We all appreciate and draw motivation from having our best efforts acknowledged. As a leader, recognising and showing appreciation for the performance of individuals or teams is both a responsibility and an opportunity. Done well, recognition encourages future performance and contributes to building a high performance culture in your team. Here are some of the principles for successful recognition and ways you can recognise and reward performance. Our Legend programme, including our values cards, provide recognition ranging from praise to gifts or vouchers and paid time off or cash equivalent. What matters is that the mechanism and delivery fit the circumstances and create the right response.
Principles for effective recognition
Know your people
Ask your team members about their family, their hobby, their weekend or a special event they attended. Your genuine interest – as opposed to being nosey – causes people to feel valued and cared about.
Never underestimate the value of sharing your time and building relationships
People appreciate your genuine interest in their ideas and thoughts about their jobs. They like bouncing ideas back and forth with you and look for your input on their projects and goals.
Be timely
Catching people doing something good and praising them in the moment is more powerful than saving it for their quarterly performance review in two months time.
Don’t devalue the ‘recognition’ currency
Over frequent use of reward/recognition or rewarding people for simply doing their job quickly destroys the motivational impact of your recognition efforts.
Match the reward to the person and situation
Giving a teetotaler a bottle of wine doesn’t say ‘thank you’, it says I didn’t give you enough thought to personalise my choice of gift. In addition, the size and nature of your recognition should be in proportion to the achievement.
Your actions speak loudly to your team members about their value
Keep your commitments to your team members. If you have a weekly meeting with each of your team, only cancel this meeting in a real emergency. Any message of disrespect that you send can completely undermine all of the rest of the energy you have invested in effective recognition. Ask yourself regularly: Is this how I would treat someone who is important to me? Your answer to this question speaks loudly about how your team members view you.
Get creative in your praise
Although your team members get paid, it is often the thought that counts in employee recognition. If you know a team member is into rock climbing, for instance, you could give them a book on this topic with an inscription of your thanks.
It is a 360-degree activity
Offer recognition wherever it is deserved including to those outside your team. Your goal is encouraging a high performance culture all around you. Pass on praise and recognition about members of the team to other managers for their action as well as complementing the person concerned directly.
Our Legend programme
“Legend” is the name of our recognition and reward programme. The purpose of the Legend programme is to provide you a mechanism to recognise and reward any member of the council team who display our values and make substantial contribution to achieving our 2030 vision. Examples include:
- Continuing to shape our city
- Delivering affordable, cost effective and valued services
- Delivering exceptional customer solutions and service – going the extra mile
- Demonstrating exceptional engagement and motivation
The Legends framework has three levels:
- Level 1: Cards! Someone lives the values give them a card, sing from the rooftop that they are a Legend.
- Level 2: Prezzie Box! Someone does something that really lives the values and deserves more than a card? Give them something from your areas prezzie box!
- Level 3: Paid leave or cash! Has someone live the values to an epic degree? Get on StaffNet and nominate your values Legend for some time off! Reward Nomination Form
Other techniques that work
Immediate verbal feedback
Just say thank you – any time, any way, anyhow and for any reason. Be prompt, specific (explain why you thought the performance was exceptional) and interested (how did you get that result?).
Time off
A Friday or Monday off, creating a long weekend, can be an excellent reward for someone who has worked extraordinarily long hours or been away from home for an unusually long time. It creates an opportunity for family/partner time, which may have been lost recently through the employee’s efforts on behalf of the business.
A letter of appreciation in your team member’s file
Show him/her the letter. The value is that it becomes a formal part of their track-record with us.
Contribution noted in your next team meeting
Single out the person’s achievement for kudos amongst their peers.
Take your team member out for ‘coffee’ or lunch
Creates an opportunity to say thanks and talk about their interests and how you might support them in their career.
Arrange for the individual/team to show their achievement to senior management
Demonstrates your belief that the achievement/contribution is valuable to the organisation and helps those involved feel that their ideas and efforts are recognised as important and helpful.
Hold a surprise achievement celebration for your team member/s
A gift ceremony in front of peers, a ‘drinks’ celebration at the end of a working day/week, coffee outing etc at which you publicly recognise the achievement.
Pass on the praise
If you hear a positive remark about a person, repeat it to that person as soon as possible — perhaps via email. Copying managers and supervisors on such comments is an especially powerful way to help your team members feel appreciated.
Publish a “kudos” list in your weekly team email
If you regularly communicate about team progress, priorities, issues to the team add a “kudos“list and perhaps ask your team members to submit kudos for their peers.
Establish relationships between high performing staff and senior management
Most people appreciate the impetus it gives their career to become known to upper management, even if they don’t work with them on a daily basis.
Recognise the contribution of families/partners
Extend your thanks to those impacted by your team member’s long hours, absences etc. Gift a long weekend or send thank you notes to your team members’ home addresses. This acknowledges that you understand how much home time he/she sacrificed to complete that complicated project.
Provide opportunities for a contributing team member
Opportunities can take many forms but should be outside their normal expectation. Examples might include; shadowing an expert, formal training, conferences, seminars, opportunity to participate on a special project team or working group where their talents are noticed and they can learn. Maybe they can lead a team that is pursuing an important objective.
Allow your team members to select their next assignments
If, as a reward for exceptional performance, you can allow them to choose their work, they will be more engaged and dedicated.
Recognise your team members’ personal accomplishments
Did Miriama just finish running a marathon? Or has Andrew donated gallons of blood? They will appreciate your recognition of their personal accomplishments, even if all you do is acknowledge them at the beginning of your next team meeting.
