Author Name:
Nelson Scott
Book Title:
Thanks, Again! More Simple, Inexpensive Ways for Busy Leaders to Recognize Staff
Website URL:
Social Media Links:
X (Twitter) (https://twitter.com/nelsonscott_)
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelson-scott-bbaa4711/)
Link to book page on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thanks-Again-Inexpensive-Leaders-Recognize-ebook/dp/B0CCVT3Z72
What is your book about?
Thanks, Again! —a follow up to my first book Thanks! GREAT Job! — is chockfull of hundreds of low-cost, high-value tips, tools and techniques for busy front-line leaders who understand the power of staff recognition. With that recognition, those leaders create workplaces where people feel valued for who they are as individuals and appreciated for what they achieve and how they contribute. Staff feel they belong and comfortable being themselves there. They are places where people want to be and where they will stay.
Because leaders often have limited time and resources, the book is filled with simple, inexpensive ways to say thanks and thanks, again!
What inspired you to write your book?
At the end of a daylong workshop on hiring staff, a participant commented, “That seems like a lot of work if they just turn around and leave after a few weeks. How do we keep them?”
I responded: “Let them know that they are appreciated.” I have spent the two decades since figuring out what I meant and discovering ways to show appreciation in the workplace.
If you have a business related to your book, tell us about it:
I speak at conventions/conferences and deliver on-site workshops related to my business’s core purpose—providing leaders with the knowledge and skills they require to hire, engage, and retain the right people.
What is a typical day like for you?
At some point nearly every day, I take a 10-minute walk to a cafe near our home. There I purchase a cup of English Breakfast tea (rent for my “office space”), find my favourite table, and spend the next two hours writing, fuelled by the energy of strangers.
What do you most enjoy about what you do?
The satisfaction that comes from finally getting it right. Frequently, this only comes after several drafts and the final product seldom resembles how I started it. Writing is an addiction — a drug that energizes me.
What are some favorite books you’d recommend to our readers?
My reading choices are eclectic. I enjoy mystery novels, both from the golden age of mystery writing and by contemporary authors. Other times, I will pick up a history book or read something about the environment and climate change. I am also on a personal journey of reconciliation, reading about history from an Indigenous perspective, particularly the impact of colonialism on native cultures, families, and language. In that context, I recommend two books: Five Little Indians, an award-winning novel by Michelle Good, and a powerful memoir, North of Nowhere: Song of a Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, by Marie Wilson. Both focus on the impact of the Canadian government’s effort to assimilate “Indians” by taking children from their families and placing them in church-run residential schools.
What advice do you have to offer our readers?
Write! To be a writer, you must put pen to paper whenever ideas come. Don’t put it off. By later, the inspiration will have vanished. As someone once told me, “Ignore the muses, they will begin to ignore you.”
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
After high school, I applied to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but my application was rejected. It seems the force had a rule about not putting a gun in the hands of someone who was, in the words of my doctor, “blind as a bat.”
What’s next for you?
My next book is inspired by my enjoyment of murder mysteries and will answer the question, “What would Sherlock Holmes do if he had to hire a new housekeeper to replace Mrs. Hudson?” Simple, my dear Watson. He would employ the same investigative tools and techniques that the detectives of fiction, film and TV have used for decades to expose murderers. Look for clues (resumés). Question suspects (applicants). Check alibis (references). Managers and supervisors can apply the same evidence-based hiring methods to hire the right person when there is a vacant position to be filled.
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