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Box Out For The Win
There's nothing more fun than being with your friends on hot
afternoon. You can chill out, hang loose, and just relax. And if
the odds are good, all of you should have enough cash to go on a
quick ride down to town and have yourselves a ball at...
Business Innovation – Good Thinking Not Leadership
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
There are other useful definitions in this field, for example, creativity can be...
Leadership Development - Leadership Styles and Training
What makes a good leader?
Leadership development
Ever since we started Impact Factory, lo these many years ago,
we have struggled with the whole notion of leadership
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writing...
OCS Sweeps Up At BBC
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The Passive, Inwardly Focused Organization
In a recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article the three authors (Neilson, Pasternack, and Van Nuys) described what they called the "Passive-Aggressive Organization." While we are all familiar with the concept of the passive-aggressive...
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How To Offer Individual Praise Without Undermining Team Efforts
by Carole Nicolaides © 2002
http://www.progressiveleadership.com
A lot of discussions lately are centered around teamwork and leadership. This is especially an issue after all the leadership scandals that have been brought to light in corporate America this past year. Due to major layoffs, and the loss of exceptional brainpower, there is a huge need for leaders who possess both a heart and a sound knowledge base at the same time. The quest is on! Leadership books outsold all books this summer giving us great insight into the challenges of companies around the world.
So where do you start when creating a great leader? Everybody seems to start with teamwork. Teamwork will lead to excellence, which will eventually translate into better company results. But common approaches to teamwork are lacking. It’s time for a little innovation! Let’s focus on an approach that happens to shock a few people. An approach that is quite different than what management gurus have been preaching for the past 15 years.
If we want people to be good at what they do, love their work, and be proud that they belong to something bigger than themselves, we need to change our traditional management thinking. We, as leaders, need to remind ourselves that people are people and individualism is by no means dead. People still crave individual praise.
I admit as a leader you are walking a fine line between honoring individualism and cultivating teamwork, yet the bottom line is that it can be done. In fact, it MUST be done if you want to recharge your employee’s creative batteries. People’s morale, faith and most importantly loyalty are so low these days. As a leader, you need to use a variety of motivational, and inspirational tactics if you want them to feel self-confident. Without this, you can be sure that they will not leverage all their potential.
Contrary to some beliefs, individual attention will by no means jeopardize your work in building an effective team. Think of it as an opportunity to embrace and inspire individualism without sacrificing the collective effort. Every one of your people is good at something. Find that “something” and allow them to shine through it.
How do you walk that fine line between teamwork and individual praise? Here are a few ideas that you can implement immediately.
§Acknowledge that everyone has an ego. People need praise. This is a proven fact. But how do you “stroke” someone’s ego without destroying your team? Offer individual praise based on each employee’s contribution to the team. As you speak casually with your team members, look for opportunities to offer accolades. An example would be, “Ellen, you amaze me! Your organizational skills are simply excellent. I don’t know where our team would be without your contributions.” Another way would be to publicly acknowledge each team member in meetings. When the team reaches a goal, praise the team as a
whole first then offer a brief statement of how each person’s individual contributions played a vital role in the team’s success. In this way, you can boost an individual’s ego without diminishing the team effort.
§Acknowledge the “personalization” of work. No doubt you’ve heard the saying, “Don’t take it personally. It’s just business.” The truth is that many people do take business personally. Managers and employees alike are often offended when their department faces budget cuts, or when their projects are tabled. However, for all the negative connotations of “taking it personally,” it really can be beneficial. Encourage your people to take ownership of their work. And praise them for doing so. This is a form of showing commitment to the team and the organization as a whole. It is also an outlet for you to offer individual praise that will benefit both the employee and the team.
§People understand things differently. How often have you overheard (or be party to) a disagreement that ended with the statement “Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t understand what you were saying”? Not everyone understands things the same way. When only team praise is offered, many employees will misconstrue your actions. Many will think they hold no personal value to you or to the business. The result? Hurt feelings come into play, and a lack of morale and productivity seep in. By adding a good dose of individual praise to your management mix, you can ensure that each person understands their individual value, and their value to the team.
§People communicate differently. While some of your people will draw personal satisfaction from receiving team acknowledgement, others will feel undervalued. The reason? People communicate, and receive communication, differently. This fact is the primary reason for offering both individual and team praise. Through group and individual communication, all your employees can receive the encouragement they need to move forward and achieve new levels of productivity and team unity.
Does this approach sound time consuming? It really isn’t. In fact, you will most likely eliminate hours of unnecessary work in addressing negative performances and low performance levels. A quick comment, a short email, or a three sentence handwritten note all work equally well.
People need individual attention. By creating an environment where each person can thrive, and by offering assignments that allow them to gain individual and group praise, you foster a team culture where you and your employees benefit.
About the Author
Carole is President and Executive Coach of Progressive Leadership, offering executive coaching, organizational development consulting and leadership development training. Improve your business relationships, communication, team performance and bottom line starting now. Visit http://www.progressiveleadership.com for more info & subscriptions to Carole’s FREE Ezine.
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| DTI - Welcome to the DTI's Innovation Home Page |
| The DTI is working to stimulate a significant increase in innovation throughout ... It covers Living Innovation, web streaming of a series of high profile ... |
| www.dti.gov.uk |
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| Innovation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating ... A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
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| National Innovation Website |
| The Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources has developed this website to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of innovation and ... |
| www.innovation.gov.au |
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| Innovation, creativity and brainstorming resources from ... |
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| www.innovationtools.com |
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| Innovation Weblog - Trends, resources, viewpoints from Chuck Frey ... |
| The Innovation Weblog - Valuable trends, resources and viewpoints in innovation, creativity and brainstorming from Chuck Frey at InnovationTools. |
| www.innovationtools.com |
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| CORDIS: Innovation Portal: Home |
| This Innovation Portal is supported by DG ENTR of the European Commission, ... European Commission adopts new Communication on Innovation: on 13 September ... |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| CORDIS: Promotion of Innovation: Home |
| This programme stands at the cross-roads of the Community's policies on Research, Innovation and SMEs. |
| cordis.europa.eu |
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| Innovation Network... leveraging innovation, creativity and ... |
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| www.thinksmart.com |
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| Business Innovation : Car Reviews, Online Gaming, and Product Branding |
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| www.businessweek.com |
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| Innovation - Life, Inspired | PBS |
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| Innovation.org - Welcome |
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| Innovation Relay Centres - The World Largest Network for ... |
| Innovation Relay Centres giving advice on Innovation, Technology Transfer and Exploitation. Major European source for innovative technologies or new ... |
| irc.cordis.lu |
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| The Tech Museum of Innovation | Welcome |
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| www.thetech.org |
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| Pages tagged with "innovation" on del.icio.us |
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| del.icio.us |
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| innovation |
| Publication highlighting the research activities of NUS. The site provides snippets of selected articles online, and provides a subscription form online. |
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| Canadian Innovation Centre |
| Services includes invention evaluation, technology due diligence, market research, and education programs. |
| www.innovationcentre.ca |
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| London INNOVATION :: Home |
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| www.london-innovation.org.uk |
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| Eric Von Hippel's Homepage |
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| web.mit.edu |
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| Intel Innovation in Education |
| www.intel.com/education/ - 3k - Cached - Similar pages |
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