3 Tricks To Treat Your Team Like The Valued Employees They Are

What’s scarier than Kathy Bates with a mallet in Misery?

The DELUSION managers have about how well they praise and recognize their employees, who desperately want to feel appreciated.

Here’s some data (and it’s just as shocking as a notorious serial killer turning into Chucky in Child’s Play):

💀 A study by Roosevelt University found that 80% of managers believe they frequently express appreciation; however, only 20% of their employees agreed.

😱 Similarly, KRC Research found that 9 out of 10 employees feel unrecognized by their supervisors. Meanwhile, 80% of those same supervisors said they DO recognize their employees enough.

This is a huge gap between the recognition our employees crave and what we as leaders actually deliver. It’s likely that you make this mistake too, and are even losing your valued employees because of it.

I get it. It’s hard to praise and recognize regularly as you juggle managing a team of diverse humans, multiple deadlines, rising customer expectations, and inflation. But the data clearly shows us that we need to praise and appreciate our team A LOT more – EVEN IF we think we are already doing it enough.

Here are 3 ways to up your recognition game (so you don’t end up like the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake in Friday The 13th):

1. Measure It.

As a business leader, you know that what gets measured gets managed. Or what gets measured gets improved. So start tracking how often you recognize your employees. Set a daily or weekly goal and check in with yourself to see how well you’re doing. Neuroscience research demonstrates that the simple act of regularly tracking or measuring something keeps it front of mind and thus helps us improve it.

2. Know Your Team Member’s Love Language.

Just as you and your spouse give and receive love in different ways (acts of service, words of affirmation, physical touch, gifts, or quality time), the same is true for each of your team members. With your direct reports and when you onboard your next employee, find out what their love language is, then record it in their employee file – the same file you reference at their quarterly reviews or in your weekly metrics dashboard. Remember that recognizing them in line with their love languages will be worth a lot more to them than any other way.

Of course, physical touch isn’t appropriate in a workplace, so if that’s your employee’s dominant love language, find out their secondary one and focus your effort there.

3. Specificity And Timing Matter.

If you are only recognizing the contributions of your team during their quarterly or – even scarier – annual review, you likely have a team that is unengaged, under-staffed, and leaves you as desperate as the father who buried his wife in Pet Semetary.

Be specific and praise the process: (“You did a great job making sure all participants felt heard and were able to contribute in the meeting today.”), not the outcome (“Great job leading the meeting today!”).

Be specific and praise the behavior: (“You stayed committed and took a little time to study every night to get that good grade.”), not the person (“You’re so smart!”).

🍭🍭🍭 Recognition is to employees like candy is to children: There is never enough. 

So, fill your candy bowl with these three leadership tricks and you’ll be on your way to handing out recognition treats by Halloween.

Love,
💜 Your Coach,
Sara