Gifts for your staff part 3

Shawnee Love   •  
December 18, 2014

We’ve already covered Communication and Respect and now it is time for Gift #3:

Recognition

Recognition is defined in the Business Dictionary as being “communication between management and employees which rewards them for reaching specific goals or producing high qualities results”.

In our book, recognition can be given by anyone to individuals or groups and is simply an act of appreciation.

Why is recognition one of the most important gifts you can give to your employees?

The mercenary answer is because when you recognize an action, there is a greater likelihood of it being repeated, i.e., there’s a greater likelihood of staff “going those extra miles”.  While that may at the surface be true, we are not talking about a purely Pavlovian response here.  There is way more going on.

In fact, being valued for what you do or are is a wonderful feeling, and arguably a basic human need.  Recognition at work also:

  • Demonstrates what is important to the organization,
  • Builds rapport between the people giving and receiving the recognition,
  • Increases engagement of the appreciated party,
  • Lifts morale of the larger group, and
  • Creates a sense of community and connection amongst those appreciated.

If you agree that recognition is super important for your organization, the next step is to figure out how to do recognition well.  Here are 6 things that will make you good at recognition:

  • Be Specific about what was worth appreciating.  “Good job” just doesn’t cut it.
  • Be Timely.  Recognize as close to the appreciated action as possible.
  • Be Sincere.  People can smell a fake, and being sincere increases the value of the recognition even if the words you choose aren’t as polished as you’d like.
  • Be Appropriate.  There is nothing worse than gushing over something relatively simple or giving a bare thank you for a huge effort or accomplishment.  Align your recognition with the level of what was done.
  • Be Authentic.  Authenticity means being yourself and ensuring your style isn’t lost.  If you are a man of few words, your appreciation can be too.
  • Be prepared.  You’ve seen it before, someone wins an academy award, gets up on stage and forgets to thank their producer, costar or family and the ensuing fall out is rehashed in the entertainment news for weeks.  Your delivery doesn’t have to be perfect, but there is something to be said for a bit of planning to ensure you remember what and who you want to appreciate and why.

So when someone in your life, puts in extra effort, makes progress or has a success, remember to offer some words of appreciation.  Yet more proof that:

The best things in life aren’t things ~ Art Buchwald, Author