Carrots and Sticks Don't Work: Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT

by Paul L. Marciano

Advance praise for Carrots and Sticks Don't Work : "Paul Marciano provides a wealth of prescriptive advice that absolutely makes sense. You can actually open the book to any chapter and gain ideas for immediate implementation." -- Beverly Kaye, coauthor of Love 'Em or Lose 'Em "This book should be in the hands of anyone who has to get work done through other people! It's an invaluable tool for any manager at any level." -- John L. Rice, Vice President Human Resources, Tyco International " Carrots and Sticks Don't Work provides a commonsense approach to employee engagement. Dr. Marciano provides great real-world insights, data, and practical examples to truly bring the RESPECT model to life." -- Renee Selman, President, Catalina Health Resources "The RESPECT model is one of the most dynamic, engaging, and thought-provoking employee engagement tools that I have seen. Dr. Marciano's work will help you provide meaningful long-term benefits for your employees, for your organization, and for yourself." -- Andy Brantley, President and CEO, College and University Professional Association for Human Resources "This book provides clear advice and instruction on how to engage your team members and inspire them to a higher level of productivity, work satisfaction, and enjoyment. I am already utilizing its techniques and finding immediate positive changes." -- Robert Roth, Director, Accounting and Reporting, Colgate Palmolive Company Reward and recognition programs can be costly and inefficient, and they primarily reward employees who are already highly engaged and productive performers. Worse still, these programs actually decrease employee motivation because they can make individual recognition, rather than the overall success of the team, the goal. Yet many businesses turn to these measures first―unaware of a better alternative. So, when it comes to changing your organizational culture, carrots and sticks don’t work! What does work is Dr. Paul Marciano's acclaimed RESPECT model, which gives you specific, low-cost, turnkey solutions and action plans-- based on seven key drivers of employee engagement that are proven and supported by decades of research and practice―that will empower you to assess, troubleshoot, and resolve engagement issues in the workplace:

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction, Historical Romance, Management, Communication, Self Help

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 9, 2010

Reviews

[Paul Limpert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I rarely take the time to review books, however, this book reminds me that I should do it more often. Dr. Marciano's book really resonated with me as someone who has been in leadership roles in multiple industries and made all of the mistakes he covers in this book. Essentially its a book about gaining and earning the trust of your employees/teams using his RESPECT model. Like many other books of its kind he walks you through each step in a very detailed and thorough manner, however, he also provides you with thought-provoking questions you should be asking yourself at every step as well as some clues to knowing when you may be in trouble. At the end of each chapter, he provides a bottom line to each step which is something you can commit to a note or card and keep handy and refer to often. I loved the book and plan on re-reading it often.

[LinhWindy]

Nghe tên cuốn sách về "cây gậy và củ cà rốt" chắc không nhiều người nghĩ nội dung của nó lại nói về nghệ thuật xây dựng văn hóa doanh nghiệp. Nếu của cà rốt là ẩn dụ của chính sách thưởng, những chương trình phúc lợi, reward... thì cây gậy là ẩn dụ của những hình phạt mà người sử dụng lao động thường áp dụng để tạo động lực lẫn áp lực để người lao động hoàn thành công việc được giao. Và "cây gậy và củ cà rốt" đã được phổ biến và áp dụng ở nhiều mức độ khác nhau tại hầu hết mọi công ty trên toàn thế giới.

Tuy nhiên, trong cuốn sách này tác giả lại giới thiệu cho chúng ta một mô hình để gắn kết và giữ chân nhân viên, không phải bằng củ cà rốt hấp dẫn hay bằng những cây gậy. Đó chính là RESPECT. Đọc xong cuốn sách này mình hiểu ra rằng, để duy trì sự gắn kết và mối quan hệ bền vững trong tổ chức đó không phải là chiều chuộng bằng cách cho họ nhiều củ cà rốt to ngọt. Hay cũng k tạo áp lực bằng cách đưa ra thật nhiều quy tắc hay luật lệ để yêu cầu họ phải làm theo.

