Today, I’ll share how to efficiently use recognition in your team huddles or check-ins to make your team members feel special every day.

In a world that is increasingly autonomous, remote, or hybrid, it is easy for our teams to feel like we do not appreciate what they do and their work does not make a difference.

By building recognition into our daily practices, we have a tremendous opportunity to make our teams feel special in a way that is connected to our business values.

The problem is some leaders only reach out when they need something or there’s a problem so they miss a golden opportunity to exponentially plant positive seeds as part of their normal interaction.

Generating “Good Gossip” was the unlock for me. Let's Dig into the quick steps!

Step 1: Refresh on your organizational values with your team

Can you repeat your organizational values?

Sadly, most teams cannot remember them so this is the first step. Meet with your teams and retrain them on the organization’s values. Then let them know you would like to find a way to recognize teammates who exhibit those values as a way to increase engagement in the team.

In short, anchor recognition in your organizational values.

Step 2: Schedule Time during your huddles for recognition

Simply make time during your huddles for recognition discussions. At first, it will feel awkward. Be patient with it.

Don’t ask “Did anyone do something good yesterday?”. Instead, ask “Who did something in line with our values we’d like to recognize? As a leader, you should consider leading by example by identifying those recognition examples early on. The sooner you do, the sooner your team members will follow.

Over time, you will get multiple examples of good things occurring in your team every day that gives you a chance to put goodness into the world.

Step 3: Leverage “Good Gossip” by asking a third party to call the team member who did the good thing

It is normal to have people spend time saying negative things about a person when they are not there.

“Good gossip” is about saying good things about a person when they are not there and turbocharging the goodness by making sure the person hears about it.

Here’s how to do it once the behavior is recognized.

Assign someone who did not observe it to call that teammate to let them know:

1. The observation you were told about.

2. The observation was tied to one of your organization’s values

3. They were appreciated for doing things in line with your organization’s values and they are appreciated

4. You wish them a great day.

   • Avoid using that interaction to ask about a task or provide some other feedback

Here’s an example of what that may look like

Boom! All of a sudden, Jane’s day is transformed. She’s got a pep in her step. Chances are she’s telling her family about that when she gets home.

Mission accomplished. you’ve made a team member feel special and it did not cost you much.

The secret benefit to this is you also feel special by making someone’s day so why not try it and create goodness all around?

That’s all for now, I hope you found it useful

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