🎉 Presentation

Seen, Heard, & Valued:
How Prioritizing Recognition Drives Engagement & Success

Leah Roe, CPA, PCC, CPCC
Founder | Leadership Coach |
Culture Consultant

Event Recording

About the Event!

At the heart of every thriving workplace is the fundamental human need for recognition - the desire to be seen, heard, & genuinely valued. When your employees feel recognized for their accomplishments & for who they are as people, that is when trust forms, engagement skyrockets, & unstoppable teams are built.

In this high-energy & high-impact workshop, we’ll explore the art of recognition, a key trust-building behavior, & one that, when done well, can boost your eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) by 4x (Gallup). This workshop is designed to not only underline the critical importance of recognition in driving employee engagement, retention, & well-being but also to offer a deep dive into practical strategies for its application.

Through interactive discussions, personal reflection, & sharing of best practices, participants will discover their unique celebration styles & how to acknowledge others in a manner that resonates. Armed with practical tips & actionable strategies, you will be ready to implement authentic recognition techniques that foster a culture of trust, create meaningful connections, & promote a sense of belonging, leading to extraordinary outcomes in your team dynamics. Embrace the power of recognition to transform your leadership approach & witness the profound impact it has on your team's engagement & success.

About Leah:

Leah is the embodiment of a powerhouse: a Certified Leadership Coach (CPCC & PCC), revered Organizational Trust Expert, & dynamic Culture Consultant. Holding the reins as the Founder of The Perk, she fearlessly redefines leadership.

Her journey is nothing short of legendary. After being laid off during maternity leave, she didn't falter – instead, she founded The Perk, a premier leadership & culture development studio, the very next day. What followed was a meteoric rise, building a 7-figure profitable empire in just 5 years.

Leah's mission goes beyond coaching & consulting; she's here to empower you with the unwavering belief that anything is possible & to make you feel absolutely unstoppable. With a touch of her magic, she infuses fun & a human touch into every facet of her work. Her coaching approach is a symphony of celebration & unapologetic action, yielding not just results, but extraordinary transformations. In the consulting arena, she engineers cultural revolutions & propels team performance, always on a bedrock of psychological safety & unmatched efficacy. A true champion of greatness, Leah not only simplifies & demystifies exceptional leadership but also stands as the visionary creator of the CLEAR Leadership Operating System.

Her experience, shaped through adversity, includes a leap from CPA to People & Culture Executive at a groundbreaking remote-first Health IT firm. It was there that she ignited her true calling for shaping people, culture, & leadership. Leah's transformative impact has touched the lives of countless leaders, skillfully shaping a foundation of excellence from mere beginnings—infusing trust, communication, alignment, & engagement into their very core.

She's not just here to elevate leadership, culture, & personal growth; she's here to rewrite the rules. Join her, & let's paint a new paradigm of unapologetic awesomeness.

  • Awesome. Well, I would love to kick us off. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Culture Community. We are so excited that you're here today. For those who don't know me, I'm Isabel McDonald, a leadership coach and culture consultant here at The Perk. I'm so excited that we get to spend our morning together. Thank you so much for coming. We have such a fantastic presentation in store for you. All right, let's talk about who we are, who we are We are here at Culture Community. We are a group of people passionate about being great leaders, about being intentional, about building great cultures and communities. We specifically designed the space to develop and grow and connect with each other and leave Culture Community always inspired and activated to make positive change in the world. When and where do we meet? We meet monthly online here through Zoom, and we provide free leadership training in our monthly meetups. Get excited because we're kicking off the new year right with our amazing teammate, Jess Kent Johnson, who will be leading us from resolution to evolution, setting goals with emotional intelligence and purpose. That's going to be on January 23rd, 2025. I cannot believe I just said 2025 out loud.

     

    That is so crazy. But yes, again, January 23rd, 2025. Resolution to evolution, just in time for the new year. Sorry, go ahead. I'm also going to drop the registration link in the chat, and it's live on our website. And then I'm going to hand it on over to Steph, who we are so excited to be back. Thanks as well. So my name is Steph. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a leadership coach, culture consultant here at the Perk. And what we do at the Perk, we are a premier leadership and culture development studio. So we are really all about everything leadership and culture. You You can see on the screen here, some of the amazing companies that we get to work with. I don't all get to fit on the screen, so there's many, many more. But we really enjoy just working with folks who love leadership, love culture, have that growth mindset, and just want to put in to work. And we know that there's a lot of different companies that do leadership and culture work. And so what we like to say sets us apart is how we do what we do.

     

    And so these are our guiding principles for any engagement that we're doing. We bring this into culture community, of course, as well. We like to make it fun. You see confetti from us all the time. If you've received a pinata from us, you know how fun that can be. So we just love to infuse little fun pieces into everything that we do. We make it human and we make it safe. We want to make sure that we're meeting people where they're at. We love creating safe spaces like this where everyone can learn and grow together because we know that's ultimately where you're able to learn best is when you're in a safe space. We also love to make it custom. So any of our clients that we're working with, we're really intentional about what are their goals, what What does their culture look like? How can we make sure that we knock it out of the park for them and customize those pieces along the way? Ultimately, we're wanting to make long-lasting behavioral change. And so anything that we're teaching, the skills that we teach in our engagements, and here at Culture Community We would love for you to be able to use for yours to come.

     

    And then lastly, I'll just touch on some of our favorite offerings that we have. So you'll see four on the screen, and I'm just going to highlight team workshops today. So we love being able to come in with companies and do a workshop, whether that's just a one-off workshop to help us with some skill building, or maybe you want a series to help build some different skills for your team. We love being able to come in and do that. We can do it virtually, we can do it in person. But the topic that we're going to go through today, recognition, that's a great workshop topic. We can also build on that with a series. So if you're looking for anything for the end of the year or even looking into 2025, you just have some skill building that you want to do. The team workshops is a really great spot to be able to do that. So just wanted to highlight that today. And I'll toss it over to Leah, who's going to lead us through all things recognition. So get ready to have some fun. Go ahead, Leah. Hey, party people. How are we feeling today?

