Hey, this is Chris with Hacking Your Leadership and on this conversation around employee
engagement. I want to do a little follow up to the core Hacking your
Leadership episode that Lorenzo I did on Monday. We were talking about coaching habits
for leaders. If you haven't listened to that episode yet, please go go
do so. But we had some feedback from some listeners talking about one of
those elements of coaching around appreciating people, and I thought, well, this
is this is a great topic to have when we're talking about employee engagement because
I think over time a lot of people have expressed that a feeling of appreciation
or recognition for the work that they're doing has become significantly more important. And
you know, it's a topic that resonates with me as a leader of people,
because if I want people to engage in their job, then I need
to do what they're expressing is important to them. And you know, I
grew up in a household where the you know, just getting done the things
that I was supposed to get done led to you know, hugs and kisses
from my mom and my dad with a subtle nod saying good good job.
Thank you move on. And it was this kind of element of this duality
of you know, he believed that if I got too much recognition for doing
something that I was supposed to do, that it would lead to a complacency
or not doing that anymore. He believed in recognition for the above and beyond.
And while recognition for above and beyond, I think is important, recognition
for just doing your job, recognition for doing the things that you're supposed to
do. That is incredibly important to a lot of people. And if you're
a leader, you need to start getting in the habit of appreciating people for
just doing their job in a way that is sincere. I think this is
important because if an employee is only getting recognition when they go above and beyond,
then they will start getting complacent. You have exactly the opposite effect if
you start giving people appreciation and recognition for just doing their job. The reason
why that's important is because there they have peers who are not doing that well,
and to set them apart from those that are not doing it well is
important. If everybody is doing things well, it becomes less of a big
deal. But it is important to give that recognition and that appreciation. What
do you think about this? Yeah, I think it's a great conversation and
it's clear that people feel a certain way about it. And I remember back
in it's probably two three years at this point, but do you remember the
employee from Burger King, Like when you're talking about it, reminded me of
that that like had a like like like twenty seventy years right, and and
and it kind of got like a movie ticket and a Starbucks cup and of
course, like the internet went crazy. Oh yeah, like you know what
I mean, like, like, what are you out of your mind?
I think they raised a bunch of money for him. But anyway, that's
beside the point. Yeah. What it tells you, though, is that,
like there is this sense of understanding that while you could recognize and do
some things for like outstanding work and when people kind of like really push the
envelope or do more than what's expected. Yes, of course you want to
recognize those things, but you've got to remember that like so many people on
a team that come to work and just do solid work, do really really
good jobs, do it consistently, do it without requiring you know, a
lot of coaching or training or whatever. The case is like so many more
people fall into that bucket, and you want to make sure that they feel
appreciated and special and and yes, you want to do the things that you
know sometimes we poke fun at, which is like the hey, here's the
you know, the Hawaiian shirt Friday, Here's the casual Friday, here's the
pizza party. Like, yes, those things happen, and people make memes
about them. They do mean something, But more importantly, that's just kind
of general recognition for everybody typically versus there being a way of making sure that
people feel validated personally and they feel appreciated for the work that they do day
in and day out, away from the ones where it's kind of like an
extreme example of really really great work. I like that because I think,
you know the in my mind, I was thinking about you know, Hawaiian
shirt Fridays and pizza parties before you even said that in terms of the tie
in here, because when when organizations get made fun of for doing those things
like you know, providing donuts or pizza. Uh, They're not getting made
fun of for providing something for the employee. They're getting made fun of because
the perception is that that the leadership of the organization believes that those things are
a substitute for the daily recognition and appreciation that employees deserve and need and are
demanding. And when it's a substitution for that, that's when you have a
problem because because it it calls out this this almost the lack of that being
there every single day, when you try to make up for it with a
pizza party or or a Hawaiian shirt Friday. It's like, you know,
before, before we had kids, my wife did some bartending, and there
was She always said that she liked it better when a person wouldn't leave a
tip than if they left like a dollar on like a you know, one
hundred dollar tab, because she at least would could, in her mind leave
their thinking maybe they forgot, or maybe they didn't know, or maybe they
thought there was a tip but there wasn't one, and at least she could
like, you know, kind of make peace with that. When it was
a dollar one hundred dollars. The the impression that she got was like,
how how dare you think that you did okay by giving like like they get
to walk out thinking, yes, I gave that person a tip and all
is well now it's like, no, you, you don't get to have
that sense of satisfaction of doing that. I'd rather not get anything. And
it's the exact same thing. If you, as a leadership team are are
are thinking that pizza parties and Hawaiian shirt Fridays are the substitution for actual appreciation.
That's when you get made fun of because you don't get to have that
sense of satisfaction thinking I did right by my people because I don't engage with
them, I don't coach them, I don't appreciate them. But they got
pizza today. That's not allowed right. They'd rather have nothing. Then have
you think you got away with kind of pulling the wole over their eyes.
