Transcript

[0:00] Just quickly before we get started. I wanted to let you know about free e book
I wrote a little while back called Engineering Leadership 101: practical insights for becoming a leader at any stage.
It shows you how to grow as a leader no matter where you are in your career, the important differences between management and leadership,
and it dispels some of the common myths engineers have about leadership. And like I said, it’s free.
So if you’re interested, you can go ahead and download your copy at engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101.
That’s engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101.

[0:41] For engineers who refuse to be surpassed.
This is the engineering and leadership podcast.

[0:47] Music.

[0:55] Pat Sweet here and welcome to Episode 10 of the Engineering and Leadership podcast. The show dedicated to helping engineers thrive.
In today’s episode, we’ll talk about the importance of recognition and how to do it effectively, even during a pandemic.

[1:12] Companies in every industry have a common problem – finding and retaining excellent employees, and for engineering managers like you and I, this is a huge headache.
I can speak from personal experience when I say that finding the right person for the job can be all but impossible at times, which means when you do find that person, keeping them happy and engaged is absolutely critical.
One of the cheapest, easiest and most effective tools in an engineering manager’s arsenal, however, is also one of the most seldom used: recognition.
In 2016, a study from Gallup revealed that only about one in three U.S. workers strongly agreed that they had received recognition for their good work within the last week.

[2:00] Now that stat is troubling because today in 2020 it’s even harder to provide that positive feedback. COVID-19 has made every interaction we have with other people that much harder. There is that much more friction.
And since much of the informal recognition that takes place does so in serendipitous situations like bumping into someone at the coffee maker, I think it’s safe to say that that stat from the Gallup study – the one in three – has likely degraded even further.

[2:30] So today we’re going to talk about why recognition is important, the benefits of recognition, the downsides to not recognizing people and how to do it effectively.

[2:40] Music.

[2:50] First off, let’s tackle why recognition is so important.
First thing I want to talk about here is that recognition helps people to feel valued.
Think of a time when you were recognized by a manager or a peer.
How did that feel? It’s probably true for you, because I know it is for me that it’s easy to look back and think of the times where someone took the time out of their day to recognize something I had done.
It made me feel incredible. It’s It’s a wonderful thing to know that someone else is noticing your hard work because, frankly, a lot of the work that we do as engineers falls to the background.
You don’t necessarily see all of the work that goes into creating something wonderful. So when someone recognizes you, you really do feel valued.

[3:38] The other big benefit is that it fosters a relationship between the recognizer and recognizee, which I’m not super sure that’s word, but I think you catch my drift.
Recognition says “I see you and you matter”, and this builds trust.
This is this is very, very powerful stuff in terms of how it bonds two people. And since recognition is rarely requested,
it’s the kind of thing that just comes out of the blue. The gesture is incredibly powerful.

[4:10] The third big benefit to recognizing people is that boosts productivity.
I can think back to when I was a junior engineer and I was working my tail off on a big project to prototype and automated railcar.
Really Cool project, really fascinating technology and and it almost killed me.
And there was a lot of overtime. We had this major funding application that was due March 31st come hell or high water, we had to demonstrate that this railcar,
could do certain things in order to qualify for this funding.
So part way through this project, I, out of the blue, was copied on an email from our project manager to the site general manager, praising me for my efforts on that project.
Now I never forgot that, and clearly years later I’m still telling this story.
And as you can imagine, I was more than happy to double down on my efforts for quite some time after that.
That was really an important moment for me in that project, and I suspect that the same effect takes place for most people is that when you are recognized,
you are more than happy to continue working hard and continue doing the good work that you’ve been doing.
It really does have a major impact on productivity.

