Recognising Appreciation!

Week 13: Recognising Appreciation!

Discussions with my colleagues on employee appreciation and recognition have led to the post today. Recognition and Appreciation, most of the times we use these words interchangeably and think of them as the same thing. But there exists a big difference between the two words and for leaders who want to drive engaged, high-performing teams, it is vital to know that finer distinction.

Recognition, in its many forms, is given for exemplary performance. It may happen in the form of an award, incentives, salary raise, promotions or in a more informal manner with just a verbal thank you for a good job done. When done timely and genuinely recognition has immense impact on employee morale and motivation.

But there are some limits to recognition. To begin with, it is based on performance, so it is conditional. Secondly it is based on achievements of the past, so it is more about tasks already done. Thirdly it is also rare and exclusive. We cannot give equal bonus to everyone or personally thank everyone. Resources are finite and so will be recognition. Lastly it is, to a large extent, top-down. Senior leaders recognise their subordinates’ performance and dole out bonuses or incentives.

Appreciation on the other hand is a bit more deep. It is the acknowledgement of a person’s inherent value and their value to us as a colleague. Accomplishments are not the driving factor here.

Simply put, recognition is about what people do and appreciation is about who they are.

It is important to understand this difference. Recognition can be only outcome led and will limit the opportunity to connect with team members and motivate them, to only times when wins are created. Appreciation on the other hand is reaching out to colleagues without any outcome agenda. We all want to feel validated, to know if we are doing ok…Appreciation is just that. How can we appreciate people more?

Listen: Put down your phone when someone talks to you. Turn away from your laptop. Acknowledge their presence. Very simple to do, but something that most of us don’t.

Reach out: Without any outcome agenda, ask about their wellbeing. Ask if you can help or support them in any way so that they can do their work better and easier.

Say Thanks: Connect informally and convey thanks for being an important part of your team. Convey your genuine gratitude and express how important are they to you and how much you value their contributions.

In our daily rigmarole we forget genuine appreciation. We don’t even do informal recognition. In fact leaders just offload the responsibility altogether by trusting some platforms like awards and annual increment to do a token formal recognition. Genuine reaching out and appreciating people without agenda is a task few leaders want to invest time in. Token efforts to recognise are yielding token showcase of loyalty from employees. To drive and motivate an engaged team, it is time leaders take this up and create a culture of appreciation in their teams.