Benefit from the Hawthorne effect.

This is a phenomenon first noted way back in 1924 - several years before the era's leading "can-do" guru, Herbert Hoover, led the nation into the Depression. Elton Mayo set out to study the effect of lighting on productivity at a Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois. He divided workers into two groups. For the test group, he increased the illumination in their work area. Productivity went up. For the control group, he left the lighting the same. Productivity went up.

That made no sense to Mayo, so he tried another study. He took a group of female employees, gave them regularly scheduled rest periods, company paid lunches and shorter work weeks. Productivity went up. Eighteen months later, all those perks were eliminated. And productivity? It went up once again.

Mayo concluded that productivity increased every time he paid attention to workers.

So here's a tip. Pay attention to your people.

You might never get them to leap out of bed at 6:00 AM with delight at the prospect of heading off to work. But you can make them a lot happier and a lot more productive once they arrive. And you might just prevent them from ever asking, "Why am I wasting my time here?"

Of course there's always the school of management exemplified by the CEO who told Fortune magazine, "Leadership is demonstrated when the ability to inflict pain is confirmed." If that's what you believe and you think that works for your business and helps get you where you want to go, good luck.

You're going to need it.

Effective Management

Still, Hawthorne effect or no Hawthorne effect, effective long term management means rewarding behavior you wish to encourage, and only that behavior. Don't claim you want long range thinking then base bonuses on the short-term fix. Don't expect innovative thinking if you only promote those who march lockstep to the company beat.