Some people say “it’s not work if you love what you do!” and in some part that is true. But even if you love what you do and have a great job, some days can be less than perfect. In most organizations, its easy to focus all of your time seeing the things that are going wrong and firefighting them while missing all of the good that you love about your job and teammates. That’s why you should celebrate every day!
Find ways to thank, congratulate and reward all of the great things that your people do every day. These recognition gestures do not need to be expensive and grandiose either. They simply need to bring all of these great things to the surface so they are not drowned in the noise of the day to day fires.
One way to do this is by having a system that will allow employees to recognize each other in a simple way. Give them a simple web form that they can fill out that has categories of behavior such as “Made My Day” and “Going Above and Beyond”. They can pick a category, pick a recipient from drop down list of employees and write a quick sentence or two about what they did. Once submitted, the recognized employee gets a copy as well as the person’s team leader. Then you can read them off in your weekly meeting so everybody hears about what a great job that they did.
If you wish, you can even tie it to a small reward like a $5 gift card or something simple, but even that is not necessary. People like being recognized for the great stuff that they do, not just noticed when they make a mistake.
Be a great leader and give your team the ability to celebrate every day!
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Michael Giuffrida from Southington CT has been operating businesses since 1997. He is an experienced entrepreneur in business management, profitable growth, business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, and information technology managed services.
Great idea Mike. Recognizing little things employees do can avoid larger issues like bad moral and even employee turnover