While you can’t praise too often, you can praise badly. This is the premise of a recent white paper titled, “The Manager’s Field Guide to Recognition”[1].
For some managers, employee recognition comes naturally. For others – perhaps even most – creating a system for effective feedback can seem time-consuming and uncomfortable. Understanding best practices of a successful employee recognition program removes some of this anxiety.
Here are five ways to practice “great recognition” as described in “The Manager’s Field Guide to Recognition.”
1. Be specific – To create the most impact, tie praise to a clear action. “Thanks for being a great employee” doesn’t convey any meaningful information to the employee about what they did and runs a high risk of sounding insincere. Instead include specific information, such as “Your presentation today really communicated the steps we need to take”. This demonstrates that you were paying attention, and reinforces an action that you want them to repeat.
2. Be spontaneous – Don’t wait until an annual review to offer positive feedback or you will miss hundreds of opportunities to demonstrate appreciation and reinforce desired behaviors. Management expert Ken Blanchard put it this way: “Help people reach their full potential. Catch them doing something right”[2]. Employees will give up on going the extra mile if their effort isn’t recognized before their next opportunity to do so.
3. Be fair – Make every effort to be consistent and transparent in your praise. Nothing destroys morale more than a perception of favoritism or recognition based on something other than objective factors. While it sounds obvious, this may be one of the hardest goals for a manager to achieve. Many human biases are so subconscious that it takes supreme conscious effort to avoid them.
Take for example a recent study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. This study shows teachers graded math papers lower when they knew the student was a girl than when the same papers were graded anonymously[3], despite the teachers themselves all being women. Being fair may take deliberation and regular self-evaluation, especially if you work in a diverse work environment.
