Employee Recognition & Relationships by @I_Consistency

Recognition & Relationships: The Crossroads for Culture

Internal ConsistencyHR.com: Rewards and Recognition

InternalConsistency.com 2

About Internal Consistency

• Applying psychology at work to make work a better place.

• Evidence-based Practice

• Philosophies:– Create the culture employees crave– Individuals and systems work together


Agenda• Culture: Sum of all interactions and behavior• Leadership: Influencing via relationships• Relationship: Quality of interactions• Recognition & Gratitude: Motivating interactions• Behaviors leading to strong culture:– Organizational citizenship– Prosocial


5

Culture

Sum of all interactions.

More interactions,More collaborations, More knowledge sharing,More development,More motivation,Stronger culture.


Who’s culture is it?• Top down, bottom up, or inside out?

• Top down– Example behavior

• Bottom up– Unspoken norms

• Inside out– Manager-Follower relationship


Culture Management

• Proactive culture management requires intentional time and focus to align every player’s plan, decision and action to your desired work environment.


Culture-Leadership Connection

• Effective leadership — especially effective day-to-day management practices — is the key to create a high-engagement, high-performance work environment that wows customers and creates superior financial performance.

• Focus on daily practices.


Channels of Influence

• Communication– Promote or Prevent?

• Behavior– Example (to model after)– Reinforced • Keep doing or stop doing?


Importance of Front Line Mgrs


It takes all kinds

• Great man• Trait Approach• Skills Approach• Contingency• Situational• Behavioral

• Transactional• Path-Goal• Servant• Participative


Focus of Leadership ModelsCharacteristics of the

leader MGR

SubSubSub


New Leadership ApproachFocus on what happens

between leaders and followers.MGR

SubSubSub

Leader-Member Exchange

• Leaders and followers evaluate the relationship based on the quality of the interactions.

• Positive interactions are reciprocated with positive outcomes.



Leader-Member Exchange

4 Drivers of High quality relationship:1. Affect: • Mutual liking

2. Loyalty: • Public support for behaviors

3. Contribution: • Achieving tasks toward mutual goals

4. Respect:• Mutual respect for capabilities


Relationships

• Managers and Subordinates have trust, are loyal, contribute, and like another demonstrated with frequent interactions.

• Both refer to the employment contract. Transactional, bare minimum with few interactions.

Qua

lity

of R

elati

onsh

ip


Reciprocation of needs


High Quality Relationships

• High quality relationships– Expanded responsibilities– More power since they receive more information– Followers are more influential and confident– Receive personal concern from leaders

• More frequent interactions=more trust, support.


Low Quality Relationships

• Low quality relationships– Formal employment contract– Lesser attention and support from

leaders– Followers see treatment as unfair

• Less frequent interactions, less trust.


Communication and Behavior


Recognition

• Recognition is a communication tool that reinforces performance related behavior.

• Raising awareness about recent performance.

• Ken Blanchard: “Catch people doing something right”


Creating Alignment

• Align recognition to values, competencies, philosophies– Values are the railroad ties– Recognition are the rails

• Bonus: Recognize risk taking when mistakes are made


Impact of Recognition

• The act of recognizing subordinates’ work– Communicates trust in decision-making– Supports autonomy– Acknowledges contribution– Highlights unique capabilities– Builds rapport and liking– Creates a reciprocal opportunities


How not to…

• Obligatory• Sarcastic praise• Mixed with criticism• Select few• Trivial


Example Script

• ARC– Action: “Hey, about that thing you did…”– Result: “…it really changed something…”– Consequence: “which translates into”

John, your project flowchart for implementations really helped me organize my own projects. I’m much more organized following your flowchart.


Structure

• Liked Best/Next time:– “I liked it best when you …”• Recognizing competency in the individual• Reinforces the action

– “Next time how can we..”• Demonstrates support from manager• Gives employee responsibility to resolve problems


Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

• High quality social exchange motivates subordinates to perform OCB’s

• Interaction is reciprocal and relies on degree of exchange– Greater autonomy allows for OCB’s

• Outcome: positive social working environment


Organizational Citizenship• Altruism:• Courtesy:• Conscientiousness:

• Sportsmanship:


Organizational Citizenship

• Performing beyond stated job requirements

• Going beyond without expecting rewards– Willingness to work overtime– Helping colleagues– Accepting tasks that are beyond normal

requirements


Gratitude, now backed by research!

