I Trust You And Here’s A Carrot To Prove It!
It’s conventional wisdom that trust is the foundation of people working well together. Is there a formula to insure trust is present among leaders and the people who work for them? Or do we just get lucky with the right people having great camaraderie?
One thing’s for sure. In business, we don’t just trust for trust sake. We give trust to those who earn it through productivity and results. And how do we demonstrate our trust or lack of trust of others. Simple – the carrot and the stick – rewarding those we trust and punishing those we don’t trust. But does it work?
An excellent read that addresses this question is the book Punished by Rewards -The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn.
http://www.alfiekohn.org/books/pbr.htm
In it, Kohn suggests reward and punishment are two sides of the same coin, and only serve to manipulate people into actions, versus finding what it really takes to motivate and build trust. We’ve effectively learned better ways to control people while reinforcing this focus on rewards and punishments, and not on where it should be – the value of the work itself.
This is a great read for those looking to break out of management techniques that may work in the short-term, but don’t build respect and trust in the long-run.
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I’ve read this whole book and loved it! It is not very well written. It is very accademic and a bit of a slog to get through but I found it fascinating. It was a an eye opener and changed my perspective on how to get people to do what you want them to do.