I enjoy Laurie Ruettimann’s blog and advice for HR professionals. She is straightforward, often tongue-in-cheek, and always honest with her own perspective. In this recent post, she offered several snippets of “life advice,” including this one:
What’s your reaction to that statement? Typical responses often are:
1) I pay you to do your job. That’s recognition and motivation enough to give at least 100% all the time.
2) You shouldn’t need external appreciation to do good work. You should be intrinsically motivated to give 100%.
3) This is decent advice. If nobody notices your work, stop working so hard.
Perhaps surprisingly, my response falls in line with the third option. I tend to agree with Laurie. But understand, this isn’t a plea for a gold star or some form of “Look at me!” aggrandizement. It’s a simple statement that, if no one notices the above-and-beyond work you’re doing, is it really all that valuable or necessary in the first place?
Sure, your job requires a certain level of effort, contribution, output and result. And you are contracted to deliver that service or result in the form of you compensation for agreed work. But the flip side of that coin is that your work is noticed and valued.
Appreciation isn’t just about praise. It’s also recognition of the importance of the work done within the bigger picture of what needs to be accomplished as a team, division, and company. We all perform better when we know the value of the contribution we make. So take a few minutes and make the value of your coworkers’ or team members’ contributions explicit. Pause briefly and say, “Thank you. I notice what you do. It’s valuable to me, to the team, to the customer, or to the company in this way. I appreciate your work and you.”
How hard do you work? Is your effort valued and appreciated?
As Globoforce’s 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 and Boston. Follow Derek on Twitter at @DerekIrvine.
Great article. In my experience 60% simply becomes the measurement of "100%". This way everyone "gives their best" and nothing gets done. Over the long run this even changes the definition of mediocrity to the point where what was once considered completely unacceptable becomes the lower threshold of expected performance. Good stuff!
Posted by: Dan Walter | 09/30/2014 at 12:14 PM