Psychology has been great at studying the abnormalities“Asking what’s wrong?”

Now turning to studying when we are optimal“Asking what’s right?”


Pro-Social Behavior

• Voluntarily helping another

• Offering support, assistance, cooperation

• Establish & maintain interpersonal relationships


Role of Gratitude

• Removes uncertainty whether helping will be effective

• People will withhold if/when they feel uncertain about their ability to help competently and effectively (Grant, 2010)


Communal

• Social worth – sense of being valued by others– Feel that their actions matter in other people’s

lives– Belongingness

• Withhold because of uncertainty whether help will be valued.


Agency

• Positive feedback that the helper has succeed in helping and can benefit others.

• More willing to help others because they feel their efforts will increase odds of genuinely helping others.


Gratitude- Returning the FavorCan you review this?

Ok, here’s my feedback.


Thank you so much! I’m really grateful.

Yeah, sure. Let me help you with that.

Can you review this?

Ok, here’s my feedback.

Can you review a second?

Gratitude- Returning the Favor


Gratitude- Paying it ForwardThank you so much! I’m really grateful.

Let me help you with that.

Let m

e he

lp yo

u w

ith th

at.


Data

No Gratitude Gratitude0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

32%

66%

25%

55%

Returning the Favor and Paying it Forward

Return the Favor Paying it Forward

Like

lihoo

d of

Hel

ping

Gratitude doubles the likelihood that some one will Extend their assistance/ help them/ give additional help.


Gratitude: What’s at work?• It isn’t • Quid quo pro• “I’m happier now and more likely to help”

• What’s REALLY happening is:– “What I’m offering is valuable”

• When their social value increases, they are more likely to see their help as competent, when when feeling like their help is seen as effective, the more likely to offer such help.


Gratitude- More than warm fuzzyThank you so much! I’m really grateful.

Let m

e he

lp yo

u w

ith th

at.

41

Thankful for Gratitude

• Prosocial Behaviors are essential for collaborative, high quality relationships.

InternalConsistency.com

Before After Rcving Grat20

30

40

50

60

70

41

63

Prosocial Behavior Before and After Gratitude

Gratitude

Control


Taking action:

• Organizational Level:– Invest in a framework to facilitate communication

and track recognition.• HR Level:– Increase importance of relationships– Share success stories

• Individual Manager Level:– Seek new opportunities to recognize performance– Leadership assessment and coaching


Day to day

• Start each day with gratitude:– For self: will shape your outlook on the day– For others: start others day on a positive note

• Opportunity detective:– Finding mistakes is easy– Look for good in others


Gratitude/Recognizing

• What are ways others impact your day-to-day work?

• Who helps you most often?• Who helps you least often?• When has someone gone out of their way to

help?• What might be under your radar?• What types of assistance do you most

appreciate?


Conclusion• Culture is the summation of behaviors – Reinforced and guided by leaders.

• Relationships between leaders and followers can be improved – With more frequent positive interactions.

• Recognition and gratitude can be used to facilitate such positive interactions.

• With more frequent positive interactions, relationships improve resulting newly established norms feeding a positive culture.


Sources• Chiun Lo, M.,Ramayah, T., Swee Hui, J. (2006). An investigation of Leader Member

Exchange effects on organizational citizenship behavior in Malaysia. Journal of Business and Management, 12, 5-23.

• Grant, A., & Gino, F. (2010). A little goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98, 946-955.

• Othman, R., Fang Ee, F., Lay Shi, N. (2010). Understanding dysfunctional Leader-Member Exchange: Antecedents and outcomes. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 31(4), 337-350.

• Sine, H., Nahrgang, J., and Morgeson, F. P. (2009). Understanding why they don’t see eye to eye: Examination of Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) agreement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1048-1057.

• http://www.managementexchange.com/story/culture-eats-strategy


Thank you!

Questions?Comments?


[email protected]

888-481-4741

Connect

mailto:[email protected]