     

    It's one word, shout it out, or yeah, do a movement. Thumbs up. I see some dancing. Raising the roof. Confetti popper. Awesome. Great. I'm glad everyone's I'm feeling good because it is Culture Community Day, the best day of the month. What we are going to be doing... Oh, and just so you know, I've moved you all over to this screen. So if I look over here, that's when I'm looking at your faces. I'm not ignoring you or anything like that. We are here today to talk about recognition. We are going to talk about how to make sure the people around you feel seen, feel heard, feel valued. We're going to be talking about recognition in the workplace. However, all of the skills that you learn today, I encourage you to use them not just with your teammates, use them in your personal life, use them with your friends, your family, your kids, your spouse, the tools that you're going to learn and the skills you're going to learn today. This is truly how you make people feel seen, heard, and valued, regardless of who they are. While we'll be focused on the workplace, please take these learnings outside of the workplace, too.

     

    Excuse me. Before we jump into the good stuff, let's take a step back. Let's set some ground rules and expectations just so we are all clear and all aligned on how we want to show up, how we want to interact with each other in this space today. First and foremost, Please be present. Please eliminate distractions as much as possible. I know you all have very busy lives going on, and I want to create a container for you today. I want to create a space where you can put the whirlwind of your day-to-day to the side for one second and really be focused on your own learning, your own growth, and your own development. So eliminate those distractions as much as possible. Next, please be engaged. Ask questions, participate, use the chat. Ask your questions in the chat. You can ask your questions out loud. You can share your celebration, share your ideas, share your perspectives, but please engage, please participate. Last but not least, please choose to be open-minded today. An intention that we like to bring into every culture community that we do, that we've learned from our good friend, Michelle Venturini, is that everyone here has something to learn and everyone here has something to teach.

     

    So be open, be open to learning new things, learning from me as the facilitator, learning from the other people on this call, and be open to sharing, sharing your ideas, sharing your thoughts, your perspectives, your challenges, your celebrations with that intention to teach. Can we get behind all those things? Fabulous. And last but not least, it is culture community, people. So let's have some fun. Force fun. You're all excited. I can tell. All right, let's go. So why are we here today? We are here to talk about recognition. We're going to talk about what it is. We're going to talk about why it's important. But we're going to spend the most of our time on how do we actually do it. And you are going to walk out of here equipped with practical, actionable ways, four practical, actionable ways to recognize people in a way that builds trust, in a way that increases engagement, in a way that drives productivity, and ultimately helps your team and your organization achieve success. We're not just going to be talking theoretical what you could do. You are actually going to be completing a recognition action plan during our workshop today.

     

    Isabel is going to put a link in the chat for this recognition action plan that you can go and download. It's happening. It's almost there. Is it there? She did it. Nice job. Yes. Now you have the link to the action plan. When you download it, it's three pages. The first page is the one that you see up on the screen. That is a fillable PDF. That is the one you will be filling out. The other two pages are reminders. They're things you're going to be learning today, but it's a cheat sheet for you to be able to look at to remind you how to recognize people in those different ways. That first page is what you'll be filling out today. Any questions before we jump in? All right, great. Let's go. Let's start with what recognition is. What am I even talking about when I say recognition in the workplace? This is the definition that I like best. Employee recognition is the act of showing appreciation appreciation and acknowledgement for employees for contributions to the business that links to the company's purpose, mission, and values. That's a mouthful, so let's break it down. Employee recognition is the act.

     

    It is a behavior. It is something that you do It's an act of showing appreciation and acknowledgment for employees for their contribution. It's for something that they did or for something they gave, whether it's something they actually achieved or for the energy that they're bringing to a situation. It's for contributions that link to the company's purpose, mission, and value. It's something that links to the big picture of the organization. Now, why? Why is recognition important? From your perspective, why is this something we're talking about? Why is it important for there to be recognition on your team and in your workplace? You can come off mute. Tom, yes. Thank you for raising your hand. Yeah, sure. I think people want to be acknowledged for the work that they're doing. And when you do acknowledge that, then again, you're going to enhance that engagement. You're going to amplify the good things that you saw happening from the employee. And then that's going to tend to make them do that, to do that again, to continue those sorts of behaviors. Yeah. So you're amplifying, you're creating a positive in that loop. You're recognizing that behavior, so that person is going to keep doing that behavior.

     

    Absolutely. Jen. People want to just be seen and feel that people are aware of their contributions and acknowledging that can be really powerful. Yes, we all want to be seen. We have a biological need to be seen, to be heard, to be valued. Wendy, how about for you? Sometimes it's just like, Hey, am I even doing this right? Am I on the right track? Or am I on this path, like going to nowhere. There's something about the recognition piece that gives that insight, but also confirms a few things. I know in a lot of spaces, sometimes we just need that. Absolutely. We can spend so much time spinning. I have no idea if this is even what I'm supposed to be doing. For somebody to come and be like, Hey, not only are you doing the right thing, but you're doing it really, really well, we're going to keep going. Absolutely. Yes. All of that and then some. Let's Let's look at stats. I always like to bring in numbers when we're talking about why something is important. There are so many studies that have been done and are continuing to be done on recognition, specifically in the workplace.

     

    I just pulled some of the numbers from Gallup and Workhuman that I find the most impactful. They found that when employees feel properly recognized at their organization, they are 56% less likely to look for job opportunities, which is great because losing people, especially the key people, it's really, really expensive to an organization. When people feel properly their organization, they are five times more likely to feel connected to the culture, and they're four times more likely to recommend your organization to their family and friends. That's your net promoter score. It's a big deal. Employees are four times more likely to recommend your company when they feel properly recognized. Recognition is also a huge trust builder. We trust people who believe in us, who believe in our capabilities, and who want us to be successful. We trust people who demonstrate, who demonstrate that they recognize, appreciate, and celebrate us for what we do, for the accomplishments we make, but also for who we are as people and for how we show up in the world. Now, why is this important? You're like, Okay, great. Recognition builds trust, but why is trust such a big deal? Trust is a huge deal in organizations and on teams.

