So why don’t we recognize employees more?

As a manager, you want to keep these top performers and let them know about the great work they are doing.  Recognition motivates employees and gives them a sense of accomplishment.  They are more likely to do more and stay with the company. It’s also a way to show other employees what success looks like.

Giving recognition is easy and can be budget friendly.

3 Easy Ways to Recognize Employees:

1. Thank you cards with lapel pin

As an employee, I appreciated receiving a nice thank-you note from my manager or leader in the organization.  It was the simplest way to show appreciation and I felt great that they were noticing my work. I was making a difference and wanted to do more.

A modified version of a thank-you note is an appreciation card with a lapel pin.  The pin acts as a token of appreciation and can be worn on a lanyard with the employee’s badge, displayed at their desk, or put onto a laptop bag or backpack.  Here is one that Agile Inspirations offers on Amazon.

2. Recognition Wall (aka Big Ups or Snaps)

When my team had low-morale and felt a lack of recognition from the organization as a whole, I implemented a recognition wall, something I called ‘Big Ups’.  Big Ups was the motion of ‘raising the roof’ to show appreciation, something like ‘Snaps’ from the movie Legally Blonde.

Since the wall was highly visible, anyone who walked by the wall felt compelled to stop and read the kind words we had to thank and appreciate the good work being done.  This created more visibility into the team’s efforts and what they did day-to-day to make a difference.  Sometimes there was some humor sprinkled in for some additional fun and laughs.

Materials needed: a wall or whiteboard, sticky notes, and markers.

Have sticky notes and markers available for your team near a wall.  When someone sees another person on the team going above and beyond, increasing sales, saving an account, being proactive, etc., write a note of appreciation and post it on the wall.    For example, Anne mitigated a critical issue on a project and was proactive to fix the issue in a timely manner.  As a manager, you may not have known about this accomplishment, but Brian who sits next to Anne does and writes a sticky note and puts it on the wall.  Anne is recognized for her efforts that others may not have seen.

3. Awards for the next all-hands meeting

A higher visibility way to recognize employees is to implement certain awards such as Innovation, Leadership, Teamwork, Quality, Customer Focused, Above & Beyond, etc. or values aligned with the company.  This provides recognition to a larger audience.  For example, in one organization, teams worked in different locations and aligned with different business units.  Recognition at an all-hands was a great way to show appreciation for the teams across the organization.

An easy way is to send a survey using Survey Monkey or Google Forms and have employees nominate peers that they see demonstrating the values in each award and write a little blurb on why. After the deadline to submit nominations has passed, the results can be determined by popular vote or by management.  Carve out time in the next all-hands meeting to announce the winners.

The bonus is that there is feedback for all the other nominees and this can be shared later in a one-on-one meeting.  It’s also great to use for annual reviews.

Do you have other ways you recognized your peers or employees?  Let us know!

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Servant Leadership is a term that comes up from time to time in talking about
Agile. What is Servant Leadership?

“The servant-leader is a servant first… It begins with the natural feeling
that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead.

 The best test…is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants?”

— Robert Greenleaf

In other words, it’s not about the leader, it is about the team.

Many of us have experienced a more traditional approach in leadership in which the leader tells the team what to do and the team does it (i.e. Command and Control leadership). Does this mean that in Servant Leadership the team tells the leader what to do? Yes and no.

Command and Control vs Servant Leadership

A good metaphor to compare the difference between Command and Control Leadership and Servant Leadership is a factory vs R&D lab. In a factory, there are widgets that need to be made in a certain way, and the goal is to produce these widgets as a fast a possible. Things are controlled and more like a machine. Typically, there is one boss to direct and ensure the factory is running smoothly. This is a Command and Control approach.

In a R&D lab, a team is experimenting, trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. There is no set way to produce yet. Things are very uncertain and to improve after each experiment the team needs to work together and discuss what to change or keep the same. Typically, a leader facilitates this and removes impediments to keep the team moving forward. This is a Servant Leadership approach.

