TIP 6: Don’t worry, RECOGNITION is not a scarce resource
As I’ve shared in a prior week, one of my favorite interview questions to ask candidates is “who is the best boss and the worst boss that they’ve ever had”. A common response on the worst boss, is a “boss who does not recognize their efforts or who takes credit for their hard work.” If you’ve ever had such a boss, you know how discouraging this can be.
Tom Rath, a leadership consultant, says “employees who report receiving recognition and praise within the last seven days show increased productivity, get higher scores from customers, and have better safety records. They’re just more engaged at work.”
There are many opportunities to provide recognition to your team members for a job well done.
Give immediate feedback after an outstanding presentation or a job really well done. I remember early in my time at my prior employer, the CEO called me on the phone immediately after a presentation I made to the Board. He said “Ken, you only have one chance to make a first impression and you did a great job today”. That was it, about a ten second call but the impact it had on my morale and ongoing engagement was huge.
Recognize great work in front of the team at a team meeting. This gives the entire team a chance to see the great work, helping create a team culture of appreciation and recognition. It’s also a chance for others to support the team member and congratulate her on a job well done.
Recognizing a job well done in an email to your boss is very powerful. I would often send an email to my boss (not including my team member) recognizing great work and then my boss would reply back to the employee and copy me, thanking them for doing a great job. This made a huge impact on my team member and also helped them get great exposure up the leadership chain.
During your one on one meetings, recognize work that has been done well and behavioral examples that you want to reinforce, such as helping out a peer, staying late to make a deadline, doing corporate community service work, etc.
Importantly, recognition captured in the annual review for a pattern of excellent work and for behaviors that strengthen the team is very important. Write up in the review the detailed examples you want to recognize and then also incorporate the recognition financially into the annual merit increase and/or bonus.
There are plenty of benefits that will accrue to you as a manager who generously gives recognition.
You will have more engaged, happy, and productive team members
Your team members will develop better with the recognition/feedback
You will be seen by senior management as a talent developer
You will be seen as a team player and a generous leader
Others will want to work for you and be developed by you
Recognizing others is evidence to senior leaders of your confidence as a secure leader
There are so many ways to recognize your team’s efforts and so many benefits to your team and to you as a leader from being generous with recognition. It’s not a scare resource so go for it!