Self Improvement Information

In my many years of business, I have had many opportunities to visit many different companies.  When I interact with people in corporate jobs, I am always interested to see how much importance their companies put into praise and recognition.  I can always tell by the little tell tale signs around the office and in each individual work area.

The companies that find value in using praise and recognition seem to attract happier people.  In corporate situations, I have seen little notes in their employee’s work stations.  Each time the employee sees that note in their work area they feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Not only do they get continuously more from the note, but the other employees see those notes and they would like to get recognized, also.  End result, better moral and more productive people.

Multi-level marketing has latched on to the importance of praise and recognition with a vengeance.  That has been one of their strengths.  MLM’s appeal to people because of it.  When a company doesn’t have employees, but has an army of part time people that are striving to build a business and are living on commission, recognition is the life blood that keeps them going.

Praise and recognition is the nectar to the ears of an employee or team mate.  Used effectively, praise can be used in private but is more effective when used in public for more ears to hear.  Never keep your praise and recognition “under a basket”, as the old saying goes.

Here are a few ideas to use for recognition.

1.  If you are handing out an award, it should always be in a public setting.  Talk a little bit about the award and about the person receiving the award, before handing it out.  An award should never be handed out with just a handshake, no matter how late your meeting is running.

2.  Always recognize a fourth of the people who are attending.  For example, if you have 20 people at the meeting, 5 of them should receive award.  300 people, 75 would get awards.

3.  Be creative with the awards.  Make them tangible and personal.  Awards can be trophies and plaques, or they can be as simple as candy bars, t-shirts, or pens.  Make sure that it isn’t just a few people getting all the awards.  Be creative on the awards to give people that are on their way up a chance.  Always being sincere with the recognition is a must!

4.  Make the time spent on awards as fun as possible.  Play upbeat music before or during the presentation.  Of course, don’t drowned out your speaker!  Make it a time that everyone looks forward to.  It should be the highlight of any meeting or event.  There should be awards at every company meeting no matter how big or small it is.

5.  If possible, have the spouses attend.  Awards are great at company picnics when all the family is there.  Nothing impacts the children more than making their parent a hero in front of them.

Sincere praise and recognition can be the glue that holds a company together,  increasing motivation.  There can never be too much sincere praise or recognition given out.  It can be the highlight of any meeting or function, so have fun with it!

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Everyone has a reason for working.  Whether it is a traditional job or an entrepreneurial career choice.  One obvious reason for earning money is to bring it into the household to purchase goods, services,  savings for “rainy days” or retirement.  Another reason for working is to pay off our debts.  Like the bumper sticker says, “I owe, I owe, so off to work I go.”

While those may be compelling reasons, there is another one most people don’t think about or talk about.  It is the secret reason some people find their job satisfying and enjoyable.  What is that reason?  It is praise and recognition.

I have had people tell me that they don’t work for praise and recognition.  They say it isn’t important to them. If they are being truthful, they are not the norm.  The majority of people have an increased sense of well being in a job or career when their accomplishments are sincerely praised and they are recognized for those achievements.

If you are a leader of a team and want to increase productivity by using praise and recognition, here are 5 things you can do:

1.  Identify the behavior that brings the results you want.  When the successful behavior is recognized with praise, it makes that person want to do the thing again to earn more praise.  Not only will that person want to duplicate that behavior, but the team mates around them will, also, want to do what it takes to receive praise and recognition.

2.  Always look for reasons to praise.  Effective praise is spontaneous.  Look for genuine reasons to praise.  I, personally, don’t believe sincere praise can be overdone.  I don’t believe that you can love and appreciate your team members too much.  Praise can be in the form of using their name in a speech or a smile with the words “well done” attached.

3.  Think of it as being a good will ambassador, always saying something nice about someone.   Sometimes, is may be tough to find something good about someone.  But, keep looking.  Everyone has something nice about them, worthy of praise and recognition.  It is worth the effort when you do.

4.  Above all, it should appear natural.  At first it will take conscious effort to find those good things and praise them.  But, with practice,  it will begin to flow naturally.  It won’t seem phony or contrived.

5.  An effective way to praise and recognize is to send short written notes.  Those short notes are usually kept and can be read over and over.  Better yet, send a short note of praise to their home to their spouse or loved ones.  When you make them look like a hero in the eyes of the people they love, wow, what a powerful recognition.

Praise and recognition, used correctly, can increase productivity, help everyone reach their goals and increase the positive feelings of your team members.  With all that juice, doesn’t it make sense to get really good at it?

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In my many years in business, I have discovered, what I believe, is one of the biggest mistakes many leaders of people make.  They try to change their people.  They believe focusing on individual weaknesses within the team will improve performance of the team.  They focus their energies and their criticisms on their people’s weakness, instead of their strengths.  What you focus on grows.  Are they wanting their people’s weakness to grow?

Certainly not.  Every manager or team leader wants productive and happy team mates.  Many leaders fall short, believing that if they focus on their team mates weakness that team mate will change and overcome the weakness.  We would be better served to keep in mind that all of us have our own individual strengths.  As a team leader or manager, it is best to focus on each individuals strengths and build on them.  Everyone has at least one strength that can be built upon.

If we, as managers/leaders, continue to focus on negatives or weakness in our individuals and team, it breeds an atmosphere of criticisms and disapproval.  Team mates who are always waiting for the next critical remark.  It keeps us from building strong productive relationships within our team.

How often should we seek to find the positives in our team mates and our team?  Every single day, all the time, until it becomes the way of life.  It’s strange how human nature works.   We could praise our team members 99 times and be critical of 1 thing and they will only remember the 1 criticism.

We should always be slow to criticize and quick to praise.  You are probably thinking to yourself, “how do I address it when someone is doing badly?”  The most productive form of punishment is the lack praise.

When you are wanting to be critical, don’t do it.  Instead, spend that time making heroes out of the other people on the team.  The people that are doing the job well should get more of your love and attention.  Keep that up for awhile and the poor performer will be dying for your praise and recognition.  They will seek to be worthy of their team mates respect. They will make the changes without the team leader becoming hurtful with criticism.

When we build upon each others strengths we become a team of strong individuals working toward the common goal. The team leader sets the standard for every team. Slow to criticize, quick with praise and recognition the team will be on the path to excellence!

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