The Invisible Employee: Realizing the Hidden Potential in Everyone

This book has a simple message: praising employees is the "single business strategy" that meets "all your business objectives simultaneously." Praising employees generates commitment, which leads to high-level performance, which causes customer and investor loyalty, it argues. The authors' point is illustrated through a long, tedious fable about a tribe of "Highlanders" who are showered with gems by a tribe of "Wurc-Urs," until, that is, the Wurc-Urs start to disappear because they're so frustrated by the lack of praise. The book contains a list of 70 ways to recognize employees (buy them a garden statue, write them a funny song, etc.), as well as a few bits of more journalistic evidence (brief accounts of business studies, a story from the Wall Street Journal about an employee who quit when his employer gave him a gold Rolex without offering to pay the income tax on the gift, etc.). Savvy managers are unlikely to buy into the idea that lavish praise is all it takes to generate profits and make the stock price go up, but the book may provide them with a few new ideas for how to make their employees feel appreciated. (Mar.)