Give That Dog A Bone

Since I was four, I had a dog. My first was a cocker spaniel, Scruffy; then it was a mutt, Chips. But in the post-Chips era, we had retrievers. (Ok. A dachshund, Heidi, slipped herself in there but that is a story for another day.) In training all of them, I found that positive reinforcement worked a lot better than negative reinforcement. This is backed-up by research. Some dogs, like labs, learn better when told “Atta boy.” Some strong-willed working dogs, like Dobermans, may need a firmer hand. Best not if you don’t have to but that’s the guidenace in some circles.

So, when I was asked in class the other day “Who was your best and worst boss?”  it got me thinking. Am I a lab or a Doberman? Easy peasy. I am a retriever.  

The worst boss ever (WBE)? When I was 24, starting my first job, scared to death, in Pittsburgh, when the mills were going down and the job market was uncertain, working very hard to plase my “master”, I had a boss who was super condescending. He might have thought he was being funny, with comments like “short sleeves, short career,” but not to this Labrador who was trying to please. This was the same boss that gave 3% raises to “exceeds” and 2% raises to “needs improvement.” WBE may have been well-intentioned but not the way to train a black lab. I left in two years.

On the other hand, one of the best bosses I ever had, and I was blessed to have many great bosses, gave this lab a bone and an atta boy at a key time. I was again starting a new job, doing spade work in a new market at a time when the bank was doing cost and staff reductions. Yikes. Spade work in a new market is SLOOOOOW going. At the end of the year, I was concerned because I had brought in little if any new business despite working hard and effectively, in my mind, to do otherwise.

You know what good boss did?  Gave me a $1,000 bonus and said, “We believe in what you are doing. Keep up the good work.” Wow. A tail wagging fool was I. This lab wasn’t going to quit on his master EVER after that and, in fact, would try even harder to please him. I stayed there almost twenty years.

Managing people is all about understanding the type of employee, lab or Doberman, you are dealing with and applying the proper approach at the proper time (“Meets” vs “Needs Improvement”.) That said, I am pretty sure it’s best to start out with the “Atta Boy” first and see if you can get that tail wagging.

Show A Little Faith