Mà nó chính là sự tôn trọng và tin tưởng. Khi bạn tôn trọng đồng nghiệp và nhân viên của bạn, khi bạn tin tưởng vào những việc họ làm, tin tưởng vào năng lực của họ. Ghi nhận và tôn trọng những nỗi lực của họ không chỉ là kết quả mà còn là quá trình. Thì chắc chắn kết quả sẽ làm bạn thực sự bất ngờ đấy.
Đây thực sự là một cuốn sách có tác động đến suy nghĩ và cách làm việc của mình khá nhiều. Cảm ơn người bạn đã recommend.

[Leslie Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not sure if this books reads well in post-COVID 2022 when all you hear is the "Great Resignation" and people demanding more from their workplaces. Specifically, it's somewhat inconceivable to think about putting pressure on "employee engagement" when employees are supposedly telling their workplaces that they're not engaged, they're not happy, and a job is just a job. But sure, in a perfect world, you should seek out engaged employees and try to promote those behaviors with the strategies outlined here.
Despite these potential issues, I enjoyed reading this book and found several ideas to take away as a manager. I also identified several behaviors that I had that were probably not as effective as I thought or at least could potentially be received differently than I intended. So, all in all, it's a useful read and gives many, many examples of the research in the field if you'd want to follow up with more of the academic background in the area of employee engagement and motivation.

[Josh Skogman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw the author speak at a conference and really enjoyed his talk, so I decided to check out this book. I went back and forth on rating this 3 stars or 2. It is a quick read and well organized, but it’s all the same info you would expect from any book on this topic. There was no ahh-hah moment or new research that would completely change your mindset. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all good info, but seemed like just a statement of common sense principles. If you have never read anything on employee engagement I would recommend this book, as it would be a good “cut to the chase” version of many other business books.

[Robert Tober]

Employee engagement is more than a tool "If you want the most out of your people" (pg 207). Our culture will ultimately determine where we, as a human race end up, because "culture drives behavior and behavior reinforces culture." (page 206)

Right now our culture is in trouble, just read the news and look around you. This book and others like it that deal with culture, manefest in many ways the key characeristics from the book of life. Not only does this read help improve your management capacity, it's a gateway to the path that may get us out of our world's life struggle / predicement.

This is a must read for managers and anyone who cares about others.

[Pamela Mayfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for all middle management

What a simple concept-respect! The putting it into practice-not so simple yet this book breaks it down for you and highlights practices that can be adapted for virtually any industry. The self assessments were truly eye opening and pointed out to me where I needed to do serious work to make my relationships with employees stronger. I think this book should be required reading for all!

[Jon Banko · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an educator, I'm always looking for what it takes to get a group of people (kids or adults) on board with learning what the teacher has to offer. There's no magic bullet, but there's plenty of strategies you can shoot yourself in the foot with. IMO, the ideas presented here are a great place to start developing an approach that fosters long term solutions that can lead to the types of collaborative relationships that are truly productive.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up Carrots and Sticks on a whim--it was $3 at my favorite secondhand bookstore (Second Story Books in Washington, DC).

This book is fantastic. Not only does it walk through the actions and reactions of employee/coworker/superior relationships, it does so clearly and thoroughly. A quick, but powerful read that I highly recommend to anyone in any industry at any level of the corporate ladder.

[Sam Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would highly recommend this book and plan to re-read it myself in the future. It has no earth shattering new ideas or concepts. There is nothing in this book that most people shouldn't intuitively know. What makes it so good is that it is an easy read that summarizes, affirms, and reminds the reader of all the things a good leader should be doing.

I thought the sell on why NOT to use "carrots" was a bit much, but everything in the RESPECT model is excellent.

[Ricky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical humanistic approach to foster employee engagement

Respect for people is really the key for better employee engagement. The author selected an acronym that contained 7 key elements which correspond directly to RESPECT. This is not only easy for people to remember yet each element contain actionable philosophy that we can learn and apply immediately.

[Uyên Nguyễn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Được tặng bởi một anh từng làm cùng phòng mà mãi bây giờ mới có thể đọc hết cuốn. Nhận xét của mình về cuốn sách này là khá hữu ích với những quản lý cấp trung hoặc quản lý trực tiếp nhân viên của mình. Với mô hình xây dựng dựa trên RESPECT, tác giả đã đưa ra những dẫn chứng vì sao chúng ta có thể giúp nhân viên gắn bó hơn công ty một cách tự nguyện.

[Jimmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

No focus, no priority. It sounds like a utopia to me. I can't imagine any company can implement all his advices and even if they can, how they can become successful. Not to mention most of his advices sounds like whim and didn't offer much reason or evidence, as well as being ambiguous and general.

Not completely rubbish, but close to it. A good form can never be sufficient for good content and insight.

---

Read the book again, and it seems not that bad. It might be comprehensive and good, but still verbose and repetitive. Many advices are utopian and impractical, anyway, they can be some clues about what to do.

[Hannah Kirkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was super helpful. My boss had me read it, and I hope to use its core principles on RESPECT (Recognition, empowerment, supportive feedback, partnering, expectation, consideration, and trust) where I can to benefit others. My workplace tries to implement these and I can see a drastic benefit to it.

[Susan Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long winded but good content

It took me a second reading to get through it but I’m really happy I did because it’s full of good information. Unfortunately there’s no secret bullet to make it easy to motivate people but instead lots of little things you need to do everyday.

[Vovka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent read on how to nurture a company culture that's engaging, respectful, and that helps people feel safe to do their best work. Good stuff in here about how to build trust, how to measure engagement, and how to fix what's wrong in broken cultures.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book has some very good points. Over all it's a bit dated in it's philosophy

[Mai Al-Qurashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars

[Sydney Conrad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on corporate management and how to motivate, engage and recognize employees to get the best results.

[Karen Grosz · Rating 4 out of 5]

great advice

[Nguyễn Ngọc Hà · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nhiều ý đúng và tham khảo được. Tuy nhiên cách lập luận chưa logic và cách diễn đạt không có gì đặc biệt.

[Lisa Karafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The content of this book was solid, but the narrator did not come off as warm and compelling. The dialogue felt rushed and clipped. Mispronounced words were also a distraction.

[Kesavan Hariharasubramanian · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are keen to know about the dynamics of Employee engagement, I would highly recommend this book.

[Linda Anders · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for so much more from this book.

[Des Hague · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is very interesting book for young managers. It is useful for employees in research & development business because it explains how to engage and empower subordinates to be more creative and innovative at work but there is one big limitation about all good practices you can learn from this book. This book gives insight on how to handle difficult situations and how to retain employees with exploring the concepts of a multicultural workforce.

Dr. Paul Marciano presents a clear and focused analysis of a key essential element of organizational success. The RESPECT Model is a well presented framework to understand how to build a culture of respect in your organization and the action steps to follow to attain it. Dr. Marciano demonstrates how respect is the crucial intangible which can help to create a thriving and vibrant business environment!

In building the model, Mr. Marciano separates reward factors and engagement factors into two categories and asserts that rewards such as pay and Tube socks for everyone are linked to external motivators and have at best a short term impact, while engagement factors such as empowerment, recognition, and trust are linked to internal motivators and therefore have a better opportunity to build an engaged workforce.

The message at the core of the RESPECT model defines how society in general as well as smaller niches within that society tend to operate for maximum efficiency, harmonious engagements and the timely achievement of predefined goals and quantifiable & qualitative objectives through common sense management processes.

[Pawel Dolega · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually pretty good book. Had mixed initial opinions about it at the beginning but it eventually turned out be valuable reading.

For me personally it's especially good as it's main theme is motivation vs increasing engagement. As a founder of small company I realized couple of years ago that motivation doesn't really work (well, it does but only as long a motivational factor exists which logically is neither reasonable nor even possible). Also what I realized is that while motivation incentives disappear the engagement falls even below the initial state (prior to motivation incentive appearance).
All the above, what I felt in the guts through these years, is described and explained - so now I actually started to *understand* what I experienced.

Chapters are divided by factors that are used to increase engagement. I think that some chapters are more solid than the others - it may be because author wanted to make nice acronym (RESPECT - recognition, empowerment, supportive feedback, partnering, expectations, consideration, trust).
Each chapter contains self-assessment quiz at the beginning (imho pretty weak) and so called turn-key strategies at the end (and these are pretty good).

