The Carrot Principle - Book Review

The Carrot Principle is a book about motivating your employees through positive consequences. This book has a lot of interesting thoughts and ideas. The whole idea behind "The Carrot Principle" is to spark motivation and enthusiasm in your employees. A manager achieves this through recognition.

The book begins with the story of Charles Goodyear and his failures that eventually led to his success in designing the prototype for rubber. The authors use this story to catching everyone's attention and to bring them into their theory of management rewards to stimulate employee participation. They then go on to break down leadership into four basic areas: Goal setting, communication, trust, and accountability. All managers need to be proficient at these things in order to succeed at their job. What does a manager use to set himself apart from the rest of the managers out there? Recognition. Recognition comes in many different ways and often does not require anything monetarily. It does not matter how big or small your company is, you will always have a higher success rate when you use recognition (known as the carrot principle). The authors prove this statement with several graphs and case studies in their book.

Three main points:

1. Being an Accelerator

The authors begin this book by writing about Charles Goodyear and his experimentation with rubber. At first I was not sure as to why they were talking about a single man's success with rubber. The focal point of this story was not really Charles Goodyear. The focal point of the story was the fire that made rubber possible. Fire was the "accelerant" ingredient needed in order to create our beloved rubber. Just like an accelerant was needed to create rubber an accelerant is needed to create a successful business. Managers who are accelerators are those that recognize their employees and help them reach goals and excel at their jobs. I have recently received a fantastic job as a Human Resource Assistant. I had no prior experience so I did not believe that I would get the job. However, during my interview I told my boss to be that my goal was to work in Human Resources and eventually become a manager. That statement is what got me that job. My boss want to help me reach my goals. She is someone that I would classify as an accelerator. Knowing that she wants me to succeed causes me to want to work harder for her and to achieve the goals she has for the company. My boss wants to help me move up in the company which makes me want to better the company in any way that I can. I found it very interesting to be reading this book all around the time that I got this job. It all makes a lot of sense. Accelerators make a big difference in the business world. My boss was transferred into this position just a few months before I was hired. The other lady in the office says she is much different than