Quick Reference Guide - Recognition, Appreciation and Celebrating Success’
“Success breeds success”
Why bother? Where to start?!
Employees Who Receive High-Quality Recognition Are Less Likely to Leave their Organisation (Gallup / Workhuman). And engagement, productivity and performance are all linked to recognition (Deloitte). So, here’s to shining a light on your teams’ successes and small wins!
Recognition: Providing positive feedback on a team member’s performance / recognising something they’ve achieved.
Appreciation: Acknowledging the value a team member brings to the team.
Celebrating Success’: Recognising achievements big and small.
Recognition, appreciation and celebrating successes are all distinctly different, and are all important in ensuring employees feel valued and appreciated at work.
Celebrating Successes and the benefits you can count on:
A sense of team and belonging. Sharing successes, contributes to a sense of belonging and helps everyone feel valued and connected. Creates trust and gratitude towards one another.
Achievement focused spirit. Recognising and celebrating your teams wins, generates a sense of accomplishment and fosters a sense of pride in being part of a high performing team. This hit of dopamine motivates everyone to keep striving and planning for future success.
Learning. Celebrating successes, encourages team members to reflect on what they’ve achieved and what enabled them to achieve it. Reflecting on, and knowing what worked well, they are more likely to replicate the behaviour / actions again and again.
Ownership and accountability. Acknowledging the impact team members have had on results, helps team members feel they are an essential contributor to the team’s success. This gives them confidence, and empowers them to take some responsibility in achieving business outcomes.
An engaged team who feels valued and appreciated. The flip side of this is when team members put in a lot of hard work and effort that they feel goes unnoticed. This quickly turns to resentment and a disengaged team! So make sure you regularly acknowledge the value someone brings to the team.
Recognition, Appreciation and Celebrating Successes: Tips
Ensure any feedback, recognition or appreciation is authentic and genuine.
There is no right or wrong way – recognise team members and celebrate successes in whatever way feels right for your business.
Celebrate early and small – doesn’t have to be big wins. Regular recognition gives team members a good dose of dopamine, which stimulates positive emotions which in turn, fuels a desire for further achievement.
Personalise. Just emailing a simple thank you or well done ensures team members feel valued.
Celebrate learnings. Maybe a mistake was made, or an opportunity was missed. Celebrate what was learnt and recognise positive behaviours demonstrated to resolve / improve the situation.
Clear goals and ensure everyone understands what the business is working towards. Share how you’re tracking
Look for ways to visibly share successes eg newsletter, staff notice board, social media etc.
Ensure everyone is clear on the purpose of their role, their key responsibilities and how they contribute to the business’ success
Make the celebration and recognition of big wins memorable. Ensure everyone is clear on what the business’ targets are and ensure these are ambitious, yet achievable (and measurable).
Ultimately, you’re looking for team members to start recognising and celebrating their peers success’
“The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing”
How?
There is no right or wrong way. Here are some non-monetary examples of what you can do to celebrate successes in your team and to recognise and acknowledge your team members:
Talk about wins (even small ones) and recognise what has been accomplished. It can be very simple – whether 1:1 or in team meeting or company-wide.
Company email updates recognising small and big wins. This helps ensure everyone feels that as a business you’re heading in the right direction.
Personalising notes to team members to thank / recognise them. It can just be a simple thank you or well done.
Kudos section in email updates
Share customer feedback
Tick it off – share on blackboard under wins for the week
Visual board somewhere – what has been achieved so can visually see where you’ve come from
High Five!
Team song for every time new customer brought on board. Opportunity for everyone to stop, clap, cheer and celebrate!
Recognition on social media
Additional leave or flexibility to start work later / finish work earlier one day
What to recognise?
Business wins
Project completions
Consistency
Where values have been brought to life / lived
Achievement of targets
New deal / customer coming on board
Personal milestones (eg team member getting married, buying a house)
Work anniversary
A small example:
At one of my old workplaces, we had a new CEO start. He set some incredibly ambitious goals. We all thought they were nearing on impossible but he worked hard with all of us to ensure we achieved them. Then one day we turned up to work thinking it was a normal day, to find a coffee cart providing free coffees and pastries and to receive a prezzie voucher in recognition of what we had achieved together. It kept coming - later in the day glass of bubbles and/ or ice-cream sorbets were brought around. It will remain one of my favourite and most memorable days at work.
