If there is one thing that will improve the effectiveness of recognition in your organization, it’s certainly giving recognition to people more often. Put the following practices into place so you increase the number of times recognition happens in the lives of your employees.
1. A Personal Commitment. Make recognition giving a personal commitment to be a way of life for you versus making it programmatic. Be more intentional in recognizing peers and leaders as you observe the great things people do around you each day.
2. Keep Track of Recognition. Measure how you are doing with giving recognition. Guess how well you do and then compare by keeping a tally of how often you recognize your employees each week. Set a personal goal on how often you will give recognition each day.
3. Start Someone’s Day Right. As a nice first thing-in-the-morning gesture, bring in a selected employee’s favourite hot (or cold) drink prepared how they like it. Do small acts of service to lighten people’s workloads and show random acts of kindness.
4. Create a Recognition Mindset. Don’t open your inbox in the morning until you write an email expressing gratitude to an employee. Thank them for their help and the good things they do for you and others. Allow yourself time to be positive for the day.
5. Recognition Reminders Help. You might need to create a notification reminder in your smartphone, device, or computer to keep recognition top of mind. Cue yourself to recognize someone if you let an opportunity go by that day. Put a reminder PostIt® up.
6. End of Day Reflection. At the end of each workday, pause and think about who deserves recognition today. Now act upon those impressions. Pick up the phone and leave a positive voicemail message of praise. Plan to get out of the office and thank someone.
7. Get Prepared for Recognition. Go out and buy some note/thank you cards, colored markers and postage stamps. At the end of each day, send someone who deserves it a handwritten note of appreciation. Adorn a physical office with PostIt® note messages.
8. Apply Active Listening Everywhere. Be on the lookout or listen for conversations identifying the needs of your people. Do something appropriate to show your concern and provide support for folks. Listen more carefully to people during your virtual meetings.
9. Start Your Meetings Right. Begin your time together with staff in meetings by acknowledging above and beyond performance of peers that you were made aware of. Ask team members to come with stories of ways team members helped one another and share on your video conference calls.
10. Enlist Others to Recognize. Instill in all employees the idea of expressing appreciation to team members. Ensure they inform you of outstanding things going on that you could not have known about. Add to that recognition by using your online programs.
Recognition Reflection: What do you do to increase the frequency of your recognition giving?
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