[5:27] The fourth big benefit – and I mentioned this off the top –
is better retention. People who are recognized stick around longer, and that’s good for teams. That’s good for business.
The rule of thumb is that it takes about three times someone’s salary to hire them in the first place and get them up to speed and get them productive.
So retaining people is critical. It makes good business sense.
The fifth thing is that it’s a clear way to reinforce company values, and you’re gonna hear me talk a lot about values throughout the rest of this episode. This is a really key idea that I really want you to to take away from this.
It’s a clear way to reinforce company values when you see people doing the right thing based on what the company or team has said right looks like. Flagging that reinforces those concepts for the team.
And this is important because values can be fuzzy.
Recognizing people who exhibit those values helps helps to make them more tangible, more concrete and reinforces the concepts for the team.
For example, valuing teamwork makes sense at almost any company.
There’s probably no company in the world that said “Yeah, we don’t really care about teamwork,” solopreneurs maybe, but for the vast majority of organizations, teamwork is critical.
But what the expectations are for excellent teamwork could very significantly from one organization to another.

[6:54] So to recognize someone who demonstrates what good teamwork looks like at Company X is a really good way to signal to the rest of the team the rest of the organization.
Ah, this is this is what they’re talking about.
So you you show people who the role models are in the organization by recognizing them as such.
So it’s clear that there are some major benefits to recognizing employees. But what are the risks of not recognizing employees? Because, you know, recognizing people is a little bit, I don’t know, for some people, it’s a little bit hard.
It’s a little bit awkward, so it’s easier just not to do it. And it’s certainly not something that’s built into your day to day work.
Recognition is never gonna be a fire that you have to put out at the 11th hour, but there are risks to not recognizing employees.

[7:43] The first is that hardworking staff won’t feel noticed, they’ll feel invisible or worse yet, they’ll feel used.
Sometimes, frankly, it’s easy to feel like a cog in the machine, especially in large organizations. And if people aren’t recognized for their efforts, there’s no real reason to feel any differently than just a cog in the machine. You’re just there.
You put in your time, you do your thing, you go home.
And the problem is, if people don’t feel noticed, there’s absolutely no reason to go the extra mile. Why would you go the extra mile if you didn’t think anyone was going to see that people who are otherwise great employees will disengage, which puts the organization at risk?
You’re definitely not gonna be getting the best out of these people. People need to feel valued and respected, and this can’t happen if they’re never recognized.

[8:31] The second thing is, and I touched on this earlier. If you don’t recognize people, values don’t get reinforced. Without showing people what right looks like by showcasing it
when it happens, people are left to their own devices on what your values really mean, or if they mean anything at all.
How often do company mission vision and value statements get put on a plaque on the wall and then never spoken of again?
And it’s been the same plaque for 28 years and is completely irrelevant now has nothing to do with your current business.

[9:04] It’s really obvious to the people working in the organization, whether or not values actually mean anything, So when you don’t reinforce those values through recognition, people start to understand,
that they don’t matter.
So no matter what you do, whether you recognise staff or not, people will learn from that. So you want to make sure that you are recognizing people to teach them what right looks like.
Otherwise, you’ll be demonstrating that there is really no right.
It doesn’t matter, and you’ll never reinforce those values that you really do think are important.
The third thing, and this really hammers the point home. With respect to retention, employees who don’t feel adequately recognised are twice as likely to say they’ll quit within the next year.

[9:52] Whether they actually quit or not is a different story, but it’s telling either way, if they quit, there’s an obvious problem there.
I spoke earlier about the effect on the team and the fact that hiring people is difficult and expensive, but it might actually be a bigger problem if they stay.
That’s a bit more insidious.
That means you’ve got employees who are unengaged. They’re not interested. They’re not happy.
And you’re obviously not getting the most out of these people.
And they may even be dragging the team down if they’re in such a negative headspace. If you think that within the next year you’re you’re going to quit, you’re probably not really helping the team achieve its goals.
And if you’ve ever worked with that disgruntled engineer, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You know what it’s like to work with people who are checked out.
It’s miserable for everyone involved.

