A former chief executive of one of America’s top twenty
technology companies was having lunch with his beloved wife of over 35 years at
a restaurant just outside Atlanta when another woman with three kids approached
their table. A little uncomfortable but focused, the chief executive looked up
and waited for the encounter.
• Focused: target only 1 team or individual
• Specific: include specifics about what was done or achieved
• Personal: avoid “organizational language”; use “I” not “we”.
• Engaging: include a photo, graphic, or logo wherever possible
It turns out that people value recognition that is done not at the end of some big performance appraisal ritual but often enough based on specifics. In a study conducted by Bob Nelson, employee recognition expert and bestselling author, managers from 34 organizations agreed with following;
And when we do it should be personal and written. I like the idea of
writing it down, it shows that we have taken the time to reflect and commit our
thoughts about the specific behavior we want to recognize. It communicates our
appreciation and care for the work people do. Which in turn, drives more of the
behavior; we want to see in the work place.
A few minutes into it, the lady with three kids, said to him
‘’I know you may not remember be but I was project manager in one of your
divisions and led project that delivered significant value to the company and
you wrote me a letter’’. At that point, the woman reached in her hand bag and
produced a typed note with several coffee stains and presented it. The chief
executive stunned but barely able to recall the lady but remembered that writing
letters of recognition was a practice he had adopted for most of his career,
stood up and shook hands. The lady said that ‘’you were one of the few people
who ever believed in me and today am the Vice President of AT&T in the
North East United States and I want to say thank you for your confidence in
me’’.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of one of America’s
largest hospitality chains has a practice of writing notes of recognition to
his employees. On this occasion, he wrote a letter to a group of employees who
had found a creative way to communicate their success through arm bands – green
band meant they were doing great, yellow band meant they were off the mark and
red band meant the team needed significant corrections. The note was sent to
the team with a copy to all the teams involved the project which covered
fourteen thousand teams worldwide. According to the CEO, ‘’I‘d like to give
special recognition this week to Team number 2. This dedicated team lead by
John Doe, has developed a unique way of remaining focused on achieving their
goal as well as staying motivated to win each week. The entire team wears a
green wrist band for each week when they are winning switches to a red band if
they lose. In this way, their score is visible for everyone to see and they use
this accountability to drive high performance’’.
The news of the note of recognition spread and a couple of
the members of the team posted the note on Facebook and other members of the
team continued to send notes of appreciation for an act the CEO said took 5
minutes It turns out recognition is a powerful took for driving employee morale
and ultimately performance.
To be sure, recognition is not the casual ‘’great job’’ and ‘’well
done’’ that leaders throw around. In his journal, ‘Why Employee Recognition
is so Important’, Kim Harrison sees employee recognition as ‘’the timely,
informal or formal acknowledgement of a person’s or team’s behaviour, effort or
business result that supports the organization’s goals and values, and which
has clearly been beyond normal expectations’’. We could not agree more.
However, recognizing deserving employees must be done right
otherwise it will lose its meaning. For example, I recall a former senior
manager a former employer of mine who elaborately recognized a former colleague
who he met in the hallway ‘’great job’’, he said and she worked by and minutes
later, he asked another colleague to my hearing ‘’what does Michelle do for us
again?’’.
According to Jim Hulin, co-author of the New Times best seller
‘’The 4 Disciplines of Execution’’, for recognition to be meaningful, it must
meet the following criteria;
•
Public: the greater the visibility, the greater the
impact
•
Brief: no more than 1-2 paragraphs• Focused: target only 1 team or individual
• Specific: include specifics about what was done or achieved
• Personal: avoid “organizational language”; use “I” not “we”.
• Engaging: include a photo, graphic, or logo wherever possible
It turns out that people value recognition that is done not at the end of some big performance appraisal ritual but often enough based on specifics. In a study conducted by Bob Nelson, employee recognition expert and bestselling author, managers from 34 organizations agreed with following;
·
Recognizing
employees helps me better motivate them. (90.5 percent)
·
Providing
non-monetary recognition to my employees when they do good work helps to
increase their performance. (84.4 percent)
·
Recognizing
employees provides them with practical feedback. (84.4percent)
·
Recognizing
my employees for good work makes it easier to get the work done. (80.3
percent)
·
Recognizing
employees helps them to be more productive. (77.7 percent)
What this means is that we should spend time with people to understand
what they value and provide meaningful work that will drive engagement and
results. In doing so, we will get opportunities to appreciate their work.
