Combat Fear with Appreciation * 9 Signs You Work in an Appreciative Workplace

How would you describe the atmosphere in your workplace? Fearful or appreciative? 

A recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek highlight the rise of fear-based cultures as employees become focused on preserving their jobs at any cost and employers feel the pressures of the recession and the actions taken to keep the company going.

The article offered 10 signs of a fear-based workplace (quoting):

1. Appearances are everything.
2. Everyone is talking about who's rising and who's falling.
3. Distrust reigns.
4. Numbers rule.
5. And rules number in the thousands.
6. Management considers lateral communication suspect.
7. Information is hoarded.
8. Brown-nosers rule.
9. 'The Office' evokes sad chuckles, rather than laughs.
10. Management leads by fear.

I can’t argue with that. If you have even a few of those items in combination in a single workplace, people are working out of fear, not engagement – which only serves to suppress performance numbers further.

But the article got me thinking. What would be the signs of an appreciation-based workplace – a work environment in which employees at all levels continuously encourage each other by recognizing and praising them for excellent efforts and achievements? Here’s my list:

9 Signs of an Appreciative Workplace

1. Employees are always looking over their shoulders … so they know when their teammates should be praised.
2. Managers are focused on catching employees in the act … of doing good.
3. People tell the boss what he wants to hear … that he’s doing good work, too, since recognition is encouraged both up and down the chain.
4. Everybody is focused on maintaining the status quo … of a culture of appreciation that encourages constant innovation, questioning, advancement and improvement.
5. Drama is constant … as employees are publicly recognized and celebrated for their achievements (if that’s the kind of recognition they like, of course).
6. The issue of trust … is rarely an issue as communication is frequent and constant flowing from employees to managers and vice versa.
7. Numbers are critical … as managers are encouraged to meet MBOs for recognition to ensure appreciation reigns in the workplace
8. Performance is closely monitored … as peers and managers look for opportunities to reward progress as well as results.
9. The company values plaque is taken off the wall … as they come alive in the daily work of employees who are frequently recognized for demonstrating the values.

What’s your workplace like? What additional signs of fear do you see? More importantly, what would you add to the list of signs of an appreciative workplace? What’s your advice for implementing this in the workplace today?

As Globoforce’s CMO & Head of Strategic Consulting, Derek Irvine is an internationally minded management professional with over 20 years of experience helping global companies set a higher ambition for global strategic employee recognition, leading workshops, strategy meetings and industry sessions around the world. His articles on fostering and managing a culture of appreciation through strategic recognition have been published in Businessweek, Workspan and HR Management. Derek splits his time between Dublin, Montreal and Boston. Follow Derek on Twitter at @globoforce.

 

Comments

[Things to do in York]

Everyone will surely love being in this kind of workplace. I do agree with you this are really the signs of an appreciative workplace. :) Also this set up could lessen the stress for each employee.

[Derek Irvine, Globoforce]

That's an important point. Stress in the workplace lends to errors, reduction in quality and other negative factors. Positive measures to reduce stress, including fostering an appreciative workplace, have the knock-on effect of also increasing productivity, performance and quality.

[Drew Hawkins]

You're point with the Office (#9) was a good one. It's a great show to laugh at but when we can relate to it more and more personally, there's more than likely a problem.

I think one of the biggest influencers of behavior in recognition programs is your #8 on the second list: rewarding progress in addition to results. Rewarding only results doesn't do much in regards to modifying the behaviors that ultimately affect long term results (actually a blog topic of ours next week).

[Derek Irvine, Globoforce]

Thanks, Drew, and I agree. But I must be sure to give credit where credit is due. The 10 signs of a Fear-based workplace are not my own, but from an article in Businessweek as linked above. (Just want to be sure there is no confusion as to origin.)

[Drew Hawkins]

No confusion whatsoever. Checked out the Businessweek article as well. Good stuff!

[Laura Schroeder]

Great turnaround from negative to positive. I love this!