Who doesn’t want to create a more engaged, productive team of innovative leaders in their business?
A motivated, engaged team is a productive, sustainable team. From the Society for Human Resource Management:
Not only does engagement have the potential to significantly affect employee retention, productivity, and loyalty, it’s also a key link to customer satisfaction, company reputation and overall stakeholder value.
One of the most critical aspects of a successful business is building and retaining exceptional leaders and teams.
And one of the best ways to retain your best employees is recognition for a job well done. Business leaders, owners, and entrepreneurs must recognize that great teams deserve credit when they’re successful.
Recognition shows your sincere appreciation and gratitude. Nothing says “you are valued” more than a heartfelt “thank you.” And that “thank you” can take many forms.
This post will discuss why recognizing and celebrating successful teams is critical to long-term business success.
We’ll also suggest a few simple tips on how business leaders can effectively recognize success in their business without breaking the bank or alienating the workforce.
The challenges associated with hiring the right personnel and building and maintaining a cohesive, engaged team can’t be overstated in the current hiring market.
But how important is employee recognition in the retention equation? At Fifth Ascent, we’ve seen it make or break companies. The workplace experts at A Great Place To Work sum up the value of employee recognition succinctly:
From a very early age, we crave recognition from parents, teachers and friends. So strong is our desire for positive affirmation, particularly during developmental periods, that we can even perceive a neutral reaction as a negative one.
This continues to hold true as we move into the workplace. Employee recognition helps to:
- Retain top talent
- Increase employee engagement
- Encourage high performance
Undoubtedly, engaged, satisfied employees form the sustainable core of all successful companies.
So how can leadership effectively recognize successful teams?
It’s not as difficult as you might think. You don’t want to alienate anyone but rather encourage and empower all employees. That can be a bit of a tightrope. But if you remove all potential bias from the equation, it becomes much simpler.
Establish data-driven, transparent, objective goals for teams. Rewards for teams hitting their goals should also be published and promoted in a positive way. These types of guardrails will remove any potential appearance of bias.
Simple events like lunches, dinners, or a celebratory happy hour can go a long way to improving employee engagement through recognition. Inviting families to participate in the event, especially if it involves a promotion, can also be extremely rewarding.
Employee and team recognition can range from a simple $15 gift certificate to a significant promotion, an award of stock options, etc. All of this depends, of course, on the goals achieved, the financial condition of the company at the time, etc.
The point is always to be aware of short- and long-term goals and recognize the people achieving them. Remember, we all desire recognition for a job well done.
Team building and genuine recognition start at the top.
It takes hard work and dedication to be successful in today’s hyper-competitive business world. It’s kind of like training for a difficult, challenging athletic event. As a participant in triathlons, I know what it’s like to train for long hours under rigorous conditions with no guarantees of even finishing, let alone victory.
The sincere desire to recognize and reward teams starts at the ownership and the executive levels. Gratitude is contagious. If gratitude and appreciation percolate from the top down, they will permeate your business in extremely positive ways that you may never have expected!
Your team members are putting in the hard work and going the extra mile behind closed doors.
They’re not expecting anything in return. When leadership shows them how significantly valued they are, teams will respond with genuine gratitude and appreciation. This can create an incredibly positive feedback loop in any organization.
Are you interested in discussing how we can empower your people and teams, build a strong corporate culture, manage goal achievement more effectively and grow your business together?
Our team has over two decades of experience working in senior leadership roles delivering top-line growth and profitably across a broad spectrum of industries.
We have helped companies scale their operations to support double-digit growth rates, and build high-performing leadership teams using the Entrepreneurial Operating System®. Goal attainment happens by providing clarity and alignment on direction, creating an innovative environment that enables trust and intelligent risk-taking, and an open communications platform that fosters innovation.
Our passion is helping teams discover their extraordinary so they can achieve extraordinary things.
Call us at 415.991.4961 or get in touch with our team online today to schedule a complimentary consultation.
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