May 2009

Recognition Phobias

One of the most common “phobias to recognition” we hear from Managers and Business Owners we first work with is that they don’t want to “play favorites” by recognizing someone on their team for fear of instilling jealousy in the workplace. Instead, these managers tend to recognize everyone as a group. The problem here of course is that general praise of the team as a whole will over time not only alienate the top performers but will also reinforce the behavior of the average and poor performers. When you start to frequently recognize specific individual accomplishments in a timely manner...nobody will be left out and your staff will start to strive for more of your recognition.

Frequent
It doesn’t take much to make your people feel valued for their contributions and commitment to the workplace – they simply need to receive some sort of recognition every few days. This doesn’t mean you have to be sending people off on extravagant trips or handing out Rolex watches every week. It does mean that more attention from us as Managers and Business Owners is required. One of the most powerful ways of acknowledging your staff is simply using verbal appreciation. In our personal lives we tell our spouses “I love you”. The work place equivalent of that is “Thank you” or “I appreciate you”.

Specific
In addition to thanking our staff frequently, as Managers and business owners we must also be specific about what we are acknowledging them for. General praise like “Thanks for doing a great job” typically has zero impact from a motivational standpoint and in some cases can actually have a negative impact. To truly motivate people, the more specific we can be with our acknowledgement the better: “Mary, you really worked hard getting this difficult proposal written on time – Thank you!” As ego-driven humans we all crave for specific examples of what we did that deserved the recognition.

Timely
Finally, all recognition should be timely. Nothing is more frustrating when you have gone above and beyond in the workplace only to be recognized at your next quarterly review.

Recognizing and rewarding the right behaviors more often and in a timely manner reinforces the behaviors and communicates to the employee that we as Managers are paying attention. This will improve the people bottom line guaranteed!

At On Point we help our clients increase their results by designing and executing unique incentive and recognition programs using the most sought after Sports, Entertainment and other Experiences to deliver the "Wow". For more information on how we can help you recognize your top performers, please contact us directly at 1800-809-1277.

Incentive Program Services Travel Reward Card Program Incentive Ideas March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 August 2009 September 2009 January 2010 First Name: Last Name: Email Address: unsubscribe		View cart Print May 2009 Recognition Phobias One of the most common “phobias to recognition” we hear from Managers and Business Owners we first work with is that they don’t want to “play favorites” by recognizing someone on their team for fear of instilling jealousy in the workplace. Instead, these managers tend to recognize everyone as a group. The problem here of course is that general praise of the team as a whole will over time not only alienate the top performers but will also reinforce the behavior of the average and poor performers. When you start to frequently recognize specific individual accomplishments in a timely manner...nobody will be left out and your staff will start to strive for more of your recognition. Frequent It doesn’t take much to make your people feel valued for their contributions and commitment to the workplace – they simply need to receive some sort of recognition every few days. This doesn’t mean you have to be sending people off on extravagant trips or handing out Rolex watches every week. It does mean that more attention from us as Managers and Business Owners is required. One of the most powerful ways of acknowledging your staff is simply using verbal appreciation. In our personal lives we tell our spouses “I love you”. The work place equivalent of that is “Thank you” or “I appreciate you”. Specific In addition to thanking our staff frequently, as Managers and business owners we must also be specific about what we are acknowledging them for. General praise like “Thanks for doing a great job” typically has zero impact from a motivational standpoint and in some cases can actually have a negative impact. To truly motivate people, the more specific we can be with our acknowledgement the better: “Mary, you really worked hard getting this difficult proposal written on time – Thank you!” As ego-driven humans we all crave for specific examples of what we did that deserved the recognition. Timely Finally, all recognition should be timely. Nothing is more frustrating when you have gone above and beyond in the workplace only to be recognized at your next quarterly review. Recognizing and rewarding the right behaviors more often and in a timely manner reinforces the behaviors and communicates to the employee that we as Managers are paying attention. This will improve the people bottom line guaranteed! At On Point we help our clients increase their results by designing and executing unique incentive and recognition programs using the most sought after Sports, Entertainment and other Experiences to deliver the "Wow". For more information on how we can help you recognize your top performers, please contact us directly at 1800-809-1277.