• Carrots and Sticks Don't Work

  • Build a Culture of Employee Engagement with the Principles of RESPECT
  • By: Paul L. Marciano
  • Narrated by: Richard Broski
  • Length: 4 hrs and 33 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (222 ratings)

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Carrots and Sticks Don't Work  By  cover art

Carrots and Sticks Don't Work

By: Paul L. Marciano
Narrated by: Richard Broski
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Publisher's summary

The title says it all: carrots and sticks don't work.

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:

  • Recognition and acknowledgment of employees' contributions
  • Empowerment via tools, resources, and information that set employees up to succeed
  • Supportive feedback through ongoing performance coaching and mentoring
  • Partnering to encourage and foster collaborative working relationships
  • Expectations that set clear, challenging, and attainable performance goals
  • Consideration that lets employees know that they are cared about
  • Trust in your employees' abilities, skills, and judgment

Carrots and Sticks Don't Work delivers the same proven resources and techniques that have enabled trainers, executives, managers, and owners at operations ranging from branches of the United States government to Fortune 500 corporations to 20-person outfits to realize demonstrable gains in employee productivity and job satisfaction.

When you give a little RESPECT, you get a more effective organization with reduced turnover and absenteeism and employees at all levels who are engaged, focused, and committed to succeed as a team. In short, you get maximum ROI from your organization's most powerful resource: its people!

©2010 Paul Marciano (P)2010 Paul Marciano

What listeners say about Carrots and Sticks Don't Work

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good ideas, awful narrator

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The narrator

What other book might you compare Carrots and Sticks Don't Work to and why?

Dan Pink's Drive because it offers a simpler approach to the same issue of engagement. The two are good together. Not opposing viewpoints but different ways of getting to the same end.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Slightly cynical or condescending inflection, way too rapid reading, mispronunciation of words all of which highly detracted from the kind, thoughtful content.

Do you think Carrots and Sticks Don't Work needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

No. I think he gets his point across.

Any additional comments?

Don't let Richard Broski read any other books until he learns how to pronounce words like concomitant, Appomattox, and subsequent correctly, SLOW DOWN and drop that tone. I wanted the info but I found myself getting angry at the delivery. It was a struggle not to go buy the book so that I didn't have to listen to this reading.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Breathe!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No, the lack of pause in the narration is very distracting. I appreciate the ideas and concepts but they are very hard to digest because it all comes at you so fast. I'm sure I would enjoy the written text much more.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Carrots and Sticks Don't Work?

The stories and examples help bring to life the thoughts the author wants to convey.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator is aweful! Again, it is like an audio assalt. Someone must have thought that it would be a good idea to edit out all pauses, even the slightest ones. As a result the guy sounds like a robot. No human being could string that many words/sentences together without a single breath. Extreamly difficult to listen to and at times hard to follow as I commute to and from work.

Any additional comments?

I don't fault the author at all. I think the content is very good. He clearlly knows what he is talking about and I have learned many things that I am putting into practice. My only issue is with the narration. As an audiobook I would not recomend it to others.

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Searched for a read, Found a treasure!

I didn't initially go looking for this book or any book like this. In my line of work, I wasn't looking for a solution to a problem. I simply like to read books that open my mind to new ways of thinking or something to challenge my way of thinking. Perspective.

Then I found this book, Carrots and Sticks Don't Work.

What this book explains is Paul's view on the systems most businesses use to motivate employees, how it fails to achieve lasting results, and his system for a content workforce.

This book made me think of why, in my professional career, I was not happy with my employers. I would try to make things right by changing my way of thinking to match culture or something like that but this book opened my eyes to glaring issues in the reward systems used today that are not giving the right people the needed reasons for staying committed to the organizations. Also, I became aware of my disengagements from companies as an overachiever that was overlooked, overworked, and undervalued. This book, backed by case studies and Paul’s personal experiences, painted the picture I needed to move forward pass some of my own demons and has provided me a better understanding of why things are the way they are and a radical solution to address it with minimal effort.

I would highly recommend this book to any and all low, mid, and high level supervisors/managers/leaders/HR that want to help people first and focus on a purpose driven atmosphere that encourages the most common need in all of us...RESPECT.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good book, poor narrator

If you could sum up Carrots and Sticks Don't Work in three words, what would they be?

Operant conditioning reworded

Would you be willing to try another one of Richard Broski’s performances?

No thank you.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Good leadership principles.

Any additional comments?

The narrator, Mr. Marciano, has a good voice but he speaks very fast. To give you a clue I will type the rest of this the way Mr. Marciano speaks. Heleavesalmostnospacebetweenhiswords,tothepointthelistenermustreallyconcentrateinordernottofollowthebook. Hisrateofspeakingisjusttoofastforme.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great content but the narrator spoke too fast

Would you listen to Carrots and Sticks Don't Work again? Why?

It has great content that's backed up with research and real-life examples and experiences. If you're looking for ideas and rational into why engagment needs to be intrinsic and not extrinsic motivation, this is a great book to start with.

What didn’t you like about Richard Broski’s performance?

While Bronski has an easy voice to listen to he sounds rushed and often times I had a hard time catching what he was saying. He sounds like he's speaking too fast and it would have been nice if he slowed the pace down just a bit. He needs to leave time for the the words to resonate with the listener.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Ed
  • 08-18-15

Voice for audio book is horrible.

The voice of the person who read this is really bad with almost no affect in his voice. It almost sounds like computer text to speech.
The book contents are great and really worth it.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Lots of basic theory, repeated ad nausea

I found there to be no real practical solutions offered to address employee engagement. The idea that respect is an important part of employee engagement is addressed at the very start of the book, however instead of trusting that readers would understand this, much of the book seems to be spent reiterating this point. It is important to build this sort of argument on research-based evidence, however when presenting it in a commercial, public-friendly format such as this I would expect the bulk of these supporting arguments to be found in the “further reading” section, not repeated over and over under slightly different chapter headings.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great for Leaders

I'm a rising project manager and I'm nearly certified great book good source of information

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great read for new leaders

Used this as a development tool for my team of supervisors. It has changed their perspective on leadership.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great way to look at respecting employees

Great book and easy to understand and practical approach and principles. Recommend to anybody in a leadership role.

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