By Tim Connor
There are four missing critical ingredients in many of today's organizations; Recognition, Appreciation, Validation & Fun
You might be shocked at how few organizations today regardless of their size fail to create and maintain a culture that gives employees the recognition, validation, and appreciation they need and deserve to enable and motivate them to higher performance and increased motivation. They also fail to foster a fun environment that helps reduce their stress, burnout, and negativity.
After working with hundreds of organizations over the years (no disrespect intended to any of them) as a trainer, consultant, speaker or coach I can tell you unequivocally that every organization I have worked with regardless of the number of employees, industry or business model - lacked to some degree one of these four vital ingredients to a degree that in some ways hurt the organization's growth, market share, competitiveness or overall effective functionality. A few things to consider.
Why are these so important?
What is the cost of not having them?
Why do many organizations lack them?
How can you put them back into your culture?
Why are these so important?
Everyone needs to feel valued as a human for what they do, who they are, who they are becoming, what they are learning - get it - we all need validation of some kind especially from people we like, love, respect or work for or with. This validation can take the form of appreciation, recognition, compliments even just being noticed or acknowledged by many people. One of the biggest weaknesses of many managers, business owners and executives today is that they have created and/or are maintaining a culture that lacks real and honest appreciation and recognition or their management style has taken the fun out of the business for just about everyone.
Without these four elements, I will guarantee that your employees sooner or later will lose their passion, motivation, and effectiveness negatively impacting your organization in many important ways. Not to mention that your best employees will leave.
What is the cost of not having them?
Unmanaged stress is one of today's biggest contributors to poor employee performance. Too many employees just have too much on their plates or management's expectations are causing them to circle the wagons and isolate themselves from others and even lie or misrepresent their performance. In today's low unemployment market, I will guarantee that employees who don't feel adequately appreciated or recognized will leave and head to a competitor or supplier sooner rather than later.
As a word of caution - increased wages or income do not make up for a lack of these four elements. It's been proven again and again over the years that most employees want these more than a pay raise.
Why do many organizations lack them?
I could go on for pages with this one, but I'll keep it short. There are five simple causes of any organization failing to include these in their culture or environment;
Management style is heavy top-down rather than bottom-up. Management is ego and arrogance driven rather than filled with humility, compassion, and consideration of others rather than self. Management is driven by revenue rather than service relevance. Management is all about self-gratification rather than sharing and giving. And, management creates rules, policies, and procedures, guidelines etc. that benefit the organization rather than taking into consideration the employees. that Got it? Every organization that lacks these four ingredients is a heavy top-down driven organization.
How can you put them back into your culture?
Well, if you are still reading - this one is simple really. Just look at the previous item differently. If these are missing from your culture remember that culture is created top-down but lived bottom-up. So, if any or all four of these elements are missing or not working in your organization - you gotta start at the top and ask - why are they missing? How am I responsible? And, if you can handle reality or truth - why not ask yourself or your employees a few more?
Yes, there are numerous ways to improve these or increase their positive impact on your organization's performance, but they need to be tailored to your employee profile, business model, history, expectations and market reputation.
Obviously, a hospital will integrate some of these differently than an association or government agency and employees who work in construction will see some things differently than a non-profit or technology organization but in the end without these four regardless of your organization - you will lose business, employees and market share - sooner rather than later. Want some help with any of these? Let's chat.