As tempting as it is to title this month’s message “Psychological Tips from Scott,” I’ll forgo that, but consider yourself warned. We are all motivated in different ways. Some of us are motivated intrinsically, meaning our motivation comes from within. We perform a task because it’s fun or challenging. Others are motivated extrinsically, which means we perform a task because we will be rewarded with something (money, promotion, etc.). Regardless of which type you are, there is a common need among us all: Feedback.

One of the most important things we can give our employees, as well as receive from our management, is consistent and honest feedback. We have all had jobs where the only feedback we received was when we messed up or made a mistake. The only way you knew you were doing a good job is if you weren’t in trouble that day. I’ve always said I’d never be that guy, but I catch myself going months without telling a single staff member “Good job.” I just assume they already know, and that’s a huge mistake on my part.

With the last round of annual employee evaluations, I did something I’ve never done before. I made it a point to ask each employee if they feel like I’m taking care of business, or if we need to be doing anything different in our operations. While none of them were brave enough to say anything negative, the issue of regular feedback was in the back of my mind. While it doesn’t come natural to me, I promised myself I would make every effort to keep the channels of communication more open going forward.

Before you sneak over to your manager’s office and tape this article to their monitor while they’re at lunch, remember this: Giving regular feedback, both good and bad, does not come naturally for many of us. For those of you that directly supervise employees, let it start with you. However your employees find motivation, internal or external, positive feedback from their boss will go a long way.

Depending on the timing of this newsletter, you might be reading it right in the middle of our virtual conference. Since we are talking about feedback, please remember to let us know how you liked the virtual event. As with almost everything we do in TAGITM, so many of our events and educational sessions are based on feedback from you.

Have a wonderful September and stay healthy.

Scott