     

    Trust is really the backbone of everything. Trust comes before performance. People at high trust companies, they report having 50% higher productivity, 76% more engagement, 29% more satisfaction with their lives, 74% less stress, and 40% less burnout. Raise your hand if you would like one or more of these things for yourself or for the people that you work with. All of that comes from trust and recognition. Taking that time to recognize the people on your team, that can build a high trust organization. Recognition is also a driver of belonging. Through this report that Deloitte did, they found that 93% of business leaders say a strong sense of belonging drives organizational performance. They're seeing a direct link. 93% of business leaders see a direct link between feeling a sense of belonging and their performance at the organization. Look at this chart on the right. For those that are recognized never, they feel very little belonging to their organization. Then you go quarterly, monthly. Look at what happens when employees are recognized weekly. It spikes way up. It's close to 70%. When we recognize people, we create that sense of belonging, and it directly impacts our organizational performance.

     

    Performance. I threw this one in here for funsies. We do a lot of work with manufacturing organizations, and safety is the biggest metric. It is the most important thing. That is what we want to be really good at. We always are looking at how to be better at creating a safety culture. This report found that manufacturing plans with stronger recognition cultures report fewer safety incidents. I fell out of my chair when I read this because I was like, No way. I just never even thought about that, that recognition and safety would be directly correlated. For manufacturing plans with stronger recognition cultures, they report fewer safety incidents. It's wild. Recognition is wild. Which brings me to Oprah. I feel like anytime you talk to me, I'm going to somehow make it back to Oprah. Here we are. Here's the Oprah moment. We're going to watch a video clip from Oprah. It's just about a minute. Oprah is known as the greatest interviewer of all time. She had the Oprah Winfrey show for many, many years. The video clip we're going to is from her final episode. After she interviewed all these people for years and years and years, this is her advice.

     

    This is what she wants to share with the world. You know what? Now that I'm saying this, I'm nervous I didn't share my sound. Let's see, and then I'll go back. I've talked to nearly 30,000 people on this show, and all 30,000 had one thing in common. They all wanted validation validation. If I could reach through this television, sit on your sofa, or sit on a stool in your kitchen right now, I would tell you that every single person you ever will meet shares that common desire. They want to know, Do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you? Understanding that one principle that everybody wants to be heard has allowed me to hold the microphone for you all. It has worked for this platform, and I guarantee you it will work for yours. Try it with your children, with your husband, your wife, your boss, your friends. Validate them. I see you. I hear you. And what you say matters to me. So what comes up for folks when you see that and hear that from Oprah? Wendy is exploding with hearts. I would say just the basic human nature of it, that it really is.

     

    It's not complex. It really is pretty simple. It just comes down to us. We're all humans. Chris, I totally relate to that. I feel like the best ideas are the ones that are really simple, and you're like, Of course, of course. That seems so familiar. I especially appreciate how it applies to everyone in your life. I can think of a lot of moments with my toddler where all he really wants is validation. So Oprah knows all. She does. She really does. What Oprah found is that all people share the same desire. Everyone on this call, everyone in your life, we all to be seen, to be heard, to be valued. We want to know, do you see me? Do you hear me? Does what I say mean anything to you? A way that you can do that and you can make sure all the people around you feel seen, feel heard, feel valued, feel validated is through recognition. This is a powerful tool to make sure that this happens with all the people in your life. How do we do it? How do we genuinely and authentically recognize our teammates in a way that drives trust, connection, belonging, and results?

     

    That's what we're going to do now. We're going to We're going to go through four different tips, four different strategies for how you can recognize the people around you and make sure that they feel seen, heard, and valued. First tip, personalize your praise. It's important that we are specific in our recognition, that we focus on the behaviors, the things that people are doing that we think are amazing. The best framework to do that is through the FBI model of recognition. Fbi stands for feelings, behavior, and Impact. Now, I don't like to follow the rules, so I'm not going to follow the rules here. It's FBI, it's easy to remember, but I attack it from a BFI angle. For today, we're going to call this the BFI. I first start with the behaviors. When I sit back and I'm like, Gosh, this person is so awesome. Why? What is the specific behavior that they are doing that I think is so great? Write that down. Then you think about your feelings. How does that behavior make me personally feel? When this person is doing that, how does it make me feel? And then think about the impact.

     

    What's the impact that that person's behavior has had on this situation, has had on me personally? And what is the impact if this person continues this behavior? Let me give you an example. Welcome back, Steph. I get to give an example of how amazing you are. Steph is amazing in so many ways, but for this specific example, one day we got off a call and I was like, Gosh, I'm just really grateful for Steph. She's so great. I could have said that. I could have been like, Steph, you're so great. But I was like, No, I want to personalize this phrase. I want to make it specific. What is the behavior? What is the thing that she is doing that I think is so great? And so I told her, One thing that you do that I really appreciate is that you don't just agree with my ideas right away. You ask really good questions that help me to see different perspectives that I hadn't considered before. How does that make me feel? It makes me feel seen and heard because it's evident that you are listening to me based on the questions that you ask.

     

    And the impact, if you continue doing this behavior, it ultimately makes my ideas better and it makes our team even better. Steph, I'm going to put you on the spot. Sorry, I should have prepared you. I could have just said, Steph, you're awesome. What's the difference for you being the recipient of recognition from Steph, you're awesome to this specific FBI model? Yeah, I think it gives me clarity of what to keep doing not just that. I mean, it's nice to hear that I'm awesome, but what is it that I'm doing that makes me awesome in that situation or in that circumstance? Then the other one, too, is sometimes you can get in your head of, should I be asking these questions? Am I being annoying? Am I just shooting Am I not being a team player because I'm asking all these questions? I'm not just going along with it. So maybe a behavior that you're not sure, was that helpful to get that recognition and to hear this is actually a really helpful behavior that you're doing, really just me to be able to do it more and not question myself when I'm asking those questions.

     

    Yeah, absolutely. And again, thinking about, too, employee recognition, you want to link it to the mission, the vision, the values of the organization. This is really showing the impact of why it's helpful for us as a whole team and a whole organization. I want us to practice. In your action plan, the first one is personalize your praise. I want you to think of someone on your team that you are grateful for, someone who's doing something, you're just like, Gosh, they're just amazing. I want you to take a step back. What is the specific behavior? What is the thing that they do that you are grateful for? Then I want you to work through the rest of the FBI model. What's the behavior? How does that behavior make you feel? And what's the impact if that person continues to do that behavior? Just take a couple of minutes and you can type it in your action action plan or write it on a piece of paper if that feels better for you. If there's no one on your team doing something amazing, that's a different conversation we can have. I dropped the action plan in the chat again if anybody needed it again.

