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Ever start out on Monday morning with good intentions of recognising the socks off your people? But by 2:15 that afternoon you’ve argued with the CFO about your budget, dealt with two misplaced customer orders, had to beg IT to re-install your operating system, disciplined the new guy who told off a client, found a nose ring in your mee goreng in the cafeteria and forgot any thoughts of noticing your people’s efforts?
While all of us typically have good intentions, in our busy lives they do not always translate to successful and long-lasting execution. In his excellent new book, Results that Last: Hardwiring Behaviours That Will Take Your Company to the Top, Quint Studer shares a few pages on how lasting recognition can be easy to incorporate into your everyday routine and translate into bottom line results.
For some background information, Studer was the very successful president of Baptist Hospital before founding the Studer Group, a health care-based consulting group. He has been named a “Master of Business” by Inc. magazine and one of the “Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare” by Modern Healthcare. He has helped hundreds of organisations change their cultures and impact real results. So he is certainly someone to listen to when thinking workplace issues – whether you work in healthcare or not.
“Recognised behaviour gets repeated. What we reward, we get more of. That’s why it’s so critical that leaders recognise and reward employees who are doing all the right things,” Studer shares. He goes on to give four recognition ideas that HR can use:
Based on the common daily practice by physicians of ‘making rounds’, or checking on their patients, ‘rounding’ can be applied to any work environment. Managers will find results come from a sincere daily visit with each team member to proactively gather information about their tasks and touch base to make personal connections. Studer emphasises that reward and recognition is not easy for many leaders. “We don’t realise that we need to do it as often as we do and furthermore, we’re not trained in the art of catching people doing something right.” But if you take time each day to visit with your team members, you will be surprised at how often you do see things that warrant commendation. For even greater impact, forewarn them before coming.
Begin tracking your efforts by recording what employees did to deserve recognition and how frequently you are showing appreciation for each team member. This, according to Studer, creates a “hardwired system that consistently gives you feedback on individual employees.” And that comes in very handy as you remember the accomplishments of your employees during their performance reviews. You will be able to tell your people what they did over the past six months instead of asking, ‘So, what have you been up to?’ We have a downloadable Recognition Frequency Log available on carrots.com.
When teams have worked together to accomplish long-lasting projects or new initiatives, they deserve to be recognised. Team recognition can have a bonding impact and bring your employees together in a shared vision, not to mention encourage them to continue giving everything they have got. Make sure you highlight what each group member has specifically done to contribute to the accomplishment. For some great ideas on team rewards,
visit thanks.com.
Once you start handing out carrots, your employees will notice. And you want them to notice, because they will start exhibiting the behaviours that you are rewarding. But they will also notice if you stop. Recognition cannot create long-lasting results if it is a ‘flavour of the month’, or seems to be ‘another experiment from management’. Recognition needs to be consistently given each day, each week, each month and each year.
Studer also reminds HR of the impact that handwritten thank-you notes can have on team members. He tells us the lighthearted story of an employee who was hosting a baby shower in her home. Her mother-in-law saw a thank-you note on the refrigerator and, curious, read it. She was amazed that the note was from her daughter-in-law’s boss, and was specific and sincere in praising her efforts. The snoopy in-law passed the note around the room for the attendees to read. Studer said the employee was flattered by the result of this note. And he said the most frequent comment heard at the baby shower was, “I wish I worked where you work.”
The employee returned to work on Monday buoyed up by the praise of her family and friends, and a great buzz created by a manager who cared enough to take a few minutes to write out a sincere ‘thank you’. And that is what happens with recognition in a healthy culture. Employees keep going as you keep giving.
When managers position their people in a better light to their peers, senior leaders and customers, the interactions are much more likely to be positive and fruitful. Next time you want to recognise a key team member, send an e-mail to your boss highlighting what your employee has done, making sure to copy your employee on the message. And, when a large sale is made, take the time to send the customer a note displaying the efforts your team made to deliver the best service or product possible. Your customer will gain more trust as they see how you treat your employees.
Sharing stories of extraordinary employees requires conscious effort but pays big dividends by setting high standards. Studer encourages managers to recognise great performers by looking at customer feedback or asking co-workers who is deserving of recognition. It may be easy to share a story about the star player, but do not forget to look for those excelling in less visible areas.