[10:43] So if we can all agree in our little our little circle here that recognizing people brings a lot of real value and avoid a lot of really critical risks,
what we need to figure out now is how to recognize people. So the first thing that we need to talk about is what good recognition looks like.
I think there are four important elements related to proper recognition, strong recognition.
The first is that recognition needs to be genuine. You need to mean it. It needs to come from a place of truth and honesty.
You can’t just recognize people when you don’t really actually believe what you’re saying. That’s gonna be spotted from a mile away and will actually backfire on you. If when you recognize people, it’s obvious that you’re just saying it because you feel like you have to say it,

[11:33] that’s not gonna help you, I promise you that.
The second thing is that recognition needs to be accurate. It needs to reflect the actual accomplishments and behaviors that were witnessed and and should reflect who actually did the work.
So you’ve got to recognize the right person for the right things. Again,
people will spot phony recognition from a mile away, and you’ll never live it down. The third thing is, recognition needs to be personal.
Generic recognition doesn’t go far, right?
Having a blank kind of store-bought thank you card is nice and everything, but think of the difference between getting a short hand written note versus that card that you picked up the last minute from the grocery store.
The simplicity of of a hand written note is, you know, it might come across ss maybe not quite as his fancy,
maybe, but it is incredibly personal. Someone took specific time to share their thoughts with you, and that could be a very powerful thing.
The fourth thing that I think really needs to be there in order for recognition to be to be good, is that it needs to be aligned, and what I mean by that is it needs to be aligned with the company’s culture, mission and values.

[12:50] I mentioned earlier in the episode that I was going to be talking a lot about values, and here’s where I think recognition can can really benefit
both the employee and the employer is when you recognize things that the company values, that line up with the company’s culture,
you reinforce that culture, you reinforce those values.
And it’s a powerful moment for the person being recognized, because again they feel like they’ve been seen like they’re valued like they’re important.
But you are also showing others within the organization that the values that you have are important and you continue to build those up.

[13:29] Now that’s not to say you can’t recognize someone for heroic effort, for example, if it doesn’t happen to show up on your team’s list of values,
But recognizing values that that really do line up with the organization need to be front and center.
And if you do find yourself recognizing people for things that fall outside of your organization’s values and you find common themes, that’s actually, that’s an interesting conversation
that that could drive is, listen, maybe we do value this other thing that we really haven’t articulated before.
Or maybe we don’t value something that we said we did, and that’s not necessarily good or bad. It just is and could drive a conversation about where are we as an organization and what should we value?
Have we articulated our actual values given the way we’re recognizing employees and the way people really make a difference around here?

[14:25] So those four things again: genuine, accurate, personal and aligned, those are the four elements to really good recognition.
So if you’ve got someone that you’d like to recognize and you feel like you’ve got these four elements, how do you actually do it?
I mentioned earlier in the episode in the intro that recognizing people is often serendipitous, which is great.
But because we’re in the middle of a pandemic and most people are working from home, it’s much harder to have those those moments at the coffee maker, right?
So here are some ideas that are really easy to execute. They’re quick, they’re cheap. They’re effective.
Anyone listening to this right now could implement these today. Okay, so idea number one would be just a simple email.
It’s quick. It’s easy. It’s effective. If the recognition that you’re giving conform to those four pillars – those four requirements that I mentioned – a simple email can go a long way, like something as simple as “Hey, Ted!
Really good job. I appreciate the hard work you put in.”
That’s all it has to be, and you can make a real difference in someone’s day.

[15:35] Another idea, I mentioned this just a moment ago, a thank you card or a hand-written note.
Listen, the mail system still works, and this is incredibly powerful.
If you actually write someone a letter or a note and put it in the mail and, let me express it this way, when’s the last time you got a letter? That was a real letter. It was addressed to you.
It was typed up or hand-written. How did that make you feel?
Probably really, really good. There’s something old-timey and magical about a proper letter showing up in the mail.
You can create those moments for other people. Now, it’s harder,

[16:12] that’s the point. There’s an intentionality there that is really clear to the receiver, and they’ll see, that they’ll get that, that you cared enough to take time out of your day to choose the hard way to send you a message.
And that’s really, really powerful again.
The content doesn’t have to be grandiose.
It could be a one or two liner. Honestly, it doesn’t have to be much. It can still have a huge, huge impact.
The third way you could deliver recognition is through a kudos system, and what I mean by that,
a lot of companies have systems that could be used to recognize people.
So, um, there are a number of different tools out there.
Where I work now there’s even a point system tied to this recognition system that lets employees and managers award others points or recommend them for small cash bonuses to reward awesome work. And the points, as you collect them,

