There are four missing
critical ingredients in many of today’s organizations; Recognition,
Appreciation, Validation & Fun
Tim Connor
You might be
shocked at how few organizations today regardless of their size fail to create
and maintain a culture that gives employees the recognition, validation, and appreciation they need and deserve to
enable and motivate them to higher performance and increased motivation. They
also fail to foster a fun environment that helps reduce their stress, burnout, and negativity.
After
working with hundreds of organizations over the years (no disrespect intended
to any of them) as a trainer, consultant, speaker or coach I can tell you
unequivocally that every organization I have worked with regardless of the
number of employees, industry or business model - lacked to some degree one of
these four vital ingredients to a degree that in some ways hurt the
organization’s growth, market share, competitiveness or overall effective functionality. A few things to consider.
Why are
these so important?
What is the
cost of not having them?
Why do many
organizations lack them?
How can you
put them back into your culture?
Why are these so
important?
Everyone
needs to feel valued as a human for what they do, who they are, who they are becoming, what they are learning – get it – we
all need validation of some kind
especially from people we like, love, respect or work for or with. This validation can take the form of
appreciation, recognition, compliments even just being noticed or acknowledged by many people. One of the biggest weaknesses
of many managers, business owners and executives today is that they have
created and/or are maintaining a culture that lacks real and honest
appreciation and recognition or their management style has taken the fun out of the business for just about
everyone. Without these four elements, I will guarantee that your employees
sooner or later will lose their passion, motivation, and effectiveness negatively impacting your organization in many
important ways. Not to mention that your
best employees will leave.
What is the cost of not
having them?
Unmanaged
stress is one of today’s biggest contributors to poor employee
performance. Too many employees just have
too much on their plates or management’s expectations are causing them to
circle the wagons and isolate themselves from others and even lie or
misrepresent their performance. In today’s low unemployment market, I will
guarantee that employees who don’t feel adequately appreciated or recognized
will leave and head to a competitor or supplier sooner rather than later.
As a word of
caution – increased wages or income do not make up for a lack of these four
elements. It’s been proven again and
again over the years that most employees want these more than a pay raise.
Why do many
organizations lack them?
I could go
on for pages with this one, but I’ll keep it short. There are five simple
causes of any organization failing to
include these in their culture or environment;
Management
style is heavy top-down rather than bottom-up.
Management is ego and arrogance driven rather than filled with humility,
compassion, and consideration of others rather than self. Management is driven by revenue rather than
service relevance. Management is all
about self-gratification rather than sharing and giving. And, management creates rules, policies, and procedures, guidelines etc. that benefit
the organization rather than taking into consideration the employees. that Got
it? Every organization that lacks these
four ingredients is a heavy top-down driven organization.
How can you put them
back into your culture?
Well, if you
are still reading - this one is simple really.
Just look at the previous item differently. If these are missing from your culture
remember that culture is created top-down but lived bottom-up. So, if any or all four of these elements are
missing or not working in your organization - you gotta start at the top and
ask – why are they missing? How am I
responsible? And, if you can handle
reality or truth – why not ask yourself or your employees a few more?
Yes, there
are numerous ways to improve these or increase their positive impact on your
organization’s performance, but they need to be tailored to your employee
profile, business model, history, expectations and market reputation.
Obviously, a
hospital will integrate some of these differently than an association or
government agency and employees who work in construction will see some things
differently than a non-profit or technology organization but in the end without
these four regardless of your organization – you will lose business, employees
and market share – sooner rather than later.
Want some
help with any of these? Let’s chat.
