Tag Archives: Acknowledgment

Posted on

Express Recognition Every Time You Give a Tangible Gift or Award

by

Sometimes, you and I can fail miserably when we give gifts or awards to people.  

You can have all the best intentions. You checked off everything on your planning checklists and you completed the event tasks. But still the gift or award just sits there. Flat. Meaningless. Non-communicative. 

Just like the service award gift that one recipient had dutifully selected from the online catalogue. Then, only to find it one day still in the original mailing package, plopped in the middle of their work desk. Not a word spoken. Deathly silence. 

Not exactly a meaningful anniversary.

(more…)
Posted on

What Do You Do When You’ve Been Recognized?

by

Take note for a week of the various ways people react after you or others give them recognition, whether in private or in public. It might surprise you the images you capture and the verbal responses you hear.

You might express the recognition face-to-face, remotely through video conferencing applications; in a written email, ecard or paper card; or through text based, audio- or video-messaged greeting on your organization’s recognition programs.  

But how does the recipient respond? 

Many people are uncomfortable being recognized. When you’ve been recognized what do you do? How accepting are you of the recognition? 

(more…)
Posted on

Make Sure You Thank Someone This Month

by

It’s January and welcome to National Thank You month.

While etiquette professionals and books promote the idea of sending out Thank You Notes, don’t neglect the behavior of saying thank you too.

They have designated January as National Thank You Month. This might have originated from the greeting card industry because of receiving gifts following the Christmas holidays and they want you to buy their printed cards. I know my wife and I dutifully sat down on the last Sunday in December and wrote our Thank You notes to our children. It is a lovely reflective time to treasure and remember what we have received.

Learn to make saying or expressing thanks to those around you more a way of life beyond this designated month.

(more…)
Posted on

What Makes Recognition Different From Appreciation?

by

A subscriber of our Authentic Recognition blog suggested I should write about the difference between recognition (more related to work) versus appreciation (more related to the person).

I asked them why this topic was important right now. It seems their organization uses the Gallup Organization’s Q12 engagement survey every two years. In the past year they focused on the recognition specific question/statement #4, “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work”. 

Her research, like many of us have found, led her to see that “recognition in the workplace” has so many meanings.

She wisely observes that “people fundamentally want to be ‘understood and cared for’ or ‘appreciated’ and would prefer that over ‘recognition’”

She asked for my thoughts on the differences between recognition and appreciation.  Apparently, her organization will likely continue with using recognition. However, she wonders if more time should be spent on appreciation instead of recognition in order to improve the Gallup survey scores.

(more…)
Posted on

What Are Your Recognition Strengths and Weaknesses?

by

How good are you at giving recognition? Do you feel like your attempts to praise and acknowledge people are hitting the mark?

Maybe you are already good at appreciating people for who they are and recognizing them for what they do.

Each of us will be naturals at recognizing people or have a lot of things still to learn. But what is good for those of you, who feel they are not so confident or competent at giving recognition, is that recognition is a learned behavior. Phew! We all have a chance at getting better at this skill, which is a highly ranked need of employees.

Consider your own strengths and weaknesses in giving meaningful and effective recognition. Do you know what you do well? Where should you begin? (more…)

Posted on

You’ve Got To Really Know What You’re Thanking People For

by

Never give a person an empty thank you.

You may have experienced the kind of thank you I’m talking about at some point in your life.

What is an empty thank you?

This is when a manager or immediate supervisor thanks an employee without being fully aware of all that was involved with the task being acknowledged. It is hollow gratitude and means very little or nothing at all. (more…)

Posted on

How To Stop Leaders from Stopping Recognition Giving

by

In your effort to make recognition flourish throughout the organization you always need the support of your leadership team or a key leader.

Unfortunately, the skills or attributes that sometimes cause certain leaders to rise to the top may not be the people-facing skills needed to make recognition happen the way you would like it to.

In fact, sometimes you will find your role is more focused on stopping leaders from stopping recognition giving.

See if you relate to these seven ways leaders can sometimes stop recognition. (more…)

Posted on

Right Words of Recognition for Years of Service

by

What do you say to a person who reaches a specific milestone level in their years of service with the company?

This is something that is very important but frequently overlooked.

Over the years I have seen different milestones of recognition celebrated at many years of service award events.

Too often the years of service recognition is relegated to an online or manual process that makes things happen.

But planning the right words of acknowledgment to use isn’t always in the mix.

There should be thought put into the right words of recognition to use that accompany the event, the one on one encounter between a manager and employee, or the gift given to the employee.

I will give you some guidelines to consider for the right words of recognition. (more…)

Posted on

When to Eliminate Overkill With Saying Thank You

by

There are times when we probably do overkill on saying thank you a little too much.

Take, for example, Brian Crane’s daily Pickles comic strip which depicts a retired couple in their seventies. Earl and Opal Pickles, the main characters in the cartoon, reveal a social phenomena I’ve observed in the workplace as well as at home regarding receiving Thank You’s. (more…)

Posted on

When No One Gives Recognition To People

by

Hard work always pays off, right?

You probably heard wise counsel like this from parents, teachers or mentors along your journey of life so far.

And, for the most part, I think it does pay off. I will further say that in the long-term hard work always pays dividends.

But for the short-term it can appear there are problems in getting acknowledged for doing hard work. (more…)