Think back over the times when someone has personally recognized and rewarded you for outstanding performance—the times when someone showed genuine appreciation for what you accomplished.
Select one time that you would consider your most memorable recognition––a time when you felt the most appreciated by someone. Recall the story in as much vivid detail as you can.
- What made this time so memorable? Why did you select this particular experience?
- Make a special note of what the other person did to recognize you. What actions did they take? Describe the setting, the other person's actions, and your feelings:
APPLICATION 1
Recognize Individual Contributions
Recognizing and rewarding individual contributions to your project is your opportunity not only to Encourage the Heart of your team members but also to reinforce your project values.
In the chapter on Model the Way, your team agreed on shared values. Recognition for individual contributions to the project should always be framed in the context of those values. Recognition should also be personalized for the individual. Personalizing recognition makes it genuine because it comes from knowing the person and sincerely caring about them.
- Refer back to the list of values you developed in Chapter 4, Model the Way. Note what each value looks like in terms of on‐the‐job behavior. The best way to generate more of the behavior you want is to watch for examples of people who are doing things right. Don't wait for a special occasion to say thank you; recognize them as soon as possible.
- When you recognize a team member, link the person's actions to the value they exemplified. This serves to reinforce the value. For people who are comfortable with being praised in front of others, public recognition also provides an illustration of what others can do to contribute. For example, you might say something like, “The other day, I saw our project veteran, Kalisha, coaching new team members on how to use our new customer tracking system. She took time away from her own work to help someone else. I'll never forget what she said: ‘I know you can do it! You're very talented.’ Wow! Kalisha demonstrated to the rest of us our value of teamwork. Kalisha, come on up here. I know you love hockey, so the special ‘Stanley Cup’ [a tiny replica of the trophy] goes to you, along with these two tickets to the next home game of our local hockey team. Thanks, Kalisha.”
- Check in with yourself: For you to help others do their best, you need to believe in their capacity to perform. Do you honestly believe that every member of your team is capable of acting, and will act, to achieve the goals you have set and live by the values you have agreed on? If you do, make sure you express it in words and deeds. If you do not, you'll find that you are going to have a tough time being very authentic and genuine in recognizing contributions. If you find yourself doubting the abilities of anyone on your team, take action. Talk with that person to learn as much as you can about their skills and abilities, interests, and particular strengths; where the person thinks they need new skills; and whether they think this project is a good fit. Find a strength on which you can focus and find the best fit for the person in the project. If people need to improve their skills, provide help such as sending them to a class.
- Getting to know your team members on a personal level helps you show appreciation in ways that they would consider “special.” For example, some people love to be recognized in front of everyone, while others might find public recognition uncomfortable. If you do not already know what kind of recognition your team members would consider special, perhaps you need to spend more time getting to know them. Visit their workspaces. Check out the pictures and the curios they keep around them. If they work remotely, find the time to chat with the person one‐on‐one. Listen to things they talk about doing for relaxation and fun. It's all about spending time with and paying attention to the person.
As your project progresses, use the Kudos for a Colleague worksheet on the next page to think through how to recognize individuals who make a special contribution to the project by exemplifying one of the project values. Use this as a template each time you prepare for a recognition.
Completing this worksheet regularly is important. Research indicates that people tend to be more engaged in their work when they are recognized at least once each week, so if you have ten people on your team, you should do ten Kudos for a Colleague each week. That may seem like a lot, but once you get the hang of it, it should take only about three minutes per person. Don't you think it's worth it to spend thirty minutes a week getting higher levels of performance?
A note of caution: The purpose of these worksheets is to help you pay attention and note what people do that deserves recognition. It is not about filling in the blanks. The point is to be able to recognize others for their contributions to the success of the project. Use the worksheets as an aid toward that end.
KUDOS FOR A COLLEAGUE
Team Member:
The shared value that was exemplified:
What did the team member do to exemplify the value? Be as specific as you can.
How can I personalize the recognition? What can I do to make the recognition special for this person? Be specific.
Where and when will I recognize the person?
Who else should know about this person's achievement and the actions they took to accomplish it? How can I let those people know?
APPLICATION 2
Tell the Story
We all have the potential to make a positive, lasting impression on others through the recognition we give and the appreciation we show. Look back at your own most memorable recognition––the one you noted at the beginning of this chapter. Someone made a lasting and positive impression on you. You, too, can leave such a lasting, positive impression on another person that years from now they will tell others that their most memorable recognition came from you. These positive impressions end up as the stories we tell others, not only as tales of celebration, but as models for future behavior that illustrate what's important to us and to others.
Developing your capacity to Encourage the Heart through the medium of the story lets you recognize not only that one individual. By telling stories, you dramatically and memorably illustrate how people should act and make decisions. Stories put a human face on success. They tell us that someone just like us can make it happen. They create organizational role models that everyone can relate to. They put behavior in a real context and make standards—the goals and the values that guide the team—come alive. They move us. They touch us. By telling a story in detail, leaders illustrate what everyone needs to do to live by the values and move toward the goals. They communicate the specific and proper actions that need to be taken to resolve tough choices. They bring people together “around the campfire” to learn and to have fun.