     

    Thanks as well. The behavior, how it makes you feel, and the impact they continue that behavior.

     

    Does anyone want to share theirs out loud? Yeah. I'll share one. I have a coworker who is on a leadership team, and she will often call out specific behaviors, say, you're really intentional with the way that you support people and you really specifically do this. And she's somebody that I really, really admire. So she'll also say, We make a good team and we would really crush this. And so the fact that she lumps me in with her is amazing because I really admire her from every level. So it gives me huge confidence when she says that. So What's the impact if she continues doing that behavior? The impact is I keep doing the things that she compliments me on, and I keep going. I am in HR, and it's often a very thankless job, so I don't get a lot of recognition. I really fly under the radar. When she specifically calls me out, I'm like, Okay, I can keep going today. She keeps me going some days when I need it. That was a very meta example. It was like, I'm going to give you specific recognition on how good you are at giving Yes.

     

    That's so great. How about one more? One more FBI model of recognition. Kaylyn? So you can come off me. Sure, I can share. I have a friend and colleague who, if I share a vulnerable or even embarrassing story of something that happened to me, she will come back with her own version of a story, either recent or something that she digs up from her past. And sharing that with me makes me feel less embarrassed, less alone, again, less vulnerable. And it makes me feel comfortable that I could share anything with this person. What's the impact if she continues to do that with you? Yeah, sorry. It makes me feel much more comfortable and able to just continue to be vulnerable and share anything with her. Fantastic. So from From all of your perspectives, what's powerful in using the FBI model and being specific with your recognition? More thoughtful Yeah. Exactly where I was going. It shows that you put some thought into the recognition, which I think makes it much more meaningful. Yeah, absolutely. Kelsey, is your hand raised? Ready? Yeah. Hi, this is Mallory. I'm sitting with Kelsey. Hi, Mallory. Hi. I missed sharing before, but I did.

     

    I had one, and then I was going to go into your next question. So what I put was a member on my team is always very responsive, willing to help others, and stays busy working. And I actually put that it makes me feel proud because other people see that. I feel like it reflects on the that it makes me feel at ease, less stressed because I have someone to rely on. Then for the impact, I put that it'll bring positivity to the team and to others, and it helps us with continuous improvement. That's awesome. Well, then I think... Sorry, what was the question you had after that? Yeah, just what's the power behind using the FBI model and giving recognition in a specific way like this? I related that here, too, because I I always tell this person that they're great, right? But I'm never specific, so they don't know what they're doing specifically. So I just feel like it's going to help them. I think like someone else said, they're just going to continue to do those positive things because they know that how it's being received is good. Yeah, absolutely. Our culture is not what we say it is.

     

    Our culture is built by the daily behavior of every single person on our team. So when we can recognize the behaviors that we want, that are going to build the culture that we want, that's going to create that positive feedback loop. Nice work, everybody. Now, your challenge is with your action plan. Go and tell this person, Whoever you wrote down, you did the FBI model, go tell them today. Okay, next tip. Ask them how they like to be celebrated. So recognition has the most impact when it's deliver it in a way that is most meaningful for that person. And only 10% of people report being asked their preferences on how they like to receive recognition. So people on your team are different, and we want to We want to celebrate that. We want to celebrate their uniqueness and ask them, in what ways do they most like to be valued? Do they like to be valued privately in one-on-ones? Do they like to be valued publicly in front of the team? How often do they like to receive recognition? My team knows I need it about every 10 minutes or I'm going to shut down.

     

    Just kidding. I don't need it that often, but I do need it a lot. Has anyone done the five love languages? Have you ever taken the five love languages test or read that book? Yeah. The authors, they have another book. It's the same five languages, but it's the five languages of appreciation in the workplace. When we're asking our team, in what way do you most like to be valued? How do you like to be appreciated? How do you like to be recognized? You can give these as options. These are different ways in which a lot of people like to receive recognition. Words of affirmation. This is a great time to use that FBI model. You can send a text or an email, Slack, Teams, or just say it to them verbally. But words of affirmation is a great time to use that FBI model and make it specific. Some people like to be recognized through quality time. They want to have lunch with you, or they want to have a virtual coffee, or they want to have a team happy hour. Some people love team happy hour, so they love that quality time. Other people don't feel like that's a great way to be recognized or appreciated.

     

    Again, people are different. Some people will say, Oh, you want to appreciate me? You want to recognize me? Take something off my plate because I am drowning. For those of the people on your team who love to receive appreciation and recognition through acts of service, ask them, What is one thing I can take off of your plate today? Some people love tangible gifts. Some people love a $5 Starbucks gift card. Some people don't. But tangible gifts is another way that you can appreciate and recognize your teen. Physical touch is the fifth language. I do want to say we are talking about recognition in the workplace. So appropriate physical touch, something like high fives is okay. High fives are okay. I'm curious for these five languages of appreciation, who here knows, Oh, this is the way I like to be recognized at work? Who wants to share? Kelly, I see you raise your hand really high. Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Sorry, I'm recovering from sickness, so hopefully you all can hear me okay. Yeah, this one was, I'll say, a little bit surprising to me. I've read the book, and I've also done the love languages in, we'll say more intimate relationships.

     

    Physical touch is something that I don't identify as in a top love language of mine in, we'll say, personal relationships, but I notice that I love a high five or even, with someone's permission, putting my hand on their shoulder if we're going through something together or if I know they're having a our time. And so that's just been an interesting reflection of mine. Also, I know I love quality time in that I love to meet with, say, my supervisor and have, in this case, him ask me my opinion on things. And if we're working on a new project, just spending time together where I'm feeling valued because of my thoughts. Yeah, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Troy, how about for you? Okay, so this is an area that I really struggle with. I love recognition. I think it's nice to be appreciated. I like the words of affirmation. But as the leader of the team, I struggle with it. When people give me recognition and praise, I tend to deflect it onto the team because I feel like if I'm getting recognition, that's taking away from the collective team and the valuable work that everybody is doing.

