Punished by Recognition
I've written frequently about how to provide employee recognition so that the employee actually feels good about the recognition. But, there are more stories about poorly handled recognition, unfortunately.
I remember a CEO who stood up every year at the employee holiday plant shutdown and recognized teams for their contributions. Picture this scenario. The party was an annual tradition for half the day. Games like horseshoes, darts, poker, and cards were available to play. Lunch was catered in and it was a fine team building tradition in the company. Following lunch, employee recognition was the agenda. The team contribution of the year received a trophy and the CEO always talked about the team's efforts and results.
Then, every year, he named the members who participated on the team - and every year, he got them wrong. He named the employees he thought had participated, not the employees the team members would have named. And, his efforts to name the right people later were fine, but insufficient to the employees who had missed the limelight of the annual luncheon.
We finally talked him into just telling the team to take the stage. Later, we talked him out of an annual trophy and instead, every team that met the established criteria was rewarded. So, progress happened, but not before a few years of hard feelings.
In recognition, the most important interaction occurs when the recognition is proffered. Employees love recognition from their manager and today's guest contributer, Cindy Ventrice (pictured), makes several excellent points in Make Their Day! Employee Recognition That Works.
You can, as a supervisor, make their day or break their day. The power of positive recognition cannot be overemphasized. Nor can the importance of providing recognition effectively.
Image © Cindy Ventrice
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Comments
Hi
This is my first comment on this blog and forum, having only just recently joined. Congratulations on the fullness of your range and its depth. More importantly, this entry is exactly the kind of reason why I’m excited to join. You avoid the trap of taking the “human” out of Human Resources, understanding that there is a fine balance between control and fulfilment and, in fact, the two go hand in hand to everyone’s benefit. In terms of recognition, we go as far in our own corporate culture research as driving everything off a recurring cycle of Community, Contribution & Recogntion, with the “recognition” being the kickstart for the productive cycle to come right round again. It’s simple – but it’s one of those simple, natural things that can squeezed out by overly pretentious management science.
We look forward to getting involved here. Malcolm.