It’s a nice thought to imagine that implementing a system that supports recognition is as easy as giving credit to the most valuable employee, but executing such a system takes creativity and careful thought. It’s not just about awarding the shining star who does something particularly spectacular. It’s about recognizing the strengths of each individual supporting your team, making sure that their distinct merits don’t fade away behind the glow of team effort, and telling someone just how much you appreciate them in the day-to-day. It’s not just when they do something exceptional; showing appreciation for someone for any reason can be very motivating.

There are limitless opportunities to provide recognition to those around you, whether it’s your employees, your class or your family. Below is a brief list of different activities you can organize to recognize the good in those around you:

• Host an Olympics meet. This can be done in the office, at school, at home (family reunion, anyone?), at a neighborhood block party, etc. A friendly competition is a great team building exercise to use whenever you have a large group of people, and it’s a great way to assess and honor individual strengths within a team.
• Hold an awards ceremony. Have classmates or co-workers nominate their fellows for special awards. This will be particularly sincere for the recipient because it’s not just management handing out an award, but the entire team reinforcing the acknowledgment.
• Hold an award ceremony for your students to distinguish their achievements such as high grades, perfect attendance, and completing work on time. Don’t forget about the students typically labeled as the class failures – they have their successes too. Figure out what they’ve done particularly well or what weakness they’ve overcome during the school year, and let them know it didn’t go unnoticed. Reinforce the good rather than dwelling on the negative.
• Give your employees an award when they turn in a project early or display advanced commitment to the company. The key here is to be consistent; don’t award one person for accomplishing something that you wouldn’t award someone else for performing with the same level of skill or difficulty.
• Surprise a deserving recipient for no particular reason other than to say how awesome they are.

It’s important to remember when recognizing individuals for their talents that you are making the gesture special and memorable for them. Give them memories they can walk away with and something they can hold onto and look back at with pride for their accomplishments. Most of all, be creative in your recognition to make it all the more special. Take a look at this website that provides a list of reasons to recognize your employees (although, it works just as well for other people in your life!) that goes beyond the typical awards you would give out for attendance and performance. So what will you do to create a recognition program in your class, home or office? To learn how we can help you accomplish your goals to recognize the people in your life, give us a call or visit our website.