Appreciating your Squad

Last week’s issue: Improving your 1-to-1 Game

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Today at a Glance:

• Recognising your team

• How to add more weight to your recognition

• 6 quick ideas on how to do it well

• Why disagreement is healthy and sparks creativity

• Trillion Dollar Coach

• A Journal by Steven Barlett

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Your team will feel more valued and empowered when you recognise the work they’re doing on a regular basis.

In previous a tech firm I was working hard and executing tasks and projects but my boss at the time never stopped to take a moment to celebrate the work and recognise me or the team.

As humans we need feedback, we need to know if what we’re doing is working or if we’re on the right path.

It helps to prevent imposter syndrome from creeping in too.

“Am I doing a good job? No one has said I am not? But they also haven’t said I am, I must be doing a bad one?”

It can sap morale too when someone works hard at something but isn’t recognised.

Make it your task this week to recognise some folks in your team!

And it’s not just about just saying “good job”.

Focus on why it’s a good job.

Pro Tip:

I try and focus on these 4 areas when praising someone:

1. Evidence - provide an example of where they shined. Pull it up on your screen.

2. Celebrate the behaviour - what specific behaviour was there on show that resulted in the desired outcome? If you want more of that, praise it.

3. Call out the impact - acknowledge the impact their contribution had on the team, business or customer. Why was it important?

4. Contribution - explain why their contribution is important and helping the business to continue to grow.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Here are some quick and simple ways to recognise the people in your team. This isn’t a one-off, it needs to be an intentional and ongoing process.

Do this instead:

1) Customer Surveys - send surveys to your customers and ask them for feedback on your team’s interactions or service.

What you do:

• Share the feedback comments with the team member and ask if they’re comfortable with you sharing with the team? If so, you’re good to go.

• Share in the team channel!

2) Personal Video - use Loom, it’s free. I love this one! It adds heart and meaning to the words rather than just sending a message or Slack.

What you do:

• Record and send them a 1-3 minute video using Loom.

• Thank them and recognise some good work they have done.

• Share your screen with some data during the recording to add more weight to the recognition.

  • “You really make a difference to our customer experience, thank you.”

  • “The work you’re doing is adding so much value to our customers, thank you”

3) Personal email with senior Leaders - this not only allows you to celebrate with other leaders but also gets the individual on the senior leader’s radar that they are a great employee and doing good things.