Do More Recognition in the New Year
Celebrating the successes from the previous year is always a good way to get the team excited for the year ahead. But recognition should not be a once a year event. Most of the tips below could be used at any time throughout the year to acknowledge the hard work and success of your team. If you start the year on a positive recognition note, you can set the tone for the rest of the year. Here are a few ideas to help you shine the spotlight on your team.
Team Night
Gather the team and have a night to reflect, celebrate, and look forward. Most importantly, have fun! Make this something everyone will want to attend and participate in. It doesn’t have to be all business. Get outside of the usual confines and set up something that lets everyone connect. When possible you can even invite significant others to join in. This will help create bonds that go much deeper than the current project plan.
Awards Ceremony
Award ceremonies are pretty common, but that doesn’t mean they cannot be fun and meaningful. Look for something that will match the personality of your team. You can do this in conjunction with the ‘Team Night’ mentioned above. Have some nice/fun trophies made to connect with your theme or brand and use those to make a big deal of the accomplishments. Everyone likes to have something they can proudly display recognizing their achievements.
Ways to Recognize Me Survey
Recognition is sometimes a difficult thing to navigate. You can always start with a sincere ’Thank you.’ and that will work every time, but if you want to move beyond that it can be difficult to come up with good ways to show your appreciation. Why not ask each person what they look for in recognition? You can create a simple survey and ask each person on your team how they like to be recognized. Some people like public recognition - others, not so much. Snacks are good ways to show a little acknowledgment, but ask what they like to eat. That way you avoid giving someone a Snickers that happens to be allergic to peanuts, or a Twix to someone who would prefer something a little healthier. Avoid Coke vs Pepsi issues by asking.You can find a sampling of questions here to start putting your survey together. Your survey doesn’t have to be fancy. An old-fashioned pen and paper photocopied might be all you need. If you want to do something online to capture many different people’s input and have it handy all the time, there are many solutions for that too. Try SurveyMonkey.com for an easy way to set up a survey for your team. Have some fun with this and make it a way to recognize your team all year. You will probably find they enjoy completing the survey and will appreciate that you are asking for what they would like. They will really love it when you put their information to use for the recognition they earn going forward.
Kick-off Contest
Contests are a good way to establish something new, create some excitement, and recognize your team at the same time. If you have new initiatives for the start of the year a contest may be the perfect way to introduce them to the team and generate an incentive to jump on board quickly. Keep your contest simple to understand and easy to manage. You want to keep people engaged throughout the entire contest period. Ultimately you are trying to reward and recognize newly learned behaviors. Look for ways to involve as many people as possible. Contests do not have to have only a single winner. The more people that can win, the more everyone will believe they can win.
Personalized THANK YOU
Few things are as powerful as personalized messages, especially in today’s digital world. Taking time to write a note that is personal to the individual will go a long way in generating good will. Bonus points if you hand write the note. Order some nice thank you cards, keep them handy in your office, and make a plan to catch people doing things right. When you do, jot a quick note in the thank you card about what they did and why you appreciate it. Hand them the card next time you see them or place it somewhere they will see it when they arrive for work. I am certain you will see a huge smile on their face for the rest of the day after receiving one of those notes from you.
Video Recognition
Using video is so much easier than it used to be. Almost everyone has a high-quality video recorder in their pocket every day. We have become more accustomed to watching short videos for almost anything we could imagine. Why not recognition? Take a minute or two and record a video message for someone that you want to thank or acknowledge for a job well done. You can email or message it to them very easily. If you use a group message system such as Slack, GroupMe, or Microsoft Teams you can share it so everyone can see the recognition. Video and the numerous distribution options allow you to give a personalized thank you, congratulations, or other recognition messages to anyone in a public or private setting. It will surprise and delight the recipient - you’ll wish you catch their reaction on video too.These are just a few ideas on how you can call out your team in a positive way. Recognition should be fun for everyone, but it does take work. It is OK to set reminders for yourself to acknowledge positive behaviors. That can help to form a habit so that soon you become very good about noticing and then commenting on the great things that your team is doing and the positive behaviors they are exhibiting.What ideas do you have for recognizing your team? Share your ideas or recognition stories in comments.Other Reading:How to level-up your leadership game and boost your team's engagement through recognitionPodcast: In this podcast with a former EVP from the Walt Disney Company, Lee Cockerell speaks to the power of appreciation.Up next…Develop Your Team in the New Year.