I think where this is being done right is where it's being done every single
day. And I don't mean that pizza is provided every day, because even
that becomes superficial. It's when people are genuinely being appreciated for actual things that
they are doing. Where a leader can articulate an example of what somebody did,
even if it's part of their of their core job description, because it
shows that you notice that they're doing it and that you believe it's important to
the success of them and of the team and of the organization. And if
you can root it in that, and you can do that often, then
first of all, you don't need the pizza party. But when you do
it, it becomes just like a hey, I just thought this would be
cool today, not I'm trying to make up for something that is lacking elsewhere
where it's not done right. Is when you wake up and go, oh
my gosh, I haven't done this for weeks or months, I need to
do something, and you start throwing spagheti at the wall to see what sticks
in the hopes that you can kind of get through it. If you find
yourself in a situation where you're lacking this as a leader and you're not doing
this well, you can't fool them. You have to call out your own
failure to them and ask how it can get better, because they already know
it's a failure. I want to get into some advice for leaders here if
they're trying to get better at this, But first I'm gonna give toward to
one of our sponsors a right. I think if you're trying to get better
at this as a leader, the first thing is you have to own whatever
mistakes are yours. You have to own the lack of this when it comes
to your people, even if it means calling yourself out publicly in front of
them as a team or one on one to let them know that you understand
that this is important and that you have not done as good a job as
you can at this. Have you ever had to do this to somebody who
learns though? Yeah, No, absolutely, I think that it happens quite
often where it's like you, sometimes as a leader, you just have to
hit that reset button a little bit and get in front of the team and
say, hey, this is something that i've heard, or this is something
that I've seen, or somebody brought this up and I just want to address
it collectively, like hey, we need to get better here and we need
to figure out a way to make this more impactful. And so you know
what I'm going to do, and the kind of here's the commitment is that
we're going to ask you. We're gonna spend some time, get some information
like what what are the things you'd like to see? How how would this
work? What are some ways that we could do this and gather some insight
from all of you, and then share out what we learn. I think
that that's absolutely the right approach to this, Like well, like with most
things in leadership, I think if you're if you're upfront, if you're transparent,
if you share there's an opportunity and you're willing to make the changes to
fix it, you'll get a lot of grace from the team. But you
also have to make sure that you follow through on those things. You can't
just say that you're going to do it, or you know, express that
it's an opportunity, or send an email and say like, hey, I've
heard this, I've like you got to go out there and really own it
and then lead through the front of that. And I think that in those
in those situations, you'll get a lot of good information and people will choose
and what you might find out for the team is like, you know what,
maybe we don't have a whole bunch of ideas, but maybe this could
be a change, or maybe that could be a change, or maybe it's
a random thing or maybe like sometimes it's funny because I've I've heard it both
ways. People are like, you know, I like it better when I
know when we're gonna have a recognition day or a pizza day, because then
I won't bring my food right right. And then you're also and you're like,
you're like, come on, like I try to do something nice and
people don't like, but but likes that's legitimate. It's legitimate. Sometimes like
you got to take that in and you have to talk about it and you
have to understand it. And maybe is that a one or two off,
you know, situation in people or or is this a larger thing from an
office standpoint or from a workspace standpoint? So yeah, I think that you
just need to talk and find out and ask questions. And then if the
team can see that you're taking that into account, then I think you get
a lot more of an opportunity to continue to recognize and personally and have it
be very authentic. The last thing I want to say about this is that
if you think you don't have the resources to do this, I'm I'm positive
in telling you this you're wrong. And here's I mean. If if your
people are saying that what they are are lacking or needing to feel appreciated and
recognized, if what if what they're saying costs money, then it means you're
already failing at the stuff that they need that is that does not cost money,
and and those things are being articulated as substitutes for the things that are
needed all the time. Appreciating people, noticing the work that they're doing well
and making sure that they feel recognized for that in a way that is impactful
to them and in a way that they liked being they liked being recognized.
That doesn't cost anything besides a commitment to doing it and a belief that it
is a requirement. If you approach this from a standpoint of, like,
you know, kind of rolling your eyes and grumble, grumble, like,
I guess if they need to if they need a cookie for doing their job,
I guess I'll throw them a cookie. That's that you shouldn't be in
a leadership role if that's how you if that's how you view this, Appreciating
people for what they're doing well, even for just doing their job that they're
expected to do, is a requirement, and if you need to muster that
up in a way that is sincere, if for no other reason, then
clearly you can find examples of employees that work for you that do not do
this well. So it's not a given that people are doing this well.
It is a given that some people are and some people aren't. And you
know, the squeaky wheel tends to get the grease sometimes, and that leaders
spend a lot of their time trying to coach up people who are not doing
things well, and they don't spend enough time focusing on people who are already
doing things well, and those are the people that will leave. So so
do this the right way for the people who are doing things well, they're
less likely to leave, and that appreciation will go a long way in terms
of just maintaining that engagement. It is needed and it is noticed. Thank
you all for listening today. Join us next Thursday for another discussion on employe
engagement. Have a great day.