Chad Silverstein gives leadership advice about maintaining a strong positive-to-negative feedback ratio when managing people. He describes hearing a "6 to 1" ratio from a mentor (Chet), contrasts other suggested ratios (4:1–6:1), and argues leaders should "catch people doing good things" so corrective feedback isn't the only contact. He cites a Gallup finding that people expect praise about every seven days and describes a concrete recognition program he used: monthly peer nominations, public call-outs at company meetings, and awards (including $1,000 bonuses and PTO).
Questions this video answers
6 to 1
Within every seven days
$1,000 bonuses and PTO (paid time off)
Chapters
So I learned the ratios early on. Chet hit me really hard with getting my ratios right. He used to tell me 6 to 1. I don't know why he came up with that number. I don't know where he came up with it. I've heard people say 4 to 1, 5 to 1, 6 to 1. But the concept is very simple to understand, and it makes sense. And that is that if you're going to have to lead anybody, you're going to have to tell people the truth, and you're going to have to address issues, you're going to have to mine up conflict. That means you're going to have to have hard conversations, and you don't want to have to have conversations with people, and that be the only time they've ever heard from you. It just doesn't make any sense. Every time someone does something wrong, if you have to call them out, and that's the only time they ever hear from you, how much trust can they have in you? How much can they like you? How much do they want to go to bat for you? And so getting your ratios right means that you gotta hit them more with the positive stuff. And I used to say at my company, you gotta catch people doing good things and call it out. Recognize and reward people for exhibiting behaviors like your core values or things that you want to see more of, that you want to perpetuate in your culture. And then when you have to hit them, go hit them hard. But at least that's not the only time they ever hear from you. And people are a lot more accepting to accept the hit when they just heard from you the other day about something really good that they were doing, recognizing people for their positive strengths. I think the Gallup poll says that people expect to be praised within every seven days. And that's why most people hate their jobs, because they're not. Which is crazy, because, like, who has time to praise people every seven days? But unfortunately, our culture and people's sense of entitlement has warranted this feeling that they expect and deserve to be patted on the back. And it's sad, but it's true. But you don't have to be fake if you're catching people doing the right things. And you make it a point in the discipline to, you know, acknowledge that publicly, especially when you're at company meetings, you know, without overdoing it. That. That is a. That is an incredible skill that a leader can just build into their leadership skills. That, again, it's something so easy and simple. I used to get help from everyone in my company. I would have people turn in at the end of the month, you know, and recommendations for anyone that, you know, was exhibiting our core values. And they'd have to specifically say what they saw the person doing. And then we would stand up at the end of the month and we would call it out and we used to give away thousand dollar bonuses and PTO time. This is how we were recognizing rewarding people in our culture. And it, it took off. You know, people, people are receptive to that much more than just constructive criticism or, you know, telling me what I'd done wrong all the time. You know, again, a lot of people are going to want to know when they've done something wrong. But you know, again, to my, my point that I made when I first started this rant is it shouldn't be the only time they hear from you. So get your ratios right, build the discipline in to catch people doing, you know, the right things, the things that you want more of, and talk about this and train people around you to do the same thing. So it's not just you doing it.
