Let’s talk about recognition. What’s hard about recognition? Why give recognition? How to do it? My guest is recognition expert Roy Saunderson
Posted by Leadership Freak on Wednesday, April 25, 2018
This week I was interviewed by leadership expert, Dan Rockwell. Of course, we discussed my favorite topic of employee recognition. Dan asked some great questions like, what’s the difference between recognition and rewards? What’s hard about recognition? Why give recognition? How to do it? Enjoy!
Roy Saunderson will provide us with some helpful strategies for how we can encourage managers to effectively use all of our recognition programs for the long-term.
Posted by Rideau, Inc. on Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Check out this week’s Facebook Live where I discuss a handful of ideas for engaging your managers in using your employee recognition programs.
Here’s a fact: employees who feel more caring concern and love from their employer and colleagues perform better on the job. Now we’re not talking about romantic love here. This is all about respect, concern, and compassion, or what is being called companionate love.
Do you have policies and practices that promote compassion, caring, and concern, in time of need?
Consider what former Cisco CEO, John Chambers, expected from his staff. He wanted to be notified within 48 hours whenever a close family member of an employee passed away so he could make an appropriate response and action.
What do you do to show care and concern for your employees? (more…)
I remember standing at the front of a boardroom in a meeting with a dozen or so regional presidents for an organization we were launching a new upgrade for their recognition and reward program.
One regional president seemed to brush off some of the finer details we were instructing them on because, as he said, “I just have my assistant do all my recognition.”
With a few clarifying questions it became clear he wasn’t joking. He was not delegating recognition because of legitimate absences or specific needs. He literally delegated all recognition giving to his assistant and he made no attempts at giving recognition himself.
I recall saying to the entire group that you cannot delegate the act of giving recognition. You can only delegate the transactional and administrative aspects of your recognition and reward programs.
Check out the following situations that might happen in your workplace that could warrant delegating recognition program responsibilities. (more…)
How do your leaders stack up on required leadership characteristics for being great recognizers of people?
Paul Laudicina, the former chairman and CEO of A.T. Kearney, once stated, “Real leadership involves inspiring people at all levels to serve something much bigger than themselves.”
For recognition to inspire employees your leaders must demonstrate that leadership is not just a hierarchical status but a quality that should exist everywhere within the organization.
What can you do to develop leadership characteristics that are essential for giving meaningful, memorable, and motivational recognition to employees?
Check out these three leadership characteristics that influence excellence in recognition giving. (more…)
RBC Financial Group – Best Practice Award Winner
Do you think your company’s recognition programs could merit winning Recognition Professionals International’s (RPI) Overall Best Practice Award?
I’m going to let you in on a secret of what it takes to win this award.
I have been on the judges’ committee for RPI’s Best Practice Awards for the past 11 years. We’ve seen over 70 organizations submit written nominations to vie for the Overall Best Practice Award. Those companies that submit nominations benefit from receiving the judges’ written feedback on strengths and areas needing improvement, along with quantified scores for each of the standard criteria they’ve been judged on.
Last year I had the opportunity to assist one of our clients, RBC Financial Group, with writing up their nomination form for consideration of the Best Practice Award. I am very pleased to say they actually won the Overall Best Practice Award. Naturally, I had to recuse myself from judging their nomination.
That’s why I know what it takes to be a Best Practice Award winner. (more…)
Have you noticed how some people pretend to give recognition to others but they’re not really paying attention to the person they’re recognizing?
Remember when your mother used to say to you “Don’t talk with your mouthful.” Well, I’m here to tell you today not to give recognition with your hands full. Put down your smartphone or other electronic devices and allow yourself to give your undivided attention so you can give people the best recognition ever.
Think about what you might need to do or become an encourager of others to give recognition with their full and undivided attention. (more…)
Be all ears on and off work time. Join employees in the cafeteria. Visit and cheer on a company sports team game. You’ll discover gems of interests and expressions of passion for things you would not normally know. You can draw upon these great insights for better ways to recognize your employees.
If you want to convince senior leaders of the importance and power of employee recognition, then seriously consider video recording recognition impact statements from your employees.
A recognition impact statement is preferably a video recorded (but could be written or audio-recorded) account of the impact that the presence or absence of employee recognition has had on employees personally, emotionally, physically, and on their motivation and engagement. (more…)
Being unable to get their company’s managers to consistently and correctly use their online recognition programs often frustrates most owners and managers of employee recognition programs.
Yet, there’s an interesting irony to this problem when you ask yourself, how often have we involved managers in the design of our recognition programs? We can eliminate many of our problems if make our programs more manager and employee-centric and give them a positive user experience. (more…)