A webinar attendee asked me this week about the best way to express recognition to someone. Were there any great examples of recognition I had heard? They asked what I would recommend that people say to give more meaningful recognition.
What I attempted to tell this person was to stick to the principles behind giving amazing recognition and not to script out what to say or write.
I’ll share with you some key ideas about this concept.
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Imagine if each person gave recognition just one percent better than the last time that they recognized someone. That’s all it takes to enhance your recognition practices and optimize the usage of your recognition programs. One percent improvement is all it takes. And here are some ways for you to give better recognition than anyone else every day.
Roy is no longer writing new content for this site (he has retired!), but you can subscribe to Engage2Excel’s blog as Engage2Excel will be taking Roy’s place writing about similar topics on employee recognition and retention, leadership and strategy.
Giving people recognition is not hard to do. But recognizing those you meet and work with should not be treated so glibly that it is thoughtlessly done.
The words you use to verbally express your appreciation or use in your written or digital thank you notes, need to be done with care and consideration. Put more time into thinking about what you will say and realize the impact it will have on people.
Examine the following ideas closely to pick up on ways your vocabulary choice and phrasing of recognition could change.
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I had just read marketing author, Seth Godin’s blog post, in which he concluded with the line – “Specific can be its own reward”. And I wholeheartedly agree.
Being specific in your expressions of recognition and praise can be a rewarding experience for the recipient. Which is why I want to emphasize the need for this recognition principle to be taught to your managers and employees.
My goal is to encourage you to help those you lead be specific or become more specific with their recognition expressions. (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…)
Do you ever wonder why some employees just don’t feel appreciated for all the great things they are doing?
Perhaps it is because the expressions of recognition they receive are not done with meaningful intent.
You know…we’ve all heard the generic and routine phrases of, “Good job!” or “Well done!” spouted out like automatic speech around us.
I picked up on this idea of “intent” the one day when my wife and I gave our car a hand wash in our driveway. She was spraying the car down before we soaped it up. (more…)
Well, here it is again!
March 1st is World Compliment Day – a simple reminder on the calendar to encourage you and I to be more mindful of giving people compliments.
Mark Twain made the act of giving compliments famous when he said, “I can live for two months on a good compliment.”
Yet many of us need more than a calendar reminder or a quote from a writer and humorist to spur us on with compliment giving.
With so many great things going on and so many wonderful people to learn from, live and love, you would think we all would be full of compliments.
Seems this is not always the case though. So I am going to help you discover how you can be full of compliments to hand out as needed. (more…)
Each manager, supervisor, or business owner comes with their own unique set of interpersonal skills, along with strengths and weaknesses. This is especially so when it comes to giving meaningful and effective recognition.
You’ve likely had a boss or two who understood the importance of acknowledging your work. You had a positive relationship with them. Work seemed to go well and you felt engaged. You knew you were making a positive difference.
Not So Good Managers
Then again, you’ve probably bumped into at least one or two supervisors or had managers along your career path who plain didn’t get it. (more…)
If you’ve rarely received positive feedback or expressions of affection from your family growing up, then you may have a hard time giving recognition in the workplace.
Or perhaps you were not the most stellar athlete at school and did not have top academic marks warranting any special awards.
When you haven’t received much recognition as a child, youth or young adult, you can easily lack confidence in acknowledging and praising those you work with.
That’s when giving people recognition ends up as another item on the “To Do” list that never gets done.
You can almost fear giving people recognition.
Today I will give you some pointers on how you can gain confidence to overcome your fears. I will show you how to give meaningful praise and recognition. (more…)
Getting real specific with giving recognition to people could be the difference between either engaging people or losing them out the door.
I am going to share my insights with you on the power behind recognition specificity and the choice of words you use. (more…)