Recognition matters.
By Declan Noone
Recently, the Centre for Management & Organisation Effectivenessasked a simple question to a number of leaders across North America: How do you spend your time?[1]Having analysed the data they identified that these influential and successful leaders encounter, on average, 12 interruptions per day. While a 2018 study, the findings of which were published in the Harvard Business Review[2], stated that CEOs ‘spend 72% of their total work time in meetings’.
Now, let’s look at you. How much of your work week do you spend in meetings? Tied up in daily operational issues? Dealing with crises? The daily firefighting routine? And how much do you spend face to face with direct reports? Look at your calendar, map your daily routine from the minute you wake up, to the minute your head hits the pillow.
Well, during that face to face time when you are providing direction and guidance, do you give any time to saying ‘Kudos’ to your direct reports? To thank them for their work and to acknowledge their and the teams’ successes, not just the big wins but also the small wins.
Why is recognition important?
The challenges of recruitment and retention of strategically important personnel continues in today’s job market. In a highly competitive space organisations are having to adapt to the change needs of the modern workforce. Human centred organisations are adopting human centred approaches to the workplace. The 2018 SHRM/Globoforce Employee Recognition Reportfinds that “a majority of organizations say theycurrently have initiatives around positive relationships and teamwork (75%), acompassionate, caring culture (75%), employee appreciation (73%), learning andgrowth opportunities (70%), and creating an inclusive culture (72%)”, in order to maintain competitiveness.
If we examine Martin Seligman’s PERMA model for Human Flourishing, we recognise that Achievement, a sense of Accomplishment (the ‘A’ in PERMA) is a key enabler of happiness. Having a sense of achievement is an important motivator in encouraging us to push ourselves to greater things, to flourish. Acknowledging individual and collective achievements in the workplace, generates a greater frequency of positive emotions. These in turn create a sense of belonging, trust, and connectedness. Consequently, they fuel inclusive, compassionate and caring cultures.
Giving Kudos, or recognition of another’s effort and achievements can be done in a number of ways. You can target either the extrinsic or intrinsic motivational factors that apply to each of us. On an extrinsic level you, as both a leader and organisation, can reflect your appreciation through remuneration and promotion. Additionally, there are a multitude of employee recognition and rewards platforms available. Each of those platforms offer numerous mechanisms and opportunities to both recognise achievement and rewards accordingly.
On a more intrinsic level, leaders and organisations can:
- Create cultures where wins are celebrated and acknowledged at the lowest levels. This can be achieved in team meetings, internal notice boards, internal publications, awards ceremonies, social events, etc.
- Introduce certification for learning and development programmes conducted both within the company, and external to it.
- Use the organisations social media platforms to celebrate achievements of individuals and teams.
On a more personal level, enhance the emotional intelligence levels within your leaders. Encourage them to say ‘Thank you’, ‘well done’, ‘good job’, and ‘you are a valued member of this team’, more frequently.
An important feature of giving ‘Kudos’ to anyone is to socialise it. Share it within the workplace, publicly acknowledge the efforts and achievements of an individual or team. Doing so generates a sense of pride in oneself and the team, a greater sense of connectedness and belonging, and it builds trust levels. Generating an emotional connection between the individual, the leader, the team and the organisation further enhances a positive workplace culture. It encourages greater discretionary effort, improved organisational citizenship behaviour, and just as importantly positively impacts retention.
For you, as a leader, don’t forget to say ‘Kudos to me!’. Every evening, acknowledge your own achievements, reflect and express gratitude for what you have. As positive leaders we invest a significant amount of ourselves in building positive and inclusive cultures in order to empower others, that we forget to ‘self-care’. You need periods of renewal and recovery. So be kind to yourself, acknowledge your own achievements and express gratitude for those achievements.
In Serrano 99, our passion is helping to build positive and inclusive organisations. Working with leaders to enhance their knowledge and understanding of positive psychology and behavioural science, in order to adopt more human centre approaches to leadership.
[1]‘How Leaders spend their time’, https://cmoe.com/blog/how-leaders-spend-their-time/
[2]‘How CEOs manage time’, https://hbr.org/2018/07/the-leaders-calendar#how-ceos-manage-time