     

    I am constantly deflecting and saying, People will say, You do a great job. I'm like, No, we do a great job. Curious to be a reflection of that. What do people think? I raised my hand to respond to that one because I have strong feelings. It's the type of feelings we're trying. All I want to say is when you can show them how to accept that praise, you're modeling what you want them to take away as well. They Thank you. Don't make it a wee thing all the time. You also do a crap ton of work, and you lead that team. Own it and celebrate it and show them how proud you are of the work that you do because it is part of the team. I think I think there's something very beautiful about a leader who is willing to humble himself the way you are saying this because that shows that you are a person who has a nice big heart. Also, I want to see you celebrate your wins so that I know it's okay as your team member to celebrate mine as well. Love that. One thing I want to say about the love languages, too, is the language of appreciation is this This is also for you as a leader or part of a team.

     

    You could say, We're going to do things like team happy hours or team lunches because there are people on our team who that's how they most like to be recognized and appreciated is through quality time. We're also going to have to have We have a Slack channel where we're throwing confetti or kudos for each other because there are people on our team who that's how they like to be recognized through words of affirmation. So this is also a way to demonstrate the inclusion you're doing on your team in the different ways in which you are recognizing and appreciating the people. Some people are like, Why are we doing another happy hour? It's like, Well, this is why. I'm sorry, I cut somebody off. Can you hear me, Leah? It's Cara. Hi, Cara. Hey, I was going to say, I always think that gift giving is not my love language in my personal relationships and the network. But then just as you were going through these examples, I love a good snack or a coffee pickup, right? So I don't know if that's considered acts of service or a tangible gift, but my boss will text me like, Running through Starbucks, can I grab you anything?

     

    And to me, I'm like, Oh, he thought of me while you were outside of work or bring me a little scone in the morning. And that's appreciation. So I'm not sure which one that falls in because to me, it's like, does someone thinking of you outside of work and doing that? Also a tangible food item that I'm going to enjoy. I love that. You're right. It It demonstrates the thought, the thoughtfulness of, Hey, I'm going to Starbucks. I'm thinking about you. What can I get for you? Yeah. So I'm sure even if you don't feel like Starbucks, you don't need a coffee, you still feel recognized and appreciated. I mean, you always need a coffee, though, so you're not happy now. Obviously. So I want you to go to your action plan, and I want you to write down the name of a team member who you are going to ask them today in what What way do they most like to be recognized at work? You can give them the five different options. You can also ask them, When you look back on your career, when was the time you felt the most recognized and what was that?

     

    Were people giving you words of affirmation? Was it through a physical gift? But I want you to write down the name of who you're going to ask today. And then you're going to have to go into it. Self accountability. I can't hold everyone accountable today, unfortunately. I wish I could. With asking people, in what ways do you like to be valued? I really recommend that you make this part of your common language on your team. Ask people in one-on-one, ask people in send people Slack messages, team messages to ask them. You can also make it a part of onboarding. Could you imagine starting at a new company and they say, Hey, we love to recognize people here, not just for your accomplishments, but for the energy that for who you are, for how you show up. We want to make sure we recognize you in a way that is most enjoyable for you. In what ways do you like to be recognized? You can give examples and things. I was giving a talk on trust for a Sherm group and part of trust. We talk about how recognition is a big trust builder. This woman shared that she started a new job as a leader of a team and that she was given a book on her first day, and it had in their information on each of her new direct reports.

     

    One of them, like I One of the things was, This is how I like to be recognized. She said that she felt like she got the Holy Grail of this team because she now had all this information. She knew in which ways they like to be recognized, in which ways they like to be valued, so then she could do that. I just thought that was such a cool thing, such a thoughtful thing to think about for a new person joining the team. I also have to give a shout out here for Goodie. I'm not a spokesperson for Goodie. I wish I was. I'd make a really good living if they would just pay me to talk about them because I love them so much and I talk about them all the time. But Goodie is a gift giving platform and it's one that we use here at the park. And what I love about it is you can pick out a gift for somebody and send it to them, but then they can choose, is that a gift for somebody? Is that a gift for somebody? Is that Or would I like something different? So maybe we send them coffee and they're like, You know what?

     

    I'm off coffee right now. So then they can change it for the same dollar value, but they can get tea or they can get cookies or something else. But I just really I like it because it allows others to choose how they want to be recognized. We take the time to think about something that will be thoughtful for them, but ultimately, they get to choose how they want to be recognized. So this is a really cool platform if you're looking for a new platform to use. Anything coming up for folks around asking them how they like to be celebrated? Any thoughts, questions, ideas, concerns? Jen, I struggle with this personally to know what I actually really like and what I really appreciate when it comes to my own feedback. I'm a new manager, and I really want my team to be able to share this and to start facilitating these conversations. But what's the experience people have had when people don't know or they're maybe hesitant to want to receive this acknowledgement? How do you work through difficult conversations about it when maybe I mean, people don't know? Yeah, great question. Troy, are you ?

     

    Yeah. So, Jen, what we did at work, a lot of people were like, Oh, I don't need a recognition. I don't need anything. So we had a staff meeting of our favorites. We had to come up with lists of all of our favorite things, our favorite food, our favorite color, our favorite flower, our favorite restaurant. We had a whole list of our favorites so that if there's a tangible item, like a birthday even or something, then we go out and we surprise them with something off of their favorite list. That's so cool. I love that. Thank you. Wendy? I just wanted to share a quick story about a previous work life I had where the supervisor did not honor people's selected ways of being recognized. This particular supervisor, she was very much of a public I like to be publicly celebrated. Doesn't everybody like to be publicly celebrated? We had team members who very specifically said, I don't like to be publicly celebrated. It's very uncomfortable for me. I don't know how to respond in that space. I don't like it. An acknowledgement in our one-on-one is great for me. She disregarded that preference over and over again.

     

    We lost team members because of it. She If you're going to ask, really, really listen to what they say because it was just really... Everybody felt awkward and uncomfortable, and it just made the whole team feel weird. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. That's a great story. The other thing, too, I've had folks ask, leaders ask their teams, what way do you like to be valued? If you're like, I just don't know. And so those leaders are like, Well, I'm just going to try a bunch of stuff and we're going to see what you like best. I'm going to try words of affirmation. I'm going to try buying you a gift. But sometimes people don't know in what ways they like to be valued because they've never been asked before. So you can try some different things and see what they like. Try a high five. Appropriate? It's just a physical touch. Laura. I was just going to say, so where I work, we have quarterly check-ins with our leader, and we have to update stuff in our HRIS. And so there's information that we update as far as our quarterly goals. But then after we talk, after that, then it moves into questions.