Write Your Story
Recall a time recently when you noticed one or more members of your project team contributing to the project's values and goals. Follow the steps below to write the story.
- Identify the Actors. Name the person—or the people—you want to recognize:
- Set the Stage and Paint the Scene. Where and when did this happen? Talk about the circumstances. What were the “actors” trying to achieve? What was their motivation? (To answer this question, you'll have to know something about them. This goes back to the need for leaders to pay attention.)
- Describe the Actions. Relate in as much detail as you can what happened. What specifically did this person and/or each of the people involved do?
- Tell How It Ended. Never leave your audience hanging. Tell the listeners what happened as a result of the person's or persons’ actions.
- Include a Surprise. Every great story includes some kind of surprise. Try to add an element of amazement. What did you notice that was unexpected? What makes this story particularly interesting, unique, memorable, funny, or surprising?
- Connect to Shared Values. Every great story has a “moral” at the end—a values‐based lesson about what people can learn from the example. What is the shared value (or values) exemplified by what was done?
Tell Your Story
Now have fun telling the story. At a regular meeting or a special event, share this story with your team. A good story will only take three to five minutes to tell, and you can always find that much time at any gathering. What's important is that you authentically communicate how someone genuinely contributed to making the standards of the project come alive.
Once you've told your story, take a few minutes alone to reflect on these questions:
- What was the reaction? How did people respond emotionally?
- How did you feel when telling this story? How comfortable were you? To what extent did you feel that your effort was forced?
- Based on the reactions of others, how well did you clearly connect the actions of the central character(s) to the values and standards you were trying to reinforce?
- What did you learn about your ability to tell stories? What can you do to improve your storytelling abilities? For example, you could:
- Attend the reading of a novel at your local library or bookstore. Pay particular attention to how the author constructs and tells the story. During question and answer, ask how the author got the idea for the story.
- Keep a journal of things that happen on the project that will make great stories.
- Listen to a recording of one of your favorite children's stories. Pay attention to how a professional tells a story. (We know that you're probably not working with children. This is about learning to tell stories, and children love stories.)
- Take a class in storytelling.
- At dinner with your family, don't just talk about your day, tell a story about it. Describe the rich details of place, people, and feelings. Let your home be your practice stage.
APPLICATION 3
Celebrate Team Accomplishments
Every project milestone is an opportunity for team members to celebrate what they have accomplished and gather the spirit and momentum to continue. Here's an example:
- Project Milestone: Marketing plan completed
Team Celebration:
- End the day early, and have everyone on the team and their families adjourn to a local park where you can hang out, play volleyball, meet one another's family members, and relax.
- Invite a local comedian to put on a special show. Provide the performer with some “inside jokes” to include in the material.
- Celebrate at a virtual meeting. Ask each person to “bring” something they like to eat or drink, then play a game such as Clue or Trivial Pursuit together.
- Do a gift exchange—have each person send a $5 gift to another team member and open the gifts during the meeting.
- Invite a musician, a comic, or other performer to do a virtual performance for the group.
For each of your project milestones, brainstorm several fun and meaningful ways for people to celebrate as a team.
Project Milestone:
Team Celebration:
Project Milestone:
Team Celebration:
Project Milestone:
Team Celebration:
Project Milestone:
Team Celebration:
APPLICATION 4
Build Social Support
Public ceremonies serve another powerful purpose. They bring people closer together. In an increasingly virtual world where more and more people work remotely and much of our communication is via information technologies, it's becoming difficult for people to find opportunities to be together. But we're social animals, and we need each other. The COVID‐19 pandemic underscored the importance of social connections. As we retreated to the safety of our own four walls, we invented all kinds of ways to stay connected with our fellow human beings.
Those who are fortunate enough to have lots of social support are healthier human beings. Social support is absolutely essential to our well‐being and our productivity. Celebrating together is one way we can get that essential support.
Think of some ways you can encourage informal social interaction. For example:
- For people who spend time in the workplace, set up informal meeting areas with comfortable chairs and beverages that encourage them to relax and talk to one another.
- Put up a “Bragging Board” in a central spot in the office or on your online collaboration tool. Post a couple of thank‐you notes, and then encourage others to do the same when they want to make a public recognition.
- At the start of every scheduled virtual, in‐person, or hybrid meeting, begin by asking people to share something about themselves—their favorite color, favorite sport, a book they read and would recommend, a movie or TV show they like, the names of their pets, and so on. Get the group used to revealing information about themselves.
What other ideas can you think of to promote informal interaction?
IMPLICATIONS
What have you learned about yourself as a leader from the activities in this chapter?
Based on your experience with these application exercises, what do you need to do in order to improve how you Encourage the Heart during this project?