Good leaders recognize the work, effort, and outcomes of those team members who make a real contribution to important outcomes.
Unfortunately, most leaders are too general in their acknowledgment and miss an opportunity to boost engagement and add jet fuel to self-motivation.
Team members want to know when their work matters, and that their leader fully recognizes the contribution they have made.
Generic praise generally falls flat.
