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Top 10 Ways to Teach Recognition from the Top Down
May 25, 2009
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| Roy Saunderson |
By Roy Saunderson
Executive leaders and senior management get it. They made it to the top by understanding both the core competency of the company and how to motivate people to achieve goals. Although your fellow execs at the top may not call it recognition, they understand how positive communication can influence deadlines, productivity, referrals, customer service, and loyalty. You know the “dos." Here are the "don'ts,” and also how to start sharing what you know to keep a strong workforce growing.
1. Don’t hide your recognition strategy. Make your recognition philosophy, purpose, and plans known through your town hall meetings, e-mail blasts, and intranet.
2. Don’t have employees guess how to recognize people. Create clear recognition policies if they don’t already exist and review them from time to time in management meetings.
3. Don’t send people down the wrong road. Establish clear and measurable objectives for your employee recognition practices, aligning them with your organizational culture.
4. Don’t have recognition owned by one wizardly person or department. Encourage everyone to be responsible for giving each other recognition.
5. Don’t forget to count the costs of your recognition journey. Analyze recognition practices and outputs and correlate the impact on employee engagement.
6. Don’t implement recognition practices or programs alone. Create a well-oiled, brainy team that’s prepared to make bold actions to ensure continuity of recognition strategies and programs.
7. Don’t exclude senior leaders from accountability for recognition. Pull back the curtain and enlist senior leadership involvement and presence in recognition programs and award events.
8. Don’t leave your recognition strategy without a leader. Following the right recognition path requires a recognition team having an executive sponsor along with manager and employee representation.
9. Don’t ignore individual recognition preferences among employees. Recognize employees through providing knowledge, instilling courage in career development, and aligning their passion with work purpose beyond using company-wide recognition programs.
10. Don’t discount the fact there is no place like home. Recognition best practices from other companies are great to look at, but don’t overlook developing your own homegrown recognition practices and programs.
Incentive online columnist Roy Saunderson, author of Giving the Real Recognition Way, is president of Recognition Management Institute, www.realrecognition.com, which consults with companies on improving employee motivation, leading to increased productivity and profits. He can be reached at roysaunderson@realrecognition.com.
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