Customer Reviews

A Carrot a Day: A Daily Dose of Recognition for Your Employees

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The celebration of one success launches a thousand more." ~Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton

Can you achieve world-class results through recognition? We all know how it feels to be appreciated and yet why do so many companies focus more on profit and less on encouragement?

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton are the world's leading authorities on employee motivation and explain how a steady diet of "carrots" is a much wiser way to build a strong workplace. This is a place where people are committed to company goals, are much happier, live much longer and respect their employer.

What are the carrots? They are ways you inspire, challenge, encourage, reward efforts and celebrate achievements.

This book is organized by the days of the year and reminds me of a desk calendar with quotes. Each page is filled with helpful suggestions and quotes by famous people.

The ideas I loved:

A Day Off for No Reason At All - now there is a way to garner some appreciation...
Dressed for Success - Reward an employee with a shopping spree for clothes
Perform a Random Act of Kindness
No More "Good Jobs" - avoiding generic responses

There are some surprising entries, like the one on February 11 where the authors show how you can reward failure and have a positive result. Just because someone failed, doesn't mean they didn't try or take great risks.

"People are afraid to risk in their jobs, primarily because of fear that failure will bring some sort of reprisal or ridicule. When this atmosphere is present, growth and innovation are stunted." ~February 11

A Carrot A Day is an excellent resource for managers who want happy and productive employees.

~The Rebecca Review

Managers who want helpful ideas on how to raise profits, company morale and client service/satisfaction will benefit from reading the daily insights found in "A Carrot A Day". Once I started reading the daily doses of how to regularly recognize solid effort and results, I started to notice more of the value our employees were creating.

Although I did not refrain from reading the entire book, I enjoy taking a couple minutes each day to refresh myself with each days, recognition dose. This book is a solid investment for any manager or person who wants to create a successful environment where value is created, in and outside a company or organization.

Bosses sometimes overlook the power of a kind word or an expression of approval. But to an employee such an expression can mean everything. This book is filled with great daily tips to help bosses remember to recognize deserving employees. For an employee its the little things that keep you motivated. I wish my boss would read this book!

The practical concepts offered in this book simply make sense. On a business level, these real-life action items provide great ideas to truly motivate my employees. I have to believe that if company leaders would truly embrace these principles they would not only enjoy more passionate employees but they'd also enjoy the bottom line impact. On the personal side, I also appreciate the hints that translate into being a better husband and dad.

This book allows a person to focus on their needs for the day. If you are using it for a work related purpose it may be necessary to reword the information to fit the work situation.

I have use this for personal, family, and busiess. It has not failed me yet.

After I thoroughly read A Carrot A Day by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, I realized how beneficial recognizing employee strengths is to increasing a company's value as well as the employee's value to the company and themselves. I would definitely recommend this book to every managing executive who wishes to parlay employee value.

The ideas in this book have been very helpful to our business by drastically increasing employee moral and thus overall productivity. Any serious Human Resources Manager needs to read this book and digest its contents.

It's a great read throughout, or you can read a couple minutes each morning, either way you'll come away being a better employee. I highly recommend A Carrot a DAy.

This book has awesome ideas on how to motivate people and make them feel as important as they are. Buy it, read it daily, keep it within close reach on your desk as a reference book....keep it handy...use it!!!

A Carrot A Day is 365 tips on employee recognition by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. Having left Corporate America and its management duties behind, why am I reading it? It was referred to me by a business newsletter I trust, I like business books in general, and finally, I am intrigued by the idea of using carrots rather than sticks to motivate and wanted to see if I might find tips that I and my coaching clients could use to recognize and motivate ourselves.

The book is just okay. I buy into the premise, and it's a very fast read. But many of the tips are repetitive (though I like that they range from no cost to extravagant and spontaneous to more involved to plan.) Certainly, it's a good primer for managers looking for ideas. And I did get some ideas for how individuals might implement these techniques for themselves. (I detail these at http://sixfigurestart.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/book-review-a-carrot-a-day/)

So the book itself wasn't an earth-shattering read, but the concept of carrots and recognition is important and valuable. We can be our own worst enemy and often beat ourselves up for not doing enough or failing at something. The framework of a carrot a day and the reminder of the power of positive reinforcement made the book well worth reading.

I give this book 10 stars, not just 5!

When I picked this book up, I thought...well, another book on leadership, just what we need. And after reading it, it is EXACTLY what we all need! The strategy of recognition outlined in this book is applicabale to managers, bosses, parents, teachers or anyone who leads a group of people.

The authors have given me tangible ideas and how to's I can really use as a manager to help my team motivate themselves through the use of recognition. This has worked with my family as well. One of the most crucial things I learned in this book --motivation comes not from coercing someone into something, but by helping them motivate themselves through the use of recognition and incentives. Brilliant!

I can't wait to get the first two books in this series and learn more about the use of recognition. I have to extend a HUGE thank you to the authors for giving us this book. READ IT, it is very worthwhile!