Real engagement not Faux-engagement

#engagement #leadershipengagement #authenticengagement

Recently I observed an exchange between a manager who was claiming to engage a member of their team. Both the manager and the member of the team were/are good people who are doing their best with the knowledge/skills they have. The manager was using the well known and valuable Q12 from Gallup as a guide to help indicate if they were actually doing the necessary job. These 12 questions are meant to measure various elements (12 specifically) that help indicate the level of engagement or lack thereof from the team and its individual members. In my opinion as a developer of people and passionate about getting the most out of people, I believe these are great questions and when used right, the Q12 are very effective for measuring engagement. I believe that this particular tool is one of the best tools on the market to help measure engagement, but I want to focus on the following questions, respectively questions 4-7, over the next few posts. 

Q4 In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?

Q5 Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?

Q6 Is there someone at work who encourages your development?

Q7 At work, do your opinions seem to count?

Today I'll simply look at the question, "In the last seven days, have you received recognition or praise for doing good work?”

What does recognition look like? What I'm asking is, when is recognition authentic? Recognition is authentic when it's based on value of contribution, not just the person and their efforts, and when its given in private to that specific person to make it personal and focused.

Recognition of value can be both subjective and objective. It's subjective when it's based on perceived contribution but it's objective when it's based on proof of contribution. 

Subjective recognition builds confidence and builds a persons desire to do more. It comes from perceived value but it's still a personal opinion. It sounds like, "Good work on that x project" or "Nicely done on your presentation, it really hit the spot". You might say, "Your efforts were admirable and you're heading in the right direction". This language while real and authentic is simply language that denotes that you as a manager feel its value, but not concrete in stating why its of value. 

Objective recognition can be powerful and will help to set a tone of evidence. For instance you might say, "you're doing it absolutely right by doing….” or "your submission was perfect to convince the client because it….”. This language helps to demonstrate what was of value and how it led to a positive result. It's all about finding something that can be proven to be of value. When you have to “search or reach” for value, then the authenticity might be lost. It might indicate that you are finding it difficult to see the value of the contribution. This could have a less than positive effect on their engagement. 

Public recognition is good but private recognition, based on value and proven contribution, is better. This is personal and it tells the employee that their work is seen as "their work" and not only as "team effort" or an effort based on someone else’s work. Another note is to make sure you don't go down a list of "moments of good work". Why, because then it may seem as if you are trying to find something good rather than it happening organically. I observed a manager tell an employee that they had recognized him on, "this date" or "that moment" as if it was a “moments of recognition” ledger. The employee was obviously unimpressed and later stated that they felt as if there was a lack of authenticity. It's not a score or a list of competitive moments. It must be organic and authentic.

Here's your challenge, next week find a moment or two with each employee to observe a value added moment of contribution and then in private let them know what they did. Do this for the next few weeks and watch their engagement start to rise. You may find skeptics and you might find some harder to convince than others but make sure you are authentic and that it's not forced. Just teach yourself to find those small moments of added value and capture them and then share them. Each moment of recognition will help to light the fire of engagement in each of your team members. 

Start 2019 with a new perspective and a refined leadership style. 

Merry Christmas and Successful 2019

Until next time

Evan