Good organizations promote employee recognition programs. It’s easy to give recognition to anything that falls under the job description; things like sales numbers, matrix performance and attendance because it’s part of the job for your employees.
Then there are other employees who do exceptional jobs and go unnoticed. Things they do everyday don’t translate directly into sales numbers, but they continue to do what they do because it’s the right thing to do. Their acts don’t turn into extra pay, so that usually means they’re sacrificing their own resources and time in order to keep things moving along in your organization.
Those are people who truly deserve recognition.
When giving awards, average managers only focus on things that affect their jobs, looking at the numbers of their average employees, hoping to pick ones who are above average. On the other hand, exceptional managers have insights to look beyond their reports and find employees who are truly committed to their jobs.
The ability to develop such insights comes from first committing yourself to your job as a supervisor. However, if you’re waiting for your organization to develop such recognition program so you can implement, it’s unlikely that it’ll happen anytime soon. So why not lead your peers and start one?
