Tell Your Team They’re Great
One of our cause heroes at a ZERO Prostate Cancer Walk was all smiles as she crossed the finish line last month. I had asked her about it and she said, “I just love my ZERO Family”. It was the highlight of the month for me so I immediately told the story to my team: How after losing a loved one about three years ago, they helped put some of the light back in her eyes.
I added something like “all of your dedication to showing others they’re not fighting alone makes patients, caregivers, and families better off every day.” It makes us feel good to hear stories like that. When we do - we commit to being our best selves.
Oftentimes, that’s all it takes to motivate teammates. Many organizations (especially in the private sector) traditionally only use monetary incentives to boost morale but a growing body of research and surveys over the years suggests that recognition - when delivered effectively - is more valuable much of the time.
Following the pandemic, companies continue to feel the impacts of worker shortages, everyone’s talking about “quiet quitting”, and nonprofits - as always - work with severe resource constraints; so leaning on a healthy culture that is quick to share authentic appreciation leads to greater results.
Here’s why:
It builds relationships. When you have relationships where you care for your teammates, it makes you approachable and, well …more human. When you take in other points of view and consider other strategies with humility, it drives innovation. Consider your own relationships, you just try harder when it comes to the people you care about.
Strengthens collaboration and motivation. I’m no scientist but when we share positive recognition, it increases the serotonin in our brains and we feel happy. It also takes a degree of vulnerability to say something positive. How will they react? Am I saying too much? What will they think of me? When we’re vulnerable, the closer we feel to others. Getting vulnerable leads to greater collaboration because others will feel more drawn to you to share their feedback whether it’s positive or constructive. The latter kind unearths issues, allowing for healthy conflict when necessary and ultimately helps the team efficiently identify problems and more effectively find solutions.
Creates Accountability. Recognition helps teammates feel seen and heard for their efforts and it builds confidence. When we feel a healthy sense of confidence, we're willing to take on higher levels of responsibility; increasing our accountability for tasks, projects, and campaigns. Ultimately, when we’re given high levels of responsibility with an equal amount of freedom to manage ourselves, we’re more likely to stay in positions long-term, feel informed on activities across the organization, and we give higher levels of effort especially in the times where the work is difficult.
Here are some tips I’ve learned on motivating teammates and creating a stronger team through recognition:
Get the timing right. Giving recognition at the end of a project or the start of a new quarter is fairly typical but turns up the frequency during times of external stress or months where the workload on the team is heavy. Our teams are putting in extra effort and deserve to know we have their backs.
Make it public. Whether they say it or not, most people like to be appreciated so giving recognition in public is key because it also motivates those who aren’t the direct recipient as seeing someone appreciated for their efforts lifts everyone’s spirits and commitment to the tasks at hand. For example, we have a weekly staff meeting where we rotate three people in to call out teammates who are living the values of the organization. In addition, anyone can give micro-rewards, like a cup of coffee, to another teammate at any time for a job well-done and everyone else sees the reward through a specific Slack channel.
Name the specific action. Not only does hearing recognition for someone else motivate others, it gives the team specific tangible actions that are celebrated within the organization. Don’t just say “you always do a great job” but say, “When organized the meeting and got everyone’s input, you did a great job”.
Share how it made you feel. We have to do better than “when you met the deadline, I felt happy” but rather something like “when you met the deadline, I felt empowered to give my best”. If we can be specific as possible on how we felt - relieved, exhilarated, inspired - it creates more of a memorable experience for our teammates and it increases the chances they’ll keep performing at a high level.
How it makes the team better. Sharing the outcome of someone’s effort is key to preserving continued effort and it inspires others to behave in similar ways. For example, if you can say something like, “When you overhauled our database with new data fields, it gave the team a far better chance to learn more about our constituents and it empowered them to take action” then our teammates will see the value they bring to our organizations.
A recent Harvard Business Review article suggests that we’re hung up on not giving positive feedback. It reports that three in 10 employees said they haven’t received recognition in the last year. Are one of them on your team? Don’t hold back. We spend most of our daylight at work, so put aside the excuses and let your teammates know that work is better with them.