Lot's of recipes do not really apply to informal small company (still lots of them do). I'd say that the most can be taken from this book by an entry-level / first-line manager in big company / corporation.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, yet some will appreciate it more than others. The progressive leadership concepts are fantastic. Those who are in traditional companies will be able to use MOST of this, and will benefit greatly. The keys are largely around how to fully engage employee and demonstrate (or gain) your care for their well being. Most companies would have an enormous jump in productivity if they took only this book, put the concepts into practice, and incorporated those practices into their culture.

For others who are farther down the progressive leadership path, you may find that this book is too focused on traditional structures (assuming terms such as manager, executive, orders, set roles, typical departments, etc.). You may wish it would focus more on self-management even within the organizational structure, titles, roles, etc. For those who think that way, consider The Future of Management (Gary Hamel) and then Reinventing Organizations (Fredrick Laloux). Yet I'm very happy a book this well done is here for those who will have a harder time breaking out of the traditional structures, because these concepts are a huge need... maybe especially in that type of context.

Thanks Paul, for a great book, that will help so many... including those in traditional organizations.

[Jay Ehret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audio book version of Carrots and Sticks (could not find that specific edition on Goodreads), and did not enjoy it. The narrator sped read most of the book, slowing down a little only toward the end. It just did not give me enough time to process the information, which I thought was pretty good. However, I wish I would have read the hardcover or paperback version.

The narrator not only read speedily, but also mispronounced several words, which is annoying and distracting. The most frequent mispronunciation was "subsequent" which made me cringe every time I heard it. There were also other proper name mispronunciations of famous places and people like Casey Stengel and Appomattox.

Regarding the content of the book, it whizzed by so quick, I didn't have a chance to digest it. However, I did get some value out of it and it made me consider how I engage with my team. I have also made some modifications in my habits such as scheduling regular feedback meetings with key members of my team.

I do recommend this book, but purchase the ebook or paper version, not the audio book.

[Tuyet Lan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Một cuốn sách thực tế và hữu ích đối với các nhà quản lý và lãnh đạo nhóm.
Sách chỉ ra ảnh hưởng tiêu cực của việc áp dụng biện pháp khen thưởng và trừng phạt cũ, và đưa ra mô hình quản lý tích cực hơn là RESPECT. Mô hình này không chỉ áp dụng được với doanh nghiệp, mà còn có thể áp dụng với hầu hết loại hình tổ chức và nhóm làm việc.
Điểm hay của sách là:
1) Không giáo điều chung chung, mà mỗi phát biểu đều dựa trên kinh nghiệm quản lý và công trình nghiên cứu của tác giả.
2) Kết cấu sách logic và dễ theo dõi- mỗi phần bắt đầu với lí giải lí do "vì sao", "tác dụng như thế nào"; sau đó là bảng hỏi cho người đọc tự đánh giá xếp hạng mức độ thành thạo phương pháp; cuối cùng là hướng dẫn và lưu ý thực hành cụ thể.

Sách đưa ra rất nhiều lời khuyên hữu ích, và mình đã ghi lại như thế này:

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently read another book on employee engagement and motivation that felt very fluffy to me (although it had good nuggets). This book was much more up my alley. It had scientific backup, real life case studies, and to-the-point ideas and strategies. I appreciated that the author acknowledge d that, as a working manager, I'm extremely busy with my "real work" (exactly how I feel!), so he pointed out specific amounts of time that were reasonable that I should spend on various areas, all while laying out how each one has great ROI. Exactly what I need to make me put something else that is important on my plate aside! I've dog eared a bunch of pages with little gems because I'm sure I'll be using this book as a reference for quite some time.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maciano argues that reward programs do not work and that employee engagement is the key to performance. There are seven drivers to employee engagement as per the RESPECT model;

Recognition
Empowerment
Supportive feedback
Partnering
Expectations
Consideration
Trust

Each of the seven chapters opens with a self assessment quiz and closes with concrete suggestions for deploying these drivers. The suggestions are realistic and specific useful for anyone who wants to bring out the best in his/her subordinates and colleagues. Some of these ideas can also be applied to personal life.

Overall, a worthy read for anyone who is interested in motivation theories.