Tag Archives: Value

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Are You Really Giving People Recognition on Purpose?

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Do you know why you recognize people?

If you haven’t thought about why you appreciate and recognize people, take some time out to articulate your beliefs and reasons for recognizing the people you work, play, and live with.

For me it is about appreciating people for who they are, independent of any work they do, and valuing everything that a person brings with them to the workplace. It’s about recognizing people for all that they do—both the insignificant and the amazing things people do. 

Recognition is about valuing people and their contributions. It is the transferring of positive feelings and emotions from one person to another, in response to an employee’s positive behaviors or actions.

What is your purpose for giving recognition?

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How to More Effectively Approach Milestone Recognition

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Career milestone award or service award recognition programs have been around for many years.

Over those years there have been the customary plaques, symbolic crystal awards, and gold watches—and these used to start when a person reached 25-years of service.

But as tenure reduced significantly with economy and business changes, and retention of employees was harder to maintain, career milestones now begin at 5 years and 5-year increments thereafter. Today, you will find many companies now start career milestones at an employee’s first year of service.

The reality is, whether you give an employee something tangible or not, they always have a workplace anniversary every single year.

How do you plan to make the next round of your milestone recognition celebrations more meaningful and effective?

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How To Better Understand Your Leader’s Point of View

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It is important to create a persona or profile of the leader or leaders you report to for when you need to present to them or gain approval on a proposal. Leaders think differently than rank-and-file employees. It’s these qualities that set them apart.

Read past talks they have given and check out the latest annual reports to gain insights about them. 

Talk to people who know them the best like their assistants and other managers who have had dealings with them.

Gather details about their background and where they have worked along with the job positions they have held.

Know their motivations and pain points that will help you understand their priorities and how they make decisions.

What do you know about their personal life, significant others in their life, family and so forth? What are their hobbies and interest than might give a human connection for you to relate to?

How will understanding your leader’s point of view help you with your recognition strategy and planning?

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How to Put a New Spin on Your Recognition Strategy

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Michael Porter, the well-known strategist, and professor at Harvard Business School states, “the essence of strategy is in the activities–choosing to perform activities differently or to perform different activities than rivals.”

As I think on the final output generated from the process I used to help company leaders create their own written recognition strategies, each one is unique to their particular company. They have their crafted version of a recognition purpose and philosophy statement. Every company has a different overriding short-term goal. Their focus points reflect the needs and gaps for their organization. And the plans developed provide concrete goals and actions that will lead to better and more effective employee recognition for their company.

Porter also said, “The more benchmarking companies do, the more they look alike.”

Therein lies the dilemma for many companies. So often they want to know everything about what other companies are doing for employee recognition best practices and programs. Essentially, they want to duplicate what successful companies are doing and implement their ideas right away.

I will draw upon the thinking of INSEAD professors W. Chan Kim and RenéeMauborgne, who specialize in strategy and, specifically, Blue Ocean Strategy, to put a different spin on developing a recognition strategy. (more…)

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Conscious Awareness of the Importance of Recognition

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I am drawing on the principles from Bob Rosen and Emma-Kate Swann’s book Conscious: The Power of Awareness in Business and Life. The opening premise of their book is that being unaware is a big liability.

They highlight some of the observed behaviors that are caused by a lack of conscious awareness. Think about the following actions and see if you’ve experienced any of them too.

  • An unintended (or so they said) offense given to a colleague.
  • Ignoring a customer’s valid complaint about a product.
  • Blindness to the personal needs of a team member.
  • Lack of compassion for a child’s concern shared at home.
  • Uncivil remarks made in a management meeting about a leader.

Research from Tasha Eurich, an organizational psychologist, indicates that only 10 to 15 percent of us are ever truly self-aware of what we do and our abilities.

Why aren’t we changing with giving people the recognition they deserve? From my observation, a lack of awareness of the importance and value that employee recognition has on people’s lives is a big reason why it doesn’t happen frequently enough. (more…)

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Making Your Recognition Valuable and Meaningful

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We all want to give people recognition that is valuable and meaningful.

The trouble is so few of us have been shown how to actually do this.

I think you can make something more valuable by putting in the extra time, effort and care needed to enhance the value of a person and their contributions.

Consider the jeweller who changes a diamond buried within the rough stone into a glorious and sparkling, multi-faceted gem.

This is exactly what you must do to give people the valuable and meaningful recognition they desire.

Like the diamond jeweller, valuable recognition requires specialized knowledge and techniques, and possibly tools and equipment to make it happen.

There is a simplified process for making diamonds I want to share with you.

I think you will find this process helpful, as I want you to think of yourself as bringing out the diamond in each of your employees. (more…)

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You Have to Believe in the Worth of People First

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Recognition itself depends solely on valuing people first before you can ever value anything they actually do.

Let me illustrate what I mean with this with an experience I had a few years back while working in Bangalore, India.

I was doing some recognition consulting work for a major global company. We were on the 12th floor of a regular office building and I was meeting with our hosts in the boardroom of their Indian corporate head office.

My client hosts were facing towards me and I was facing them with the window behind them. I couldn’t help but see something that was going on across the way through the large glass window.

It seems a new hotel was being built for a major hotel chain across the way. The concrete framing of the building appeared to be completed and I could see some men working.

What I am about to describe will help you question the intent and purpose of employee recognition where you work. (more…)

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How To Shape Diversity and Inclusion With Recognition

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There is a lot a talk lately about diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

A simple search of the combined terms yielded results of over 148 million references.

And I was recently asked a question about how employee recognition comes into play with both diversity and inclusion.

I think the question being asked was more about whether effective employee recognition practices can have any impact on diversity and inclusion.

Here are my thoughts. (more…)

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How To Make Your People Matter In Meetings

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Having exceptional meetings starts with valuing your people and determining what you want them to come away with.

There is a classic cliché definition that meetings are where minutes are kept and hours are lost. However, someone I know recently challenged that perspective by suggesting the idea that every meeting should be a revelatory experience.

If anything, the majority of meetings tend to reveal the harsh reality that little thought went into trying to make them even a meaningful experience. They are often just obligatory time fillers – the cyclical meetings scheduled in our calendars for the standard 1-hour block, with someone dictating the agenda, of little value and even less accomplished.

But what if we could make our meetings more engaging? Imagine showing your employees you value them and their time through changing the way you conduct your meetings. Try these six ways on how to enliven your meetings and show your people they matter. (more…)

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Recognizing to Win!

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People love to win!

Recognition used the right way can help you do just that. Win.

In this case we are talking about winning your business strategy.

Few organizations get recognition aligned with their planned business goals or focused on achieving their well-crafted strategic initiatives.

Which is why I want to share and apply the wisdom of Peter F. Drucker from his work on The Five Most Important Questions. These are considered essential questions based upon Peter Drucker’s theories of management. (more…)