There are two separate things to look at in relation to Employee Recognition. One is what it looks like from the outside and one is the intention itself.

On the intention side, we want to make sure that our efforts to recognize the people that work for us are coming from an intention of celebration. That’s really what it is. We’re celebrating that they’ve done something that contributes to our needs, to their needs, to the needs of the organization. 

What it looks like from the outside can be really nice, the plaque, the special prize, the employee of the month recognition. All these things can be nice, however, if the intention is to manipulate a certain behavior over and over, then that might work in the short run but in the long run people will stop doing it because they’re not connected to their intrinsic motivations. As soon as they realize they’re being manipulated it just becomes less fun. 

A secondary purpose of recognition is the feedback. We all want our words and our actions to contribute to life in some way so the feedback lets us know that we’re actually hitting the mark. 

We want to be sure that the intention is celebration and when we actually voice the recognition I would recommend having very specific observations. For example, I have someone working with me on the team; someone named Nina. A clear observation might be, “Nina when I notice that you arrive on time, when I notice that you follow through on your agreements, when I notice that you bring a positive energy when you come, it so meets my needs for enjoying the work, for reliability and I can just relax knowing that your part of the work is going to get done. I just feel really elated and happy and fulfilled when I think of all that.”

How much more meaningful is that kind of recognition versus, “here’s your employee of the month certificate.” I would recommend voicing it with those components. Clear, observable behavior, what needs it fulfilled, and also how it affected us personally.

So keep in mind that the intention is primary and how it looks form the outside can vary.

When people are connected to their intrinsic needs for doing the work, we inspire people to bring their best work to the table.