, you win by just trying. Any genre you like: classical, rock of all kinds, country, folk, ambient trip-hop with vicuñas; whatever trips your switches.

In six years, it's gone from four guys to 2,292 members (587 active, meaning they've posted at least one song so far this year) who have written 2,081 songs in the past 10 days. Oh, most of us record demos, too—1,525 so far.

Burr's active pursuit of this leadership philosophy has created, so far in February, two thousand eighty-one songs that didn't exist eleven days ago, one thousand five hundred and twenty-five of which you can download and listen to right now. (Some of last year's songs are my favorite songs in the world; Best Beloved and I listen to FAWMers like Resonance, oddbod, Phil Norman, Phil Henry and Old Lost John who really should be household names; infinitely superior to virtually anything on the radio.)

Last year we wrote a total of 5,710 songs. This year our fairly conservative goal is 10,000 songs. If we reach that, we will have written enough music in February that it would take all of February (24 hours a day) to listen to it all.

THAT is what it looks like: someone finds a group that was looking for a leader (you can't create a group, you find them) and follows the 'vision, tools, support without smothering' philosophy, and the pent up energy in the tribe explodes into activity.

That's my plan, anyway.

Ask a business owner what would motivate his unhappy employees and most will answer "More money!" Unless his people are genuinely underpaid, he's wrong.

Frederick Herzberg's studies on mental health in business are a sort of practical application of Maslow's heirarchy of needs (which, by the way, isn't really heirarchical.) Often called The Two Factor Theory, Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory shows that, as expected, there are things in our work which make us happy, and things which make us unhappy. What's unexpected is that they're not the same things.

Certain aspects of work fall into the 'preventing dissatisfaction' bucket. Workers need to be paid fairly. They need safe working conditions and reasonable hours. If these needs aren't met, workers will be unhappy.

Which is very different from saying that if they are met, workers will be happy.

Other aspects of work fall into the 'creating satisfaction' basket. recognition, advancement, meaningful work, a sense of achievement—when these things are present, they increase happiness (which, we assume, will increase production and value; this assumption is intrinsic to Herzberg's work.)

Which, again, is not the same as saying they decrease dissatisfaction.

The 'preventing dissatisfaction' bucket gets filled with water. Pay enough money, have a safe workplace, meet the basic needs, and the bucket is full. Add more water (by paying more money, for instance) and it doesn't pile up—it overflows. Once dissatisfaction has been reduced as far as possible (hopefully, eliminated) there's no value in trying to reduce it further.

It's not a long scale with 'unhappy' at one end and 'happy' at the other. It's not a zero sum game, where reducing dissatisfaction equals increasing satisfaction.

What you have is two separate containers. Once the 'preventing dissatisfaction' bucket is full, you can't fill it more. But the 'creating satisfaction' basket—that, you can pile to the sky.

Recognition? There's no such thing as too much. Tell every employee, every day, how much you value their loyalty and hard work. Do it sincerely. Read The Carrot Principle and put it into practice.

Achievement? How about helping every employee do as much as they can? It helps fill their satisfaction basket, and fills yours at the same time.

Keep checking the 'prevents dissatisfaction' bucket, 'cause sometimes it leaks. But once you've got it full (or if it was full to begin with, for you A+ entrepreneurs) focus on creating satisfaction for your employees and customers.

And at the same time, you'll be creating your own.