AS A MANAGER or business owner, you know it’s important to recognize contributions individual team members make toward the success of the team. You might even find it easy to identify and reward individual performance toward specific individual goals.
However, many times in our efforts to recognize and reward successes, we may overlook “behind the scene” contributions which were necessary to achieve that success.
Consider This:
As Joe watched Diane receive her achievement award from their manager, he was feeling very uncomfortable. Diane’s objective was to decrease the amount of time required for processing between billing cycles. She had coordinated the efforts of many people and had exceeded the expectations. Joe agreed that Diane deserved to be recognized for her outstanding leadership ability.
At the same time, however, Joe was aware that Diane’s objective could not have been met without his significant contribution to the work effort. He had spent the last three months pulling double duty, doing his work as well as covering Diane’s regular assignments. It would have been nice for someone to at least say “Thank You “for his additional effort.
Have You Ever Been Where Joe is Standing?
How did it feel? No matter how strongly we identify with the team or how proud we are to be members of the team, we still need to be recognized for our effort. Individual recognition in a team environment also helps build a sense of involvement, ownership, and commitment. This encourages team members to help each other whenever possible. And this type of commitment will make your business more successful.
Take a look at your current procedures for rewards and recognition. Use the following questions to help you improve.
- What types of achievements do you recognize and reward?
- Are you, aware of the many ways to recognize folks besides money?
- What action have you taken to ensure all team or department members feel valued?
- How can you ensure that contributions of the people like Joe are recognized and rewarded?
Smart Moves Tip:
[message type=”success”]Create a reward and recognition plan that is easy to use and spontaneous. Rewards don’t have to be expensive, but they should be timely and to all the right people. Make a big deal out of them. Demonstrate to your team members that each and every one of them is important to the organization’s success.[/message]
Like anything, when the same reward is offered and offered every single time, the reward will lose it’s impact. But, if the reward is offered sometimes, not all the time, the reward will have a much bigger impact. Not only did you get the reward, you also get the feeling that you just won the lottery. You won the reward.
People are interesting little whos-its.
Good point Chris. There has to be a balance between rewarding too much and too little.