[17:06] kind of works a little bit like Airmiles or Aeroplan miles.
You collect these points, you can redeem them for all sorts of cool stuff.
Electronics and gear and clothes and trips, all sorts of great stuff. And even if your company doesn’t have something like that,
LinkedIn also has a kudos feature right now, and I noticed one of my own staff getting a kudos from an internal colleague on LinkedIn recently, which was really cool.
It was a neat way to see one of my own staff be recognized for her hard work, and that was awesome. That was a really cool moment, and I know it generated a bit of buzz on LinkedIn and, again,
I can only imagine how it felt for her to be getting that and for other people to see that she was being recognized.
Another way to recognize people is through staff meetings.
Try this at the next staff meeting. Take a minute to recognize someone in the group. Doesn’t have to be an Oscar speech. It could be something simple, like

[18:00] “I’d like to take a moment to recognize Jim. He took the initiative last week to make time to lead our company’s involvement in the local high school robotics competition.
And this is an awesome example of community leadership, which, as you all know, was one of Acme Engineering’s four core values. So, Jim, I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for doing that.”
It really can be that simple. And this could even become a regular agenda item, just forcing you as a leader to recognize people on a regular basis.
Another idea would be to set up awards or certificates. Annual engineering awards could be done at very low cost.
You can give awards for any number of things. Whatever best aligns with the actual work that you do and your company values.
You could print out certificates made up in Microsoft Word, print them on heavy card stock or heavy paper and have them framed for under 10 bucks.
It really doesn’t have to be hard, but again, really
putting the effort in to prepare and to be intentional about this really, really shows to the people receiving awards and other people who see their colleagues get rewarded. Now,
this is tougher to do with COVID, but there’s nothing saying you couldn’t hold a virtual awards gala on Zoom.
Heck, you might even have some fun with and get people to dress up for this digital black tie event. It could be, it could be awesome. You mail out awards afterward.
It could be a lot of fun. With a little bit of creativity. You could really do something to liven things up.

[19:29] The last thing I wanted to talk about in terms of ways to recognize people are performance reviews.
And it should go without saying that a performance review should take the time to highlight someone’s accomplishments and recognize them for their hard work.

[19:44] Frankly, that’s not always the case. Things don’t always pan out that way, and I personally have had performance reviews on both ends of the spectrum.
This should be and really is an excellent time, if not the most important time to recognize the specific accomplishments that someone has achieved.
What’s key here is that you’re specific. Having a performance review where your manager just says “Good work! Keep it up.”
It’s good and everything, but absolutely doesn’t fit the four requirements that I was, I was mentioning earlier.
It’s it’s nice and everything, but but really only just kind of scratches the surface.
So when you are giving a performance review, or even if you’re on the receiving end of a performance review, try to talk about specifically what was good. Specifically, what should be kept up.
This is this is really important stuff. It’s a really, really big opportunity that, frankly, a lot of managers miss with their staff. Again,
all of these ideas are either free or could be done at very, very low cost and can be done regardless of whether your team is operating virtually or not.
So I really, absolutely would encourage you to try this where you work. Next up we’ll dig into the engineering and leadership mailbag.

[20:59] Music.

[21:09] This, of course, is the part of the show where I read your mail, your comments, tweets and messages and answer your questions.
I promise to read everything you send me, and I will absolutely share my favorites here on the podcast.

[21:22] Right off the top. I want to send a couple quick shoutouts to Bishal Sapkota from Nepal, who sent me a really nice note online, just thanking me for the podcast. So thank you for listening, Bishal, that’s awesome!
And Neil Thompson of Teachthegeek.com, who reached out on LinkedIn to congratulate me for relaunching the podcast.
Once upon a time, I was a guest on Teach the Geeks. Neill has a, YouTube channel has got a podcast.
You can get links to everything from teachthegeek.com, and I’ll put links in the show notes as well.
Something definitely, definitely, definitely recommend you check out.
He has some really good material on on public speaking and other profession development as well.
So, again, I’ll put links to all that in the show notes. And I want to give a special thanks to someone who who wrote me within the last week his name is Gnanaskandan Velu,
who posted something on social media, it’s actually related to this week’s episode.
He posted a thank you for advice that I had given him eight years ago.
He had posted, once part of time, a question in the comments section to an article I’d written, uh, for engineering.com, and this is, like I said, eight years ago.
His question was about how to interpret a relative lack of progress toward a professional goal he had early in his career.
Back then, I offered two suggestions. One was to share your goal with others, particularly with your manager, so that

