Retention is an enormous problem for most organizations — and recognition is an important aspect of retention. Study upon management study has shown that people have many needs and expectations in organizational settings. They provide something to the group and need something in return. Ah, but the question is, “What do they need?”

Team Member Needs

Money is rarely the sole — or even the most important — consideration for most people. Yes, there seem to be natural-born mercenaries in the world, but they are relatively few and far between. Studies have generally shown that the three biggest concerns for most of us, in order, are these:

• Being recognized for the work we do

• Being part of the organization's larger picture

• Getting help with personal problems

In other words, people have pride and want to be valued, respected, and recognized for what they contribute to an organization, not treated as replaceable cogs. At first glance, this seems easy enough to accomplish. But it's not, and the strategy you use to create recognition is crucial.

Crazy Making

A lack of recognition is not just a situation of being snubbed. In organizations, it actually creates a form of temporary insanity. There is a concept in psychology called cognitive dissonance, defined as a clash between what a person knows or perceives and new information that contradicts it.

Think about it, and you might recognize the essential struggle between thesis and antithesis first mentioned in Chapter 10. In resolving conflict, the healthy approach is to work for a synthesis. Too often, however, leaders of an organization effectively ask people to act as though their perceptions of reality didn't exist. There are situations when a supervisor takes credit for the work of a direct report, who was then expected to act as though that were the case. Or leaders hold people responsible for their mistakes, yet act as though they weren't also responsible for their successes.

In healthy versions of perceptual conflict, a person comes to a more sophisticated and mature grasp of the world. In unhealthy episodes, those caught in the Kafkaesque conditions literally get a little crazy. They become, in varying degrees, distraught, anxious, and even obsessed. There is nothing inherently wrong with these people. Poor leadership causes the problem when those in charge insist team members resolve what cannot be resolved and pretend that reality is something other than they perceive.

Private Versus Public

What can really push the insanity is when there is an additional dichotomy in how the organization deals with recognition. Some groups make a big fuss at certain times with a public show of acknowledgement, yet they don't extend that attitude to regular actions. In that sense, private recognition is far more important than public because it creates the touchstone moments that give people a sense of how leadership thinks and what the group's standards actually are.

The issues most important to employees are the items easiest for a company to provide. But they must be supplied in a sincere, consistent fashion. You cannot make employee recognition a program that happens at a certain time each year with bells and whistles and fancy awards. The creation of a positive employee-recognition strategy demands an ongoing commitment to employees as people and as partners in the company. It must be real, and it must be part of the day-to-day culture of the organization. The annual awards ceremony will be meaningful and have impact only if it is the highlight of an organization that demonstrates recognition and respect for all employees all the time.

If recognition, and the respect it conveys, happens almost as a begrudged requirement, then it will be seen for what it is — a cheap attempt at emotional bribery. If it is part of a company's essential makeup, it will be something that people value.

Types of Recognition

Like formal retention activities, a recognition program can be a useful addition to a culture that regularly acknowledges the contributions of team members. Any such program can be whatever you want and should reflect your personal style and that of the organization. First decide on what you want to recognize. Suggestions include the following:

• Individual achievement in a team member's role

• Individual achievement in the organization but outside someone's role

• Individual achievement outside the organization

• Team achievement inside the organization

• Team achievement outside the organization

With such a mix, you encourage people to do well in what they are supposed to do, in thinking in larger terms, in excelling throughout their lives, and in working with others. You might use a public announcement, a plaque, even a signed thank you note. The particular mechanism isn't important as long as you are consistent. The more you can do this in everyday and simple ways, the more easily you can apply it as warranted.

You should also make it possible for team members to suggest others for recognition. If your organization is like most, there are unsung heroes who go out of their way to help others, both in the group's activities and in their own lives. The higher you are in the organization, the less likely it is that you hear any of these stories.

Benefit of Recognition

Not only do team members get an emotional lift from recognition, the organization benefits in a number of ways as well. It helps increase retention — that, after all, is the point of this chapter. But there are additional benefits. You encourage similar behavior on the part of everyone else, and you create an atmosphere that attracts whatever types of customers your group serves. Your organization becomes the kind of place where everyone wants to be.