Dan Heath explains why organizations under-invest in employee recognition and argues that effective recognition is personal rather than programmatic. He gives three reasons for the shortfall (managers overestimate how much recognition they give; recognition is important-but-not-urgent; and reliance on formal programs), cites a study contrasting manager vs employee perceptions (80% vs 20%), shares brief frontline anecdotes showing the outsized effect of spontaneous, targeted praise, and concludes that the core message is "I saw what you did, and I appreciate it."
Questions this video answers
80% of managers say they frequently recognize employees versus 20% of employees who agree.
Chapters
Why don't we have more moments of recognition in organizations? I don't think it's because people don't see the value. I mean, I've never met anyone who was like, nah, recognition. What a bunch of hooey. I think there are three basic reasons we under invest in recognition. Number one is we think we're doing more than we are. Remember that study showing that 80% of managers think they're frequently recognizing their employees, but only 20% of the employees agree? The second reason is that recognition is one of those important but not urgent things that tend to get pushed out of our daily schedules. We always think we'll get to it tomorrow. And three, we think that the way we can bolster recognition is to use programs. So think of the classic employee of the month program. There are a hundred different flavors of this idea, but they're all plagued by the same dynamics. The first problem here is that the quantity of recognition is comically too low. The goal here is not to deliver one moment of recognition for one employee monthly organization wide. A healthy workplace would deliver moments of recognition for every employee on at least a monthly basis. So an employee of the month style program is grossly inadequate from the perspective of filling that recognition gap. Another issue is authenticity. Like, if you really judge the award fairly, your best employee would win the award every month, but obviously it's socially unacceptable just to give it to Jenny every month. So you start ping ponging around the different employees, and after a year or two of that, you realize, oh God, Harold is the only person who's never gotten the award. And so the next month you gin up some reason for Harold to finally get the honor. Harold Swanson wore pants all month. And it seems like you're being kind and it seems like you're being fair, but all you've really done is just shred the credibility of this award, right? The key lesson here is that effective recognition is personal, not programmatic. This is such an important point, and I'll admit to you, it came as a total surprise to me. So when Chip and I were writing the Power of Moments, we surveyed people and asked them to talk about the defining moments in their careers. And here's an actual example that we received. This is what they said. I was greatly commended by my manager for prepping the back room by cleaning and reorganizing all the bikes for easy scanning for inventory. I felt proud that someone actually took the time to acknowledge my effort. I'm embarrassed to say that I was kind of underwhelmed by this when we started the survey. I was expecting something bigger, something more dramatic, but that's what recognition delivers, a jolt of pride that is disproportionate to the comments. Here's another example of the same thing. A few years ago, I was working in the office when a new client to work with came in. He seemed to be in a bad mood when talking to my co worker, so I came out of the back room to see if there was anything I could do. I I noticed an error that my co worker and the client didn't notice and fixed the issue for them. The client was so impressed that he demanded to speak to my boss and he told him how great I was. It was a very empowering feeling. And even though it was a small moment, I do believe that moment is when my boss really started noticing my hard work. What do you notice about those? The recognition they received was spontaneous. It wasn't part of a program or a scheduled feedback session, and it was targeted at particular behaviors. There's a classic paper on recognition by two researchers that reinforces this point. They found that effective recognition makes the employee feel noticed for what they've done. Managers are saying, I saw what you did and I appreciate it. So this is what I hope you'll take away from this. The best recognition is personal, not programmatic. It's not about a trophy or a plaque or a certificate or a $20 Starbucks gift card. It's about the message. I saw what you did, and I appreciate it.
