I'm working at the moment on a large Salesforce.com implementation with a client. This client has been enjoyable to work with and they do everything very well in terms of vendor engagement.
I'm working in a complex environment where I'm managing the project, but I have resources from a number of locations who I'm responsible for and am tracking tasks in each. On top of this I have my own deliverables in the project so I've been busy recently to say the least.
One of my deliverables has been a detailed project schedule which I spent a number of days putting together, with the input of several technical and business resources. The finished product had 216 lines. This schedule is detailed enough to show the project timeline and also budget (or cost if you're the client).
I scheduled an hour one day to present the plan to my client and after the initial shock of the budget, they were calm and thanked me for my efforts. They asked for a a copy of the plan so they could go and review it. The budget news in particular was not something that they were expecting and they could have been forgiven for acting a little withdrawn or even "shirty". But they were very professional and friendly, and although they hadn't had a lot of time to look at the plan in detail their initial comment was "looks like the amount of detail is good, so we'll review and get back to you." This initial feedback made me feel relaxed with the work I'd done, and it had a mini motivational effect on me.
The following week I was called to a meeting with my client to discuss the plan further following a detailed review that they'd completed. The team had a series of questions for me, which were more "what if" scenarios than anything else. At one stage during this meeting they said to me "this plan is very good Warwick. We've been through it and it's solid". I walked out of the room that day floating. It had been quite some time since I'd been given such postive feedback on any of my work. Maybe I haven't done anything great lately. But for the client to take time and say something directly to me like that was fantastic.
As the project I'm working on has such high visibility within the client organisation, the budget issue has been escalated internally to CIO level. I was invited to a meeting with the CIO to discuss the plan further, with another series of "what ifs".
Again we had a very cordial discussion, and at one point the CIO said "we've got a project plan here that's pretty fricken good, all we need to do move things around to fit our budgets and internal timelines". Bingo! The fact that my work had been reviewed by such a senior person, and he liked it, AND he took the time to say so had a huge effect on me. It has added to my motivation to to keep working hard and make this project a success for my client.
I don't think that any of the clients who have given me this feedback have any idea how positive an effect it's had on me. I'm going to make a point to tell them.
What can we learn from this?
If such simple comments and praise can have such a huge effect, why do we so seldom dish out positive feedback? Next time one of your team members does something good, make a point to tell them. Make sure that their efforts are noticed and appreciated. It doesn't take much, but you can't underestimate the uplifting effect it will have on your team.
One final point, the book Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement by Aubrey C. Daniels has a lot more information on this topic. It's worth a read for anyone who's responsible for a team of people.