[22:51] your your community and your management can help you toward your your professional goal. And that’s something I’d recommend to anyone,
by the way. People want to help you.
You might not realize this, but people want to pitch in to help you achieve your goals. So when you share your goals, some amazing things can happen.
The other bit of advice I offered was just to keep going and to try not to confuse the lack of hard results early on with a lack of progress.
Often, progress is being made without much in the way of objective evidence.
And eventually you do push through and achieve what you’re pursuing.
I’ll post a link to the show notes so that you can see the whole exchange, but

[23:33] eight years later, this message shows up on Twitter, thanking me for that advice and to a mentor of his for guiding him along the way.
Turns out that the advice that was given really helped.
It really made a big difference in adjusting the course for Gnanaskandan.
And to me, that was just amazing. I took a few big lessons away from this. One,
is that small investments in people can yield huge results over time. So don’t ever, ever pass up an opportunity to plant seeds and help others.
You have no idea what impact you can have down the road. Two, and this relates specifically to today’s episode,
recognition is powerful, no matter what the relationship. Gnanaskandan and I hadn’t spoken in ages.
We don’t work together. We’re not in the same industry.
But getting that message from him out of the blue was extremely motivating for me, and it’s definitely gonna help me,
to keep driving and producing this podcast and trying to be an excellent manager and people developer at work.
This was huge for me to get this out of the blue. So again, recognition is powerful.
No matter what the relationship so don’t ever be afraid to recognize someone, regardless of your specific working relation. You don’t have to be someone’s manager. You don’t have to be in someone’s team to recognize them for great work.

[24:56] So thank you very much for that. That really that made my week and hopefully, hopefully you all can learn a little something from this too. As you already know, I’ve started a question of the week, and the question that I have for you this week is: How do you like to be recognized?
And how do you like to recognize others?
If you have a special story or an anecdote that you’d like to share, please do share it.
I’ll post the question on LinkedIn. You can respond there. Or head on over to the show notes at engineeringandleadership.com/Episode10.
Scroll to the bottom and you can leave your answer there. Also, while talking about questions. I mentioned this last week.
I’d love it if you would send me your questions. And if I get interesting ones, I can make an episode dedicated to answering a bunch of questions you have or or use the ideas topics for future episodes. Again,
I would love to hear your questions, so please do fire those in as well.

[25:53] That, my friends, is all the time we have for the show today.
Remember recognising others isn’t only easy to do – it’s incredibly important and incredibly effective.
We talked all about the benefits of recognising others today and some simple but very effective ways of doing so.
So my challenge for you is to go and try and take action with some of the advice I gave today and let me know what the results are. I’d love to hear. If you enjoyed the show,
please do hit the subscribe button, no matter what pod catcher you’re using right now. Also, it would be awesome if you could leave a review for me.
That helps me improve the show and helps others find the show as well, which is super.
If you want to read what you just heard, just go to engineeringandleadership.com/Episode10.
There you’ll be able to find the main content, all the links and all the notes that I mentioned here and even a full transcript of the show.

[26:46] Finally, don’t forget to grab your free download of Engineering Leadership 101 at engineeringandleadership.com/leadership101. Until next time,
this is Pat sweet, reminding you that if you’re going to be anything, be excellent.

[27:04] Music.

[27:14] You’ve been listening to the engineering and leadership podcast with Pat Sweet.
If you’d like to learn more, go to engineeringandleadership.com, where you’ll find more free articles, podcasts and downloads to help engineers thrive.
That’s engineeringandleadership.com.

[27:31] Music.