Using Recognition and Pride to Motivate Others

Articulate how leaders can motivate others through recognition and pride.

Motivating others by giving them recognition and praise can be considered a direct application of positive reinforcement, or reinforcing the right behavior by giving a reward. Recognition programs to reward and motivate employees are a standard practice in business and nonprofit firms. An example is rewarding high-performing employees with a wristwatch inscribed with the company logo or designating them as employee of the month. Pride, as described next, is related to recognition. People who are proud of their work want to be recognized for their good deeds.

Recognition is a strong motivator because it is a normal human need. Tony Schwartz, head of the Energy Project, reminds us that nothing influences employees' engagement as the feeling that they are genuinely cared for and valued by their leaders.(Both being cared for and valued are strong forms of recognition.) Recognition is also effective because most workers feel they do not receive enough recognition. As indicated by Stress in America survey conducted by the American Psychological Association a few years ago, only 46 percent of the employees are satisfied with the recognition practices of their employer.

Appealing to the Recognition Need of Others

To appeal to the recognition need of others, identify a meritorious behavior, and then recognize that behavior with an oral, written, or material reward. Two examples of using recognition to sustain desired behavior (a key aspect of motivation) follow:

• As the team leader, you receive a glowing letter from a customer about Kate, one of your team members, who solved the customer's problem. You have the letter laminated and present it as a gift to Kate. (The behavior you are reinforcing is good customer service.)
• As the manager of IT, one of your software engineers, Evan, suggests that you post an ad on Twitterto fill two vacancies for software technicians. You are skeptical at first, but you give it a try, and your recruiting goals are met. You warmly congratulate Evan. You are rewarding his proactive behavior.

An outstanding advantage of recognition, including praise, as a motivator is that it is no cost or low cost yet powerful. Reward expert Bob Nelson reminds us that while money is important to employees, thoughtful recognition motivates them to elevate their performance.Furthermore, one of the Dale Carnegie principles of leadership states: "Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement; be hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise." This basic principle is strongly supported by decades of research on operant conditioning, including positive reinforcement.

Recognition thus has an enormous return on investment in comparison to a cash bonus. Following are a few suggestions for the motivational use of recognition and praise:

1. To maximize its motivational impact, recognition should be linked to corporate values and should also help workers attain personal goals. Visualize a security guard whose outside passion is sustaining the environment and who becomes recognized with the new title of Security and Energy Conservation Monitor. The title combines the guard's interest in saving energy with the company's interest in keeping outside doors closed and unused lights turned off.
2. Inform others in the group and organization about the meritorious behavior, such as via a mention in a staff meeting or a posting on the intranet. Also, praise related to specific tasks is usually more effective than general praise. Workers may appreciate praise, but they also prefer to know what specifically they are being praised for, such as, "Your forecast for the sale of our cutting gear to factories in Poland was right on target. Congratulations."
3. Do not use praise to set employees in competition against one another. Praise the employee who merits the praise, but do not suggest that other employees are less praiseworthy, such as: "Great job, Jos. I wish the rest of the group had put in the same kind of effort."
4. Take into account the individual's preference for the type of praise. A challenge in using recognition effectively is that not everyone responds well to the same form of recognition. An example is that highly technical people tend not to like general praise like "Great job" or "Awesome, baby." Instead, they prefer a laid-back, factual statement of how their work made a contribution. According to one study, the more highly a person's self-perception is that of having a technical orientation, the more the person wants praise to be quite specific and task oriented.The tech center worker who just conquered a virus on your desktop would prefer a compliment such as, "I appreciated you having disabled the virus and restored my computer to full functioning." This type of compliment would be preferable to, "Fantastic, you are a world-class virus fighter."

Teams, as well as individuals, should receive recognition to enhance motivation. Bob Nelson recommends that to build a high-performing team, the leader should acknowledge the success of all team members. As with individual recognition, a personal touch works best. Examples include a manager thanking group members for their involvement, suggestions, and initiatives.

Recognizing Group Members by Thanking Them and Expressing Gratitude

The basic human relations principle of giving recognition by thanking people for a job well done and expressing gratitude has received considerable recent attention by leadership writers. Gratitude specialist Adrian Gostic puts it this way: "It's vital to pay people appropriately, but there is only so much money to go around. That makes gratitude all the more meaningful and useful as a leadership tool." Showing gratitude is sometimes difficult because it can make managers as uncomfortable to praise employees as to criticize them.

One intervention recommended for expressing gratitude is to write a thank-you letter to a person and then reading it aloud to the person.(Not all leaders or managers would feel comfortable with this intervention, making it best to first make a trial run, perhaps with a friend or family member.) An easy approach to giving thanks and expressing gratitude is to compliment a group member. A field research project revealed that people underestimated how good their compliment would make the recipient feel, and how much it would contribute to the recipient's sense of well-being. Compliment givers have a tendency to believe that the compliment recipients will not enjoy the interaction as much as they actually do. A frequent thought is that giving a compliment will make the recipient uncomfortable. The same research project also found that people underestimate how much recipients appreciate gratitude. The implication of this study for leaders is to not underestimate the positive impact of compliments and gratitude.

Another way to show appreciation and gratitude for motivational purposes is to begin team meetings with shout-outs for accomplishments of specific team members. The indirect effect of expressing appreciation and gratitude toward certain members of the team, is that the other team members will work hard to receive similar accolades in future meetings.

Required

1. Find three people to recognize, and observe how they react to our recognition.

For example, If a hair stylist does a fine job, similarly provide a compliment and a generous tip. Or find some helper to recognize with a compliment but without a tip. Observe the responses of these peopleboth their facial expressions and what they say. Of even more importance, observe if any of these people appear eager to serve us the next time we interact with them.

As with other parts of the leadership portfolio, keep a written record of what happened to us and how much skill we think you have developed.

Please answer each person separately.