As our lives continue to be restricted in the Asia Pacific region due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, it is even more critical for us as leaders to challenge ourselves to enhance our workplace culture (virtual or otherwise).

A massive lever is to dial up recognition, and ensure it becomes a natural part of the company’s DNA. I was fortunate to work in one of the most recognition-orientated companies in the world, YUM! Brands. The founding CEO, David Novak, did an amazing job driving recognition as a strategic point of difference. I highly recommend his book, “Taking People with You”.

The reason why recognition works at increasing team engagement and retention is that it demonstrates that you, as the leader, and the “company”, care about them and the value they add to the business. “Purpose and Pride” is another phrase that is relevant; recognising an individual increases their personal pride, which again increases their engagement.

Maintaining a culture of recognition is surprisingly easy; the hard part is the first six months of changing your own and the leadership team’s behaviour … once that happens and habits set in, then the recognition becomes natural.

Like so many things in business, creating a culture of recognition is simply a process, requiring both informal and formal initiatives. Some informal ideas are laid out below:

• Respond to every email you receive from a team member; particularly when they are providing something to you. It can be a simple “Thx (name), appreciated this”. This may seem like a lot of extra work, but it is not.
• Send “well done and thank you” emails or messages, which may or may not copy in others. Aim to do this at least three times a week. A handwritten card from you is immensely powerful.
• Walk around to their desk or office and recognize them in person. Be specific on why you are recognizing them, be genuine and relaxed. Aim to do this at least twice per week.
• During your daily or weekly all-hands, townhalls or team calls, always find something to thank a team member or a team for. Again, be specific on what they have done.
• Don’t allow the person receiving the recognition to be too deprecating and push back on the recognition. A simple response on your part is “well I understand why you might say that, but I truly appreciate what you, and the team, did”.
• If your operation has a number of locations, always be prepared to recognize at least one team member when you visit their site. This spreads like wildfire across the business.
• REQUIRE your Leadership Team to do all the above.  Developing a culture of recognition cannot be achieved by one person, it must become part of everyone’s behavior.

The informal initiatives must partner with formal recognition. Some ideas include:

• Establishing a program/campaign that recognizes team members (operations and support centre) against specific criteria, potentially nominated by other team members. The award should be given as part of the monthly townhall meeting. Make the award unique/quirky; if you provide financial or material addition, this should be of nominal value as it distracts from the point of the award.
• Hold an annual award/recognition event where a range of outcomes are recognized. Areas should include safety, customer, financial, people and values.
• A critical component of formal recognition is that it must be FUN and ENTERTAINING. Go overboard with it!

When you start on this recognition journey, it may feel clunky and unnatural, but then it becomes ingrained and expected by the team.

My final comment is for the skeptics out there thinking, “this won’t work in my country because our culture is different”. Having worked in global organisations my whole career, I guarantee this works in every country.

Impactful Leadership can assist you on your journey to imbed a recognition culture in your business.

Photo by unsplash.com/@wilhelmgunkel