Comparison Table

Below is a comparison of Command and Control and Servant Leadership in different dimensions:

Servant Leaders and Agile

As companies face changing priorities, Agile development practices have become more important to help an organization succeed. Things are not as certain and do require some ‘experimenting’. In this environment, Servant Leaders act differently than a Command and Control leader.  A Servant Leader listens, facilitates, and encourages his or her team. On the other hand, a Command and Control Leader takes control and tells his or her team what to do, sometimes dividing the work among the team without telling the whole picture.

The Servant Leader creates a culture of innovation, collaboration, and agility. Of course, there are times when Command and Control Leadership is needed, an example is when ‘the house is on fire.’ In this instance, if there is an emergency or issue that needs immediate attention, it is better to have a leader that can tell the team what to do in order to respond quickly.

So, which leader would you rather work for? I can say from my experience, I would rather work for the Servant Leader. This leader makes me feel valued, my ideas matter, and I’m contributing to the team. At the end of the day, I just want to feel like I belong and I’m contributing.

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What is Radical Candor?

There are four ways of giving feedback and this can be pictured as quadrants where one axis is the degree in which someone challenges directly.  And the other axis is the degree that someone cares personally.

Ruinous empathy is where someone cares personally, but does not challenge.  This person is too nice and essentially does not give any useful feedback. Without any constructive feedback, an individual most likely will not change his/her performance or worse, the individual may think he/she is doing a great job and continue.

Manipulative Insincerity is where someone does not care personally and does not challenge directly.  This person would say something to your face and then another thing behind your back. It could create a toxic environment and feedback may not be taken seriously.

Obnoxious Aggression is where someone challenges directly and does not care personally, this person could sometimes be viewed as an a-hole or someone that gives mean feedback. There may be truth in what is said, but the delivery could use work and would likely fall on deaf ears.

Radical Candor, the preferred approach, is where someone cares personally and challenges directly, this is constructive feedback. It’s an effective approach in changing performance.

This scenario below may help in understanding each type.

Scenario:

• There is a software upgrade project which will impact many cross-functional teams since they use the same system in different ways.
• The software needs to be upgraded because the company will no longer receive support on the current version.
• The Product Owner (PO) for this project has set-up a kick-off meeting with leads from various cross-functional teams.
• On the day of the kick-off, one critical Team Lead does not show up and does not let the PO know ahead of time that he would not attend.

Key Players:

1. PO for the project
2. Team Lead that did not show up
3. Agile Manager that is the direct manager for the team lead.

What would you do as the PO for the project? What do you do as the Agile Manager for the project?

Outcome #1:

The Agile Manager and PO discuss and agree the Team Lead should either have attended the meeting or sent a decline out of courtesy/respect.

Instead of saying anything to the Team Lead, the Agile Manager decides to talk to others about the situation and talks poorly about the Team Lead for lack of respect.

→ This is Manipulative Insincerity.

Outcome #2:

The Agile Manager does not agree with the feedback from the PO and becomes defensive.

The Agile Manager says nothing about the kick-off meeting to the Team Lead and tells the Team Lead that he/she is doing a great job.

→ This is Ruinous Empathy.

Outcome #3:

The Agile Manager actively listens to the PO and will take action.

When the Agile Manager sees the Team Lead, the Agile Manager starts yelling at the Team Lead to attend all meetings in front of others.

→ This is Obnoxious Aggression.

Outcome #4:

The Agile Manager actively listens to the PO and will take action.

The Agile Manager talks to the Team Lead 1:1 and discusses the kick-off meeting that was missed. The Agile Manager provides context on why it’s important to attend meetings or let the organizer know he/she cannot attend.

→ This is Radical Candor.

From the four outcomes, Radical Candor has the most effective result and is the best approach.  It could take some more time or action, but it is worth the effort.

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