I’ve just finished reading a wonderful book by Dr. Gary Chapman and Dr. Paul White in which they explain how to express and put into practice the five languages of appreciation in the workplace.  They use some great everyday examples.
At work, people express and receive appreciation in different ways. The 5 Languages of Appreciation is a great start to understanding how to encourage and motivate your employees. Gallup shows that engaged employees bread engaged / loyal customers. The good news is that there is no cost to put this method into place.
If your employees enjoy their work and feel appreciated, they will be loyal and work harder to help the company become successful.

 
The five languages of appreciation are as follows:
 
·         Words of affirmation: Basically this means that people receive your appreciation through your words.
·         Tangible gift: People who use this language express their feelings and appreciation by giving and receiving gifts.
·         Quality time: People who accept appreciation through quality time want to spend time with you. This means that they want your attention.
·         Acts of service: The ‘’acts of service’’ people are doers. Actions speak louder than words.
·         Physical touch:  Physical touch is a big deal in your relationships with people. You can express appreciation through a solid handshake or pat on the back. It is good to be mindful of boundaries, when using this language.
 
In this book, the authors refer to MBA Inventory (Motivating by Appreciation). This system only takes 15-20 minutes to complete online. It gives you an individual report, which is generated immediately.  It identifies the respondent’s primary language of appreciation, their secondary language, and the language of appreciation which is least important to them.  This inventory assists supervisors, managers, and coworkers in communicating appreciation to their colleagues in a way that is meaningful to the individual. It is important to have regular evaluation sessions with your employees to discover if their language of appreciation has changed over time.
 
It is good to know the differences between recognition and appreciation:
 
·         Recognition focuses primarily on performance or achievement.
·         Appreciation focuses on the value of the individual employee.
 
We should not only use this tool at work with but also in our everyday lives.
 
What a better place we would live in if we all used this method!
 
The book is a great read and can be purchased online at www.appreciationatwork.com.

"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms, greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind." - Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street

Who can forget Michael Douglas’ lines from Oliver Stone’s classic movie Wall Street?

Although the characters were fictional, the times they portrayed were real. Consolidation and mergers were the rage. Those were the days of “right-sizing,” “down-sizing” all code words for “you’re losing your job!”

Isn’t it ironic that today’s managers bemoan the lack of loyalty from their workers? Is it any wonder? We have taught employee’s not to expect any loyalty from the corporation. So why should they be loyal to the corporation.

It is called the ethic of reciprocity. Don’t expect loyalty if you don’t give loyalty. Likewise, don’t expect commitment if you don’t give commitment.
 
At Rideau, we call this the “Golden Rule of Recognition”… treat employees like you would like them to treat the company. You’ll be amazed how far a little loyalty goes in improving your retention rates.
Practice the “Golden Rule of Recognition” because loyalty is a two way street!

Quite simply the answer is “No”.
 
You can’t give employees too much REAL Recognition – that is, meaningful acknowledgment or expressions of appreciation given in an authentic and genuine manner.
 
REAL Recognition™ is any thought, word or deed towards making someone feel appreciated for who they are and recognized for what they do. It’s about appreciating people and recognizing actions.
 
However, I do think you can give too much of the WRONG Recognition. You know the kind: the phony attempts to say “thanks”, patronizing comments, insincere gibberish, unspecific generalized expressions, belittling tone, inconsiderate gestures, and uncaring words and actions.
 
I can assure you there has never been a research study administered or an organizational employee engagement study conducted where the results came back and all employees unanimously said, “Will you PLEASE tell our managers to stop giving us so much recognition!!”
 
Never seen it. Never will.
 
In fact, the far opposite is more often the case
 
Now, as for rewards, which get misconstrued and misinterpreted as “recognition” – that’s another story.
 
Can you give too many rewards? Of course you can – just like you can eat too much candy. And like any living thing there is a saturation point for rewards. For rats it is 48 hits of the food pellet machine. You can figure out what your limit is later on.
 
When rewards are not properly understood and not administered correctly or in a meaningful way, you can certainly end up where tangible rewards has a negative impact on intrinsic motivation.
 
But more on that topic for another day.
 
Just don’t stop giving people recognition. OK?