Recognition in business is important

They told me they were working really hard and felt they were doing a good job. The only thing was John upstairs never let them know.

Iattended the Canterbury Employers Chamber of Commerce awards at the Horncastle arena the other night. amon the board of one of the organisations nominated for an award.

We missed out on the prize but it was a privilege to be nominated and the result certainly couldn’t dampen the abundant joy of the evening.

In spite of being a black-tie extravaganza at no time did it lose its glorious informality.

It seemed like a feeling that everyone had given it everything over the year and the evening seemed to recognise the efforts of individuals as well as organisations.

One thing I’ve always found interesting is the subject of recognition because it plays such a major role in successful organisations.

It doesn’t matter where you go around the world or the size of the organisation, if you ask people if there is any one thing which would make their job more enjoyable the answer is pretty much the same.

People tell you they are doing their best in their job but no one ever lets them know – they are getting no recognition.

I recall doing some consulting work for a guy a few years back.

He owned a very successful business which he had built up from nothing.

A year or so after I had completed my assignment for him, he gave me a call and told me that he felt the morale around the place had slipped, would I come round and try to find out what was wrong – he was at a loss to know.

It was nice to catch up with those lovely people again and it wasn’t hard to find out what the problem was.

They told me they were working really hard and felt they were doing a good job.

The only thing was John upstairs never let them know. When I met with John he was anxious to find out what I had found out. I told him he had great and committed people – I know that he said, I selected them.

I went on to tell him that these good people thought they were doing good work but they didn’t really know.

That’s ridiculous remonstrated John of course they know they are doing good work.

I asked him how they knew and then came the reply that explains why we carry out recognition so badly in 90 per cent of organisations round the world.

They must know they are doing a good job said John because they would know that if they weren’t I would tell them.

There is a technique we use called management by exception.

What this means is that if it aint broke don’t fix it. That is to say that if everything is going according to plan there is no need to do anything.

When things are getting off-line – an exception to the plan, then we have to take action to get things back on line, hence the term management by exception.

The only trouble with that principle is that it doesn’t work with people.

If things are going according to plan you can be sure there will be people who are making it go that way so the action they are taking to keep things on line needs to be affirmed and recognised.

Managers often say to me why I should thank someone from doing the job they are paid to do.

My answer is always the same – because there are so many people in organisations who are not doing the job they are supposed to do but are still getting paid.

Most of us appreciate the efforts of people we have reporting to us and certainly intend to recognise their efforts.

The trouble is we often get so tied up with sorting out the stuff ups our good intentions don’t materialise, they simply pave the road to hell.

A daily note in our diaries or on computer should be made to ensure we take action.

A quick word of thanks, praise or a handwritten note can make such a huge difference.

There is nothing very new about this concept but most times we just don’t get around to it.

Very often we are not encouraged by the reaction we get from the receiver when we do give a compliment – it’s normally a throwaway line saying that they were just lucky or it was a team effort, not their’s etc.

Why bother we ask if that’s the treatment we get. I can tell you without doubt that deep down our recognition is very much appreciated.

It’s probably the fact we are not used to receiving compliments that we don’t accept them as gracefully as we should.

Those of you who have studied management will have come across a lot of research on the subject right through from have Pavlov’s dogs to the Hawthorne experiments.

In spite of the rhetoric as to what they found the principle is pretty straight forward.

If certain action or behaviour is positively affirmed then the recipient of the affirmation will feel good.

Because they feel good they will simply repeat the action or behaviour. Again the naysayers come up with objections suggesting that if we affirm people they will demand more pay.

Interestingly the demand for more pay comes mainly from people who receive no recognition, it’s an action they take to try to placate their disgruntled state.

So what I amsaying is that the Employers Chamber event was recognising organisations and the people in them for having done outstanding work.

The trick is for those of us in management positions to carry out recognition every day, not just once a year.