     

    And one of the questions, and it's funny, I think they recycle them because I've been with the org for two and a half years now and I've seen repeats. But one quarter out of the year, one of the questions is, how do you like to be recognized? So I think it's just another avenue to ask people. But I will say for me personally, I always feel awkward filling it out because I think we're humble, right? Yes, we appreciate recognition and we love it, but we're also, or at least for me, I'm humble to the point where I don't need to... How Whatever you want to recognize me is fine. I'm good. So I don't know. I feel a little awkward filling it out, but it is an avenue to ask. And if somebody wants to be private and maybe they don't feel comfortable talking about it, but then it's in the system so your leader can still read it and understand it that way. I'm not a people leader. I'm HR supporting people leaders, but I'm not a people leader. No, that's awesome. Thanks for Okay. Step number three, celebrate the steps, not just the results.

     

    So when we want to create a culture of recognition on our team and at our company, it's important that we don't just save our celebrations for when we've achieved the big goal. Our year-end revenue goals or the project is complete. It's important that you celebrate the steps that your team is taking to get to that result. It's important that you celebrate their progress, celebrate the effort, the energy that they are putting into it. This brings me to one of my favorite things of all time, I don't know what you would call it, but is this progress principle. The progress principle, what Theresa Amobil and Steven Kramer found in their research is that employees the most fulfilled, the most happy, the most engaged when they are making progress in work that is meaningful to them. I pulled this quote out of their study, and what they say is, Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a work day, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. The more frequently people experience that sense of progress, the more likely they are to be productive in the long run. Every day progress, even a small win, can make all the difference in how employees feel and perform.

     

    Then Adam Grant, in his recent book, he found his research, too, of all the factors that have been studied, the strongest known force in daily motivation is a sense of progress. Here's the thing. We are all making progress. We're making progress in so many things, but we are so heads down and focused that we don't realize the progress that we're making. We can't see the forest through the trees. You can play a really important role on your team and at your organization to be to show people the progress they're making, to recognize them for the progress that they're making. Say, Hey, okay, I know we're far from where we want to be on this project, but let's just take a step back for a moment. Two months ago, we didn't even know what we were going to do here. Now look at where we are two months later. Look at all the progress you have made. So you can be the one to help your teammates see and feel their progress. Because the progress principle does not work unless you feel like you're making progress. Through recognizing recognition, you can be the one to recognize and celebrate the progress that is being made.

     

    An example of one thing that we do here at the park. So we have an annual sales goal, and we have different weekly goals, monthly goals that we track to help us get to our annual sales goal. One of those goals is the number of deals that we create on our sales board. We can't make sales if we don't have any deals. So every week at our weekly team meeting, we have a number that we want to hit and we report out on it. So we can see, did we reach our goal or not? And so over here on the left, you can see this P. And every week that we achieve our goal, we get a green line. Every week that we don't achieve our goal, we get a red line. But what's helpful is we could just say, Okay, let's just see if we hit this goal at the end of the year. But instead, we celebrate every week. When we're green, we celebrate our progress, we celebrate we did the thing, and when we're red, we still celebrate our progress. We still celebrate the effort we're putting in, but we also have different conversations of, Okay, what's working?

     

    What's not working? What could we be doing differently? I want you to take out your action plan and I want you to think about who is somebody on your team that is making progress? They're making progress on a project. They're making progress in their career. They're making progress in something in their personal life. Who is somebody who is... You want to celebrate the steps. You want to help them take a pause, take a step back, and really see the progress that they have made. Write down their name, write down what is the progress, what are the steps that you want to celebrate, I'd love to hear someone share out loud. Who's making progress on your team? What's the progress that you want to celebrate them for? Leah in the chat says, I'm realizing there's so much progress that goes unrecognized at work, and I'm so excited to ask the team these questions to get them feeling great about all they are working Yes, we feel the most happy, engaged, and fulfilled when we know that we're making progress and meaningful work. So many people are making so much progress, but they don't realize it. Taking that time, just stop, celebrate them for that progress, You're going to boost so much positive emotions in that person.

     

    Anyone want to share theirs out loud? I was going to say I found that even just if it's been a really long, hard week, sitting down with each one of my employees at the end of the week and go, Thank you for the work you did this week. I know next week is going to be another long week, but I really do appreciate it. I see it. I hear everything you've done. I do really just appreciate you putting in the time and making it through this week. I found that's huge for some employees that they understand that their manager sees that they're going through a hard time. Yes. Seeing them saying thank you, thank you is one of the most powerful phrases we can say on our teams. Okay, I won't force anyone to share theirs out loud. But your challenge is, go tell this person today. Stop them. Tell them. Show them the progress they're making. Recognize them for that. Okay, the final tip for recognizing our people is to operationalize your recognition. One of my favorite quotes of all times comes from James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, and he says, You do not rise to the level of your goals.

     

    You fall to the level of your systems. You could all leave here today saying, You know what? I am just going to go recognize the crap out of everyone on my team. That's a lofty goal. You can have a big goal. But we do not rise to the level of our goals. We fall to the level of our system. You need a system in place to make sure that you are doing the things, that you are actually recognizing the people on your team so that you're building that recognition culture. Some examples, some things you can do. This has worked for us internally here at the Perk. It's worked for clients that we work with. First thing, you can literally block time. You can block time on your calendar. This time every week, I'm going to take 30 minutes, get out my journal, and I'm going to do the FBI model of recognition. I'm going to think about the people on my team, and I'm going to think about what are the specific behaviors that they're doing that I think are so great. How does that make me feel? What's the impact that continues? Then I'm going to go and tell them that.

