Leadership principle #6: Recognition

It’s vital that your people know that you value the contributions they’re making.  But this is a trickier issue than you might expect!

There’s been a backlash lately against the idea, promoted in the 1970s-1990s, that our kids need to develop high self esteem.  Some would say that we’ve created a generation of spoiled adults who need to be constantly fed praise and recognition, even when not warranted.  There may be some truth to this, but it’s not my point.  I’m talking about a timeless human need, which is much deeper than being praised for the tiniest flicker of initiative.

Quite simply, it’s this:

1. You deliver value to your employer
2. You need to know that your employer values what you do
3. That feedback helps you to focus on the things which deliver more value to your employer

Since your manager is usually the most powerful conduit for receiving this kind of feedback, you look to him or her to give you that kind of guidance.  And it’s important to remember that receiving negative feedback helps steer you away from repeating mistakes, while positive feedback builds up your energy and creativity to build upon strengths and successes.  Both are necessary.

This has a lot of cultural nuance to it, so let me give some examples of what balance looks like.

For instance, workers in Germany tend to believe that their professionalism is based upon high quality work, and a constant stream of “attaboys” from their boss is treating them as a children.  What this would mean is that they would want to hear the corrective type of feedback, but too much would cause them to feel that their professionalism is being challenged – and that’s a deeply held core value.  Complimentary feedback should be more muted, but most of all should be accurate and based upon real data.  Vague compliments will be viewed as not useful and even unprofessional.

The Japanese culture is very oriented toward the group and society rather than the individual, so recognition must be implemented differently.  Individual feedback should be delivered in private, and public feedback should focus more on recognition of the team’s results.  Singling out any individual in front of their peers will tend to make them extremely uncomfortable, thus destroying the value of the recognition itself.

It’s a great investment for you to put systems in place which can help give your employees automatic feedback.  For instance, if you have a customer comment system in place, find a way to get that back to your people so they get a sense of the value they’re delivering.  They will start seeing and addressing problems in a more timely manner.  But notice that this kind of feedback isn’t complete – in this example, you’d need to balance it with feedback about what your company needs, lest employees get the impression that efficiency and cost-effectiveness aren’t valued.

You might think that the paycheck should be reward enough for a job well done, but there’s a problem with that:  It’s not specific enough.  Unless you tie variable pay to specific actions and deliverables (as you would with contractors and salespeople), there’s no direct connection back to what the employee needs to do day to day.  Your guidance will be much more nuanced and useful.

What are the challenges you’re running into with providing recognition for your employees?

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