Why Your Caveman Boss Struggles to Say 'Thank You'
Would it kill your boss to say “Thank you”? Of course not.
But it also won’t kill her or him to not say “Thank you.” Therein lies the problem.
That’s the reason why your boss doesn’t do it more often. When it comes to one of the imperatives of motivating a team, your manager’s brain is messed up, stuck in the Stone Age – just not adapted to the modern workplace.
My latest column for Forbes explains how what happened tens of thousands of years ago makes your manager far more attuned to the negative than the positive. The column can be found here.
Management Consultants - Business Solutions Int.
8yI especially liked the last paragraph that demonstrates the problem in various languages pointing to its universality. Some of the managers will deliberately skip the thank you part because they are afraid that it's committing them loosing their flexibility to say the opposite next time they are not so happy with the employee. Other times the manager is afraid of being forced in a position to have to give monetary rewards. However, I fully agree with the article that a thank you for a well-done job is an inexpensive motivator very much expected by the modern workforce. Besides, managers should take notice that by not saying thank you is like ignoring their people and they won't like it if their people in their turn come to ignore them.
VP Global Sales & Marketing
8yExcellent article with sound advice!