Sex and Money or Recognition and Praise

A poll of employee attitudes in 14 countries has ranked Singapore bottom in terms of overall workplace happiness. The results place Singapore last in in three major areas – we least enjoy going to work, are the least loyal and have the least supportive workplaces. Adding weight and significance to the last point another recent Singapore poll showed of the top three things that people wanted at work recognition and praise came in second ahead of money and benefits. Mark Kay Ash sumarised the situation perfectly. “There are two things people want more than sex and money -- recognition and praise.”

Recognition and praise are indeed high octane fuel. When we receive a genuine compliment, it makes us want to go the extra mile for the person who bestowed the compliment. If this were not important to us, we would not be treasuring all of the mementos of awards, plaques, appreciative notes and emails, and other tokens of appreciation that we receive over the years.

• Pay attention to people using common courtesy. Say good morning. Ask people how their weekend turned out. Ask about other people’s children.
• Listen to what your coworkers, peers and staff members have to say. Listen giving full attention to the person seeking your attention. You make people feel special when you listen to them without distraction.
• Use powerful, positive language in your interaction with others. Say "please" and "thank you" and "you're doing a good job." Say, “We couldn’t have accomplished the goal without you.” Powerful, positive recognition makes people feel important.
• Put praise in writing. A "thank you" note to the employee magnifies the impact of the recognition.
• Keep your commitments to staff. Never promise that which you may not be able to deliver. Don’t do it unless you know you can keep your promise.
• Give staff public credit for contributions. Praise in public. Criticize in private

But intuitively, we all know that genuine appreciation is a key factor in our relationship with our staff yet many well-meaning and otherwise caring managers are reluctant to express their appreciation of others' talents and contributions. Some people find expressing praise a very difficult thing to do - publicly and even harder, privately. If you have difficulty praising others, analyze the root causes of this. Sometimes, withholding praise is simply due to a lack of time.

Praise has a limited "best before" date. Don't delay its expression or wait until performance review time - when you see something that is worthy of praising, do so promptly after the event. Make your genuine words memorable for your staff by being specific about the achievement. Not many of us remember the perfunctory "job well done", but we all would remember someone who tells us "This was pure genius," or "I would have missed this if you hadn't picked it up." The praise does not have to be elaborate. It just needs to be genuine.

There are steps we can take to give praise and recognition successfully.
Describe specifically the achievement or improvement. The employee needs to know exactly what it is that he/she is being praised for. Avoid vague phrases like "You've made a lot of progress". “Since our meeting last month about filing your reports, I have seen that you’ve cleared the backlog and are up to date at the end of each day”

Explain the reasons that this is important to you/the group/the company. This emphasises the value of what the employee has done and makes the praise more effective.

Give the appropriate praise or recognition and sincerely thank the person. This may be a simple "Thank you", or, further recognition such as a note in the file or commendation.

These simple steps all contribute in their own way to building a more supportive workplace that employees value so highly. 

Chris Fenney, Co-founder and Director , Training Edge International