Steve Ells Quotes

When you're managing a large number of people, you learn that incentives matter tremendously. You really want people to be rewarded for doing the right thing for the customers and the organization.

Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your employees, motivate them and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can't miss.

The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different.

If my assistant goes off and becomes successful, and people want to work with him, I'd take that as a compliment that I'd trained them well.

We are a company that promotes 100% within the company.

Customers are using BetterWorks in a number of creative ways to reward and incentivize employees.

If you believe, as I do, that your employees truly are your most valuable asset, you will do whatever you can to help them do their jobs as well as possible.

Isn't it ironic that pay, perks, and benefits all cost your company at the bottom line, but authentic recognition, especially when it's most unexpected, costs very little and gives the most impressive return on investment?

I'll take fifty percent efficiency to get one hundred percent loyalty.

The idea of investing in the positivity of employees is often low down on companies' priority lists.

The best way to advance in a career is to get great results while working with people.

If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them.

If the only reason people are coming in and doing anything in your office is because you're giving them a paycheck, I'm not sure you have the most productive workplace there.

We know that recognition and intrinsic motivation are important to our success, but the key is finding ways to effectively operationalize them.

I have high expectations for the people who work for me. I figure that if they work really hard and do a good job on one of my campaigns or in my office, that experience will serve them well later on.

I spent the first 18 years of my career at AT&T, and it was a wonderful place that kept me moving all the time. I mean, I started off as entry level a position as you can get at AT&T.

I can't tell you how many thousands of small moments that I've had with employees in our company that have been nothing more than a one-on-one. I'll see the baggage-services person, he or she is by himself. I'll pull them off to the side and have a 15-minute conversation about their history, their life, that kind of thing.

Bottom line: If you can't spare some time to give your employees the chance to wow you, you'll never get the best from them.

There will always be people who think that money and benefits and even just having a job should be thanks enough. There are also those that think they do a great job without anyone having to thank them. But study after study has shown that no one is immune from the motivating effects of acknowledgement and thanks.

You have to take care of your guys. If a guy underperforms, you get rid of him. If a guy overperforms, you take care of him.

Companies can't offer every employee a vertical rise through the ranks, and some employees' careers will level off. Without the prospects of further advancement, how do you keep these people satisfied throughout what might now be a longer working life? By providing them with an increased level of autonomy.

In your career, you can't always be at the top.

Your company is a product. Who are its customers? Your employees, who use it to do their jobs.

Most CEOs walk around the office like we own the place, without realizing that the place itself isn't worth owning: a business's value comes from the people who walk out the door every night, who have to decide each morning whether to walk back in. One of the simplest things you can do as a leader is honor their choice and appreciate their work.

My grandmother started as a ticket-taker and basically became the CFO of my dad's company. It was a very important first impression for me - I've always looked on the business with more eyes than just as a wrestler.