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You’re working late again when you hear something outside your door. Tip-tap. Tip-tap.

“Is anyone there?” you ask. You rush into the hall—only to gaze over rows of endless empty cubicles. Just silence.

You sit back down at your computer and look at today’s productivity report. Sure enough, your team’s output was almost the same as yesterday. Tip-tap. There’s that noise again. And then you realize it’s the clock on the wall—the only sound in the building. And you also realize you’re wasting your time reading progress reports that never change. It’s as if your employees aren’t giving much extra effort at all.

Yes, there’s a crisis in business today: Invisible employees. They show up. Their timecards and attendance records prove it. They do their jobs. Your company is surviving. But you never seem to move forward. Why?

December is a time of giving. And as a manager, there is no substitute for a sincere thank-you to your employees to help them feel valued and appreciated for their great work. And the holidays are the perfect time, since, frankly, employees are expecting some form of recognition.

Here are a couple of ideas to help your holiday celebrations lead to more productivity in the New Year:

At the Thanksgiving table Uncle Eddie dives into the mashed potatoes, Cousin Nikki the rolls and salad, Aunt Ruth would drink gravy if she could, and little Tyler saves room for pumpkin pie.

All of us are driven by a desire to dig in, but each of us chooses to receive it in different ways. New research shows the same is true with recognition. While sincere appreciation drives performance in everyone, there are some differences in the way younger and older employees want to receive it.

Oh, we remember the cooing. The cute little burps and hiccups. It seems like just yesterday we started with a baby carrot. But today our little baby is now in the real world, creating real results.

It was five years ago when we held our first Carrot Culture Summit in New York. Quite honestly, we weren’t sure if anyone would show up for that first event. Of course, we were thrilled to have more than 100 executives attend, even though it was little more than positive affirmation that the ideas in The Carrot Principle could work.

Did they work? Fast forward five full years to a few weeks ago—business leaders from around the world met in Boston for the fifth annual Summit. And this year, it was all about results—dramatic business results that organizations are seeing from living The Carrot Principle.

Last month, we explored some of the most common workplace behaviors and what our bosses think of those behaviors (if you missed it, click here). This month, we’re taking a look at the other side of the ledger—what employees think of their boss’s behaviors. Y-Ouch? Check out what your employees may be thinking about you:

What have you done for your boss lately? Ever picked up a cup of coffee for her on your way into the office? Maybe you’ve found yourself joining the company bowling league just because your manager is on the team. Have you ever wondered what s/he thinks of you? Are you kissing up or a hardworking employee who goes above and beyond? Chester spent some time with ABC News last month to share the inside scoop on what your boss really thinks when it comes to your actions.

Here were the questions ABC viewers asked us. Our answers are a peek inside your boss’s mind:

Loyalty. We treasure it in our friends. We rely on it in with our customers. And our success, both personally and professionally, is dependent on it.

As managers, we all know our success depends on building strong, long-term relationships with our customers while getting the best out of the people in our care. Multi-award winning researchers Timothy Keiningham and Lerzan Aksoy have found the glue that binds employee and customer relationships together is loyalty.

When we speak to corporate groups, we’ll send out pre-surveys that ask employees to note the last time they were recognized. While we’ve shown in our research the most productive workplaces provide specific praise to their people every seven days, the majority of workers we survey say it’s been at least six months since their last public recognition moment, and about a third say it’s been longer than a year. Yikes!

Your instincts are razor sharp. Your business plan is flawless. Raging success is at your fingertips, right?

But wait! There is a wildcard.

After your brilliant business plan is in place, this one factor can squash the most intelligent innovation instantly, or catapult a vision to greatness. Typically, this wildcard gets very little attention during the execution phase of your plan. But the amount of care it is given can cause an execution phase to crumble, or skyrocket it to success.

There’s a certain corporate “zing” to using the word “global.” It feels big. Many companies strive to go global. There’s a prestige associated with being able to pop up and do business in exotic cultures and places. So, much like the Today Show’s Where in the World is Matt Lauer, we wanted to see if the Carrot could increase employee engagement around the world.

Would employee recognition have the same effect globally as it does in the U.S. and Canada?

Recognition is a Game Plan for Any Goal.
Readers often send us inspiring stories of managers who take over troubled workplaces in various fields and turn them around using The Carrot Principle. But this field was a first.

Today in the U.S. alone, more than 10 million people are desperately looking for work—2 million more than last year. For those of us who have jobs, our daily struggle in this economy is to stay relevant and needed.

Bob Beaudine has answers.