Here are some essential basics, and possibly reminders for some of us, on how to recognize the wonderful people you work with on a daily basis.
There’s no rocket science behind these attitudes and behaviors. They are just time worn and proven ways to make your recognition come across in a more meaningful and memorable manner.
Put them into practice daily and you’ll be giving real recognition the right way wherever you work.
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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.
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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…)
Last Thursday, I was standing at the boarding gate in Toronto Airport waiting to board my WestJet flight to Calgary.
I saw this man in a suit, who went around and shook hands with all of the WestJet staff members as he went forward to board the same flight. I even saw one employee ask for a minute of his time as they walked together down the passenger boarding bridge.
Hmm? Was this the WestJet president and CEO, Ed Sims? (more…)
You are probably aware how the Gallup Q12 Index asks a great recognition related question in their measure of employee engagement.
They ask the question, “In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?”
So let’s pretend your company conducts the Gallup Q12 survey or a similar evaluation tool. A year later nothing has changed with your lack of recognition. What are you then supposed to do then?
I think we’ve created a very dependent and needy world. We are too dependent on our smartphone notifications and automated communications. There’s perhaps an entitlement mentality where we’re thinking others are always expected to do things to us, or for us.
But what if the recognition and praise doesn’t come your way? Is there anything you can do to correct this?
My goal in this post is to put you in charge of getting the praise and recognition you deserve when you want it. (more…)
I love this quote from Marcus Buckingham,
“Great managers don’t need to be reminded of the power of praise.”
I think he’s right.
In those organizations where recognition flourishes as a way of doing things, you will always find leaders who get it. They know the importance of recognition. They personally strive to practice giving effective and meaningful recognition. And they encourage everyone to be exemplary recognition givers. (more…)
Watch out for how you react to people when they are thoughtful enough to express praise and recognition to you.
Their words or action are an acknowledgment of your positive actions, effort, or contribution you’ve made.
But too often recognition recipients unintentionally offend givers of recognition.
Watch what you say or do so that you don’t discourage people from giving you recognition again. (more…)
A whole year has gone by and it’s March 1st again. I want to wish you a happy World Compliment Day.
Our friend, Hans Poortvliet, from the Netherlands, helped create this special day. He wanted to build awareness of the importance of complimenting people. That was 16 years ago when he started National Compliment Day. Now, the concept has spread so fast it has become an international event just a few years later.
A compliment, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is simply “a polite expression of praise or admiration.”
A compliment might also include a personal commendation, or even a formal act or demonstration of civility, respect, or regard for someone. (more…)
Whenever you are dealing with people in the workplace you will always need to address performance on the job.
There are 2 sides of the performance coin. It is either good performance or its poor performance.
With employee recognition, I often get asked questions about recognizing poor performers. Recently, I was asked, “How do you recognize a poor performing employee without encouraging mediocrity?”
You know they have someone in mind when they ask this question. Consider the following questions to help guide you on this subject. (more…)
You can read the research statistics out there on employee recognition and wonder where do you begin.
Take this example from the Gallup Business Journal of June 28, 2016:
“According to Gallup’s analysis, only one in three workers in the U.S. strongly agree that they received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past seven days. At any given company, it’s not uncommon for employees to feel that their best efforts are routinely ignored. Further, employees who do not feel adequately recognized are twice as likely to say they’ll quit in the next year.”
That means if you had 1,000 employees in your company that 667 of them would say they did not receive sufficient or any recognition or praise for doing good work in the last seven days.
Or consider this nursing example where only 31.6 percent of nurses received praise or recognition often or very often from nurse unit managers. Yet these recognized nurses “showed more job satisfaction, stated they had more opportunities to practice professionally, described a more positive work climate and were more committed to the organization such as being proud to work at and willing to make effort for the unit and hospital” – than those nurses rarely or very rarely receiving praise.
So you have 1,000 nurses in your hospital and the likelihood is high that 684 of them are poorly praised and recognized and have low engagement towards the institution and with patient care.
Overall, that is a lot of people needing recognition.
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