Arielle’s A-Z on recognition… easy

2 Comments

1. Kate
   Posted November 5, 2010 at 9:50 am | Permalink

   Getting people motivated to work hard is not easy, but if you have everyone driven by recognition surely that’s not great either? I guess the main things that motivate people to work are money and recognition, but we all know that money won’t make people happy, and neither will being told they did a great job time and time again (even if they have!). Especially if life outside of work has suffered for it.

   From my personal experience you have to find your own motivation in the work you are doing, if you rely on external factors to let you know if you have done good, you run the risk of being disappointed should those factors not swing your way. If you motivate yourself, and you are “working for you” then if the recognition comes – great! If not then no dramas, you know you have done the best job you could have with what you had. I guess the tricky bit is teaching that to staff.

2. Naomi Simson
   Posted November 23, 2010 at 3:05 pm | Permalink

   One of the greatest sources of recognition comes from customer feedback – or compliments. You can literally make someone’s day when you let them know the difference that their service made to you. So recognition happens everywhere – not just in an employer/employee relationship. You are quite correct the old ‘incentive’ ie a carrot/stick approach to employees does not create self generated motivation. This is what Dan Pink explored in his book Drive. Motivation comes from a person’s sense of autonomy, their ability to master something and also their alignment to a purpose bigger than them selves.

   One thing I would emphasize is that INCENTIVE and RECOGNITION are two different mechanisms – and unfortunately many managers confuse the two.