Motivation and Support Part 4 - Can you do just one thing?

Another High-Performance Management technique for managing team members and staff

Here is a tip I have found to be useful in motivating and supporting team members and staff, which results in substantial increases in performance, productivity and job satisfaction.


Recognition

As we know, it’s the simple things that work best.

My team building and change management experiences have taught me one thing in particular; everyone responds extremely favourably to receiving ‘recognition’. The boost this gives to people, including you and I, is enormous. Our good feelings about ourselves increases, our perception of self worth goes up, we feel valued and most of all, we feel that our contributions and efforts have not gone unnoticed.

How to do it

The trick is to keep it simple. Whenever you are speaking with one of your team members make a comment or observation about something, anything, they have recently done. I stress, this is just making a comment or observation, it is not about dishing out a huge amount of praise. If a team member has done a really great job on something, that should get public praise in say your weekly management team meeting.

These comments should be given at the end of a conversation, or in an elevator, tea room or a quick corridor chat.

Examples that I found worked extremely well.

  • “That last email you sent me on xyz, I found that really helpful, thank-you.”

  • “At my Business meeting yesterday, the work you're doing for them was mentioned, they seem happy.”

  • “I spoke to one of your staff members this morning, she is doing a great job, I guess that means you are you to.”

  • “That urgent reply I needed to my email yesterday saved me a lot of grief, thank-you.”

  • “I don’t think I say this often enough, I just want to mention that I appreciate your efforts and everything that you do."

  • “Don’t forget my Rule Number 1, “You need my permission to die, and you don’t have it, you're too valuable” (For the humour value, works a treat.)

So, whenever you’re chatting with a team member, think to yourself -

“What simple comment can I make about their efforts.”

Do it regularly, it’s a comment; not a heap of praise.


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