Encouraging the Heart: A Leader's Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others

All too often, simple acts of human kindness are often overlooked and under utilized by people in leadership roles. Advising mutual respect and recognition of accomplishments, Encouraging the Heart shows us how true leaders encourage and motivate those they work with by helping them find their voice and making them feel like heroes. Recognized experts in the field of leadership, authors James Kouzes and Barry Posner show us that, through love, leaders can encourage, and indeed allow those around them to be their very best. Both practical and inspirational, Encouraging the Heart gives readers a thoughtful approach to motivating individuals within an organizational structure.brRead Chapter 3 or Chapter 12, or see The Encouragement Index.

Leadership authorities James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner say employees perform best when their contributions are genuinely appreciated. Unfortunately, the two contend, most executives have not mastered the decidedly soft-management skill of "encouragement" that fosters such behavior. In iEncouraging the Heart/i, they examine how this type of compassionate supervision is becoming a critical part of successful management today, and through example and suggestion they describe how readers can establish the process in their own businesses. blockquoteThis is not a book about glad-handing and backslapping, gold stars, and payoffs. It's about the importance of linking rewards and appreciation to standards of excellence. It's about why encouragement is absolutely essential to sustaining people's commitment to organizations and outcomes. It's about the hard work it takes to get extraordinary things done in organizations, and it's about ways to enhance your own ability in--and comfort with--recognizing and celebrating the achievements of others./blockquote The book's opening section introduces their concept of the caring leader; the second outlines their "seven essential principles" for encouraging workers; the third explains how the process can be personalized and describes 150 additional suggestions for implementing it. i--Howard Rothman/i