     

    You can add it to your to-do list software. So whether you use Asana or monday. Com, you can have a weekly task, a daily task to make sure that you're recognizing people. Now, often when I talk about operationalizing recognition, this is where people are like, This feels gross. This feels forced. I just want recognition to happen and have it be genuine and authentic and spontaneous. And I get that, but it's the same thing in the as if you are starting a new workout routine. You're like, I'm going to start being somebody that goes to the gym, 4:00 AM in the morning, gets in a good workout before I go to work. It's not just going to happen. You put systems in place. You set your alarm, you set out your workout clothes, you get a gym buddy, you make sure that gym buddy knows if you're not there by 4:10 to call you until you get out of bed. Eventually, once you build up those muscles, once you make it a habit, you might be able to get... I don't know if you can really get up without an alarm at that time, but for some people, but it will get easier.

     

    It will become more of a habit. It's who you are now. The same is true with recognition. You are building your recognition muscles, and it takes practice. So blocking time, setting up processes to make sure it gets done and gets done consistently is not a bad thing. Really focus on strengthening the muscles and making it a habit. Some examples, some other things that you can do on your team to operationalize recognition is you could have a Slack or a Teams channel that is completely dedicated to recognition. Here at the Perk, we have a Confetti channel. This channel is literally all about recognition and celebration of anything, personal, professional, big, small. Other clients of mine, I know they have a kudos channel. You can have a space that is purely dedicated to celebration, to recognition. Another thing you can do is you can automate your celebrations. We use tools like Zappier. An example is in our HubSpot, when we make a sale, we have Zappier connect our HubSpot to our Slack so that any time we make a sale, the whole team knows about it. It goes into our celebration channel and it's like, so and so made a sale, and then everyone gets to celebrate.

     

    You can figure out what are the celebrations on our team that we want to automate and then put tools in place to make sure everyone knows about those things and can celebrate together. You can also set expectations around celebrations. You can determine for your team what is important for us to be celebrating? What do we want to make sure that we do? We want to make sure we're celebrating birthdays. Maybe your team wants to make sure you're celebrating half birthdays. That's great, too. What if you're celebrating the kids on our team's birthday, everyone's kid's birthday, whatever. But you can set expectations around what's important for you all that you want to celebrate together. Another thing you can do to operationalize it is you can look at what are the existing meetings I already have, whether it's my one-on-ones or my weekly team meetings, and how can I build recognition in into that? It's something I'm already doing. I'm already having these meetings. How do we build recognition into it? For example, here at the Perk, we start our weekly team meeting with confetti. Everyone goes around and says, What's one thing you're throwing confetti for?

     

    That could be for a client, for something in your personal life. Then who's one person you're throwing confetti at? It's a way for us to operationalize, recognizing each other on the team, but also recognizing the positive things that are going on in our personal and professional lives. One of my clients does a weekly and people love this. Post-it notes are not really expensive. You get post-it notes, and this client, she has a weekly goal that she writes a... She does a FBI model on a post-it note and puts it there in a physical office, and she puts it on somebody's desk every week, every week on Friday at 4:00 PM. She said that her team now is like, who's going to get the weekly post-it note? It's a game. People get so excited, who's going to get the weekly recognition? That's another example of something you could be doing every week to operationalize your recognition. A lot of time, this goes to celebrate the steps, not just the results, but recognition is not something that should just be saved for year-end goals or for when we've completed the project. Recognition is truly a daily leadership behavior.

     

    It's something you should be doing every day. Operationalization is what makes sure that that actually happens. I love this Gretchen Rubin quote, What you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while. When you are making this a daily leadership behavior, that is how you build a culture where people feel, seen, heard, and valued by you. I want you to think about in your action plan, what is one way that you want to operationalize your recognition? Maybe you're already doing it. Maybe you're like, You know what? I already do this in my one-on-ones. I'm going to keep doing that in my one-on-ones. Or maybe you want to set a weekly goal. I'm going to use the FBI model of recognition one time a week, and I'm going to block my to make sure I actually do that. So think about what's one thing you're currently doing to operationalize your recognition, or what's one thing you want to start doing? Who wants to share? If nobody shares, then the Perk team is going to have to share. So get ready, Perk team. Who has... Cara. I can share. So one thing I'm doing right now is thinking, I'm sure everyone is doing some 2025 planning.

     

    And so I have recently just asked all my team members, what do you want one-on-ones to look like next year, like cadence, structure, et cetera, and then also looking at our team meeting. So I've been in this role for about a year now. So just trying to figure out. This year, I felt like I was learning everything and everybody, and then now trying to set some really good standards and practices in for next year. So I think I snipped the team meeting structure that you have. I love just breaking it down and being really intentional about how you're spending that time together. Obviously, we all have a million meetings that we're going to, so being intentional about carving in celebration time in that is something I think I can take into my 2025 planning. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. How about for others? I can share. Yeah. For me, a rather small company of about 60 people who are all remote, I think that for us, it's an opportunity to not just think about our own teams, but think about across the One thing I'll do more of is think about reaching out to individuals that I've heard something about and just personally acknowledge what I heard and congratulate them and try to do that once a week.

     

    I think that's pretty doable for our size organization, and it'll be interesting to see if I can find at least one thing a week to do. I love that. It feels so good when somebody reaches out like, Hey, I heard this. I To know that you're being talked about in a very positive way is so awesome. What else is coming up for people around operationalizing your recognition? I have something. This is Mallory again. Hi, Mallory. I guess I want to jump back just a little bit back to the five love languages. So for me, acts of service, very easy. I like to do stuff for other people. I love when people, even the littlest things, change the garbage at work, any little tasks. I really like that. So where recognition might be hard for me is how do I get my words out specifically for What they're doing. So the Post-it notes, I think that is something really great that I'm actually really excited because I don't have to worry about what am I going to say. It's just write it down, leave a little note for them. Maybe that makes their day a little better.

     

    So I'm actually pretty excited I'm happy to try that. Yeah. And also when you have it written down, too, it's like they can come back to that. People on my team are really good at written recognition, which I love because I keep it for years I still have cards that Steph wrote to me years ago, for example. So it is really nice to have those handwritten things, too. Be able to reflect back on. Amazing. Okay, so now what I want to do is we're going to do a little annotate. So on your screen, the bottom left corner, there's a green pencil. I want you to click on that. You can choose a stamp. And of these four tips we went through today, I want you to mark down which one are you best at. Right now, which one do you feel like you are personally the best at? Are you the best at personalizing praise? Are you good at asking people how they like to be celebrated, celebrating them in their unique ways? Are you good at celebrating the steps? Are you good at having systems in place for your recognition? Where are you the best right now?

