Do you ever feel that no matter how hard you try to recognize your associates, they don’t appreciate what you do?
Have you ever gotten an award and felt like you were holding a bag of dog poop…and yet the person giving it to you looked like they were giving you a million dollars?
I’ve actually been on both sides of this argument, and though I do a much better job now of recognizing employees, I still miss the mark sometimes.

So I was delighted to find a recent article on Beyond Freelancing discusses all the various ways you can recognize your …read more

Who is your favorite manager? I’ll bet you can name her or him in a heartbeat, and think of the qualities he or she had.
Was she a good listener?
Did he help stretch you to set greater goals?
Did she frequently recognize when you did great work?
Was he someone you could count on to pick you up when you were down?
What was it that made them so great?
Whatever it was, take some time today and give that manager a best manager award.

What is a best manager award?
No, it doesn’t have to be an academy award.
How about…
A handwritten thank you note from you, …read more

Typical employee of the month awards just don’t work. Few get inspired by a certificate or a plaque that says “Employee of the Month” any more. Giving someone more money not only isn’t a good long term motivator, but it may not even be possible, for any number of reasons.
How do you do rewards and recognition right without breaking the bank?
I’ve thought long and hard about the best rewards and recognition I’ve seen, and I’ve found they share one or more of the following qualities. None of these require a big investment of money on your part. They all require …read more

Wally Bock recently offered three reasons managers don’t do people management. Wally offers three very interesting insights into why:

They don’t think it’s their job.
They don’t have the tools they need.
They won’t deal with the uncomfortable parts.

Wally cited a a study on the ROI of talent management conducted by IBM and the Human Capital Institute and one quote in particular that got his attention:
“While 84 percent of organizations know that workforce effectiveness is important to achieving business results, only 42 percent of those surveyed say managers devote sufficient time to people management.”
That’s 58% of managers NOT devoting sufficient time to people …read more

It shouldn’t cost you a bunch of money to thank your team for a job well done. Some of the best awards I’ve received have cost the person giving it to me absolutely nothing, and I love those awards far more than any of the costly rewards I’ve gotten.  As I’ve examined the rewards that have meant the most to me, I’ve come up with 4 things that all of the most meaningful awards had in common.
Meaningful and full of meaning – One of the organizations I belong to and that holds a very special place in my heart is …read more

Wondering why your praise isn’t getting results? Take this quick quiz.
Quick quiz:
Does your feedback sound like this:
You’re doing a great job Joe! Keep it up!
Or this:
Thanks for working an extra hour the last 3 nights to finish up that tough project. Now that it’s out on time, our customers will be 31% more efficient, which will make the firm as a whole more profitable.
When someone on your team does something well, instead of a generic attaboy or attagirl, or look for the specific quality that was done well and thank them for that, along with it’s impact to the bottom …read more