Hello, everyone. I want to share with you an article that highlights a study done by Gallup and Work Human that states that 50% of employees who say the recognition that they receive is not authentic and equitable are looking for a new job. A culture of recognition is defined as one in which gratitude, praise and appreciation are freely given and regularly receive in an authentic and equitable way. Some of the statistics from the study that highlight the benefits of having recognition in your culture are that employees are four times as likely to feel that they belong at their organization, four times as likely to be engaged, and this also supports their general well-being.
This also aligns well with the positive leadership course I have the opportunity to take at the University of Michigan through their executive education courses. I had to do one of the most challenging exercises ever. So imagine this. It’s the first day within the first hour or two, we’re sitting at desks or cohorts with four or five other people from different companies and across the US. And we’re asked to authentically identify and describe a positive behavior or attribute of each individual out loud to the group. Now, let me remind you, we barely met and from my career experiences up to that point, the training that I had received was more around focusing on areas for improvement. So this is a very foreign approach and as I mentioned, one of the most difficult exercises I’ve ever had to do up to that point.
So they showed a video of an award winning National Geographic photographer who highlighted some of his famous work. He showed how the most mundane field or an urban empty lot could have beauty if looked at from different angles. He showed how getting on top of a ladder or laying on the ground on his side with his head to the ground, could find the angle or the perspective that could accentuate and highlight aspects that were easily missed with a quick glance. And what these exercises and what the program was meant to do is to help you tune into the positive behaviors in your leadership of others versus negative or areas of improvement, which most of us are trained to do here.
Here at Fierce we’re passionate about providing the tools to give feedback. And we’ve always advocated that feedback is feedback. And even with positive feedback, it has to be based on observable behavior, such as, wow. The example you gave in that presentation really brought to life the themes we needed to understand versus, Hey, great job. Actionable and memorable feedback will always be based on tangible, observable behaviors and also help you enrich the relationships in your lives.
Remember, the conversation is the culture and it’s also the relationship. Thank you.
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