     

    Nice. We have a lot of people in personalize your praise. Nobody is the best at asking others how they like to be celebrated. Oh, AJ is. We got one. Look at that. We're all over the board. Fabulous. Can someone on my team clear this? Now, which one do you want to focus on? When you leave here today, which one are you like, You know what? This is the one where I want to put in more time, effort, and energy. Nice. Almost pretty evenly dispersed. That's awesome. Okay. And then the last one, someone on my team could clear that. Thank you. Which one of these, if mastered by your team or maybe your entire company, would have the greatest impact on the culture? If your team could be amazing at one of these, which one would you choose? Look at that. So interesting. So celebrating the Steps is really a popular one right now. Everyone's working really hard. We need to celebrate that progress. Awesome. Okay, thanks for playing. So recognition, I thought I was going to say, but recognition is ultimately what your team wants. I just want to add in a couple more stats at the end here.

     

    So 37% of people surveyed said that more appreciation would motivate them to produce better work. People are saying, I will do better work if I feel properly recognized. So recognition could be directly tied to work quality. 65% said they would work harder if they felt like their contributions were noticed by management. Sometimes when we're talking about recognition, people are like, Oh, it's soft. It's just fluffy. It doesn't really have anything to do with business. But I hope you've seen today, there are so many studies that have been done. There are so many stats, so many metrics out there showing that recognition directly impacts the productivity at your company, the quality of the work at your company, how hard people are working at your company. It directly impacts success at your organization. So recognition is not about being soft at all. Give yourselves a round of applause. You made it. You made it through your recognition masterclass. Yes. So I know you have your action plan, so you have things to commit to, but I want you to just look at the action plan, maybe circle the one you're really going to focus on, or if there's something else that came up today, what is one thing you want to commit to?

     

    What is one thing you want to take from today? I'm not going to let you leave here just having all of these new ideas and all this new knowledge. I want you to take that learning and put it into action to make your team better, your leadership better, your culture better, the world better. What is one thing you are going to commit to doing from today? And I would love for to type it in the chat. You are so much more likely to do the thing. If you write it down, shout it out loud. Amazing. Who wants to say theirs out loud? You're 100% more likely to do it if you say it out loud in front of this group. I'll say mine. Yeah. I am going to commit to finding out how my team likes to be celebrated. Amazing. Amy, what's yours? What's your commitment? What are you going to do after today? Hi. Hi. I did already ask my team because I think I sat in one of your at the Scherm conference. I asked my team about the whole recognition. I have to get more intentional about making sure that I do it and operationalize the whole recognition and just get that on my calendar and make sure that I am more intentional with that stuff.

     

    Love it. Amy, also, I really like. I called on you because you were off screen, and then you shot in on your rolling chair, and it was awesome. Someone needed something. Sorry. It was awesome. I was like, And Amy's here. Wendy, how about for you? I'm going to take to heart what you had said at the beginning about bringing this into the personal life. I have a friend who is prepping for a surgery in a couple of weeks, and I just want to drop a note of encouragement and recognition in the mail because I know this is a big one for her. I'm like, wow, what a great way to just be like, Hey, I'm thinking of you. I see you, and I'm here for you. Just a way to celebrate this transition that she's going through as well and just how to help her out. I'm like, what a great way to bring this into life all around. Absolutely. I love that. How do I raise my hand on Zoom? That's a good question, Erica. I don't- Hit the React button, and then you'll see it. Erica, also, you do not have to raise your hand if you would like to share.

     

    I would like to share. I was going to actually say this earlier, and it didn't... And then we moved on because I couldn't figure out how to raise my hand. But so one of the things that I'm doing that is a sneaky way around to see what people's preferences are for our Secret Santa this year, instead of just putting names in hat and drawing them out, I actually have a questionnaire that I'm asking people to fill out, and it asks all their favorites. So if anybody's looking for a sneaky way to do it and you don't feel comfortable just coming out and ask, incorporate it into something else that you're doing. I love that. Sneaky recognition. I like it. Love it. To end our time together today, Isabel, if you could put this link in the chat, or if you want to go to this QR code. We have this awesome Trust by Design guidebook. I talked earlier about how recognition is a big driver of trust and why trust is so important on the team. We also have four other drivers that you can learn about in this guidebook. Check that baby out. We have four minutes left.

     

    I want to open up the floor. What questions you have or anything else you want to that you're currently doing with recognition that would be beneficial for others to hear or any collaboration you need from the team? My company uses Bonusly. It's a recognition platform. We give points to everybody. So all employees get 100 points, and then management, depending on the size of their team, gets additional points. And then they use the points. A hundred points is equivalent to $10. So they can give out points. It encourages, since we're a remote-first company, to recognize cross-functionally through different departments, through your team, however that may be. Those points can turn into either a curated experience or gift cards, or you can do it as a donation. So lots of different ways that you can recognize. I've also used, I forget what the other one I use, but Bucket List and Bonusly, those are the two that I've used in the past. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. People in chat said more people have used Bonusly, Workhuman, Bravo, Award Co. These are great tools to use to help with the operationalization and also to create a culture of recognition.

     

    So, Amanda, I love how you said all the people get these points to give out to people. That's fantastic. What else is coming up for folks? Well, I expect there to be an explosion of recognition in the world after today because you all have at least four things to go and do and people to talk to and people to celebrate and people to recognize. I expect there to just be, I don't know, technology to stop working. I don't know. I don't know what I'm expecting, but there's going to be a big explosion of recognition from this group. I'm so excited. So go, go off into the world, recognize, celebrate, appreciate. You are all amazing. Thank you. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being so engaged. It makes me feel just really valued that you would all come to be a part of this conversation and share your amazing ideas. The impact, if we continue to show up in these spaces and share and connect and recognize each other, we're just going to change the world. So let's do it. Let's do it. Yeah, I'd like to recognize you in doing an excellent job today.

     

    Thank you, Troy. What's the impact if I continue to be excellent? The impact will be that we will continue to show up, we will continue to do a good job, and your business will grow. I'll take that. Awesome. Thanks, everybody. Bye, everyone. Bye, everybody. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. Have a great day. Bye.

     

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