The Busy Leader's Handbook

18Positive Recognition Changes Everything:

The Art of Rewarding, Recognizing, and Saying Thank You

The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

—William James

Positive recognition is a powerful tool for creating a positive workplace and shaping your culture. Singling out and thanking an employee for a specific behavior goes a long way. The employee feels good about the action being recognized. Because recognized behavior gets repeated, the employee will continue to do it. Other employees see what actions are being positively recognized and often follow suit. Do this over and over, with all employees, and your culture will shift. What gets rewarded and recognized gets repeated.

Research shows that if you hear three “positives” to one “negative” from an individual, you feel positive about that person. If you hear two positive comments to one negative, it creates a neutral feeling. And if you hear one positive for every one negative—a ratio people have long thought to be sufficient to create a positive culture—it actually creates a negative feeling.

During speaking engagements, I often ask the audience this question: “If you receive a message from your boss and it says ‘call me when you can,’ is your first thought . . . Oh, boy! Here comes more positive recognition?” Usually they laugh. But when you think about it, this is not really funny.

Then, I ask another question: “When I asked your direct reports the same thing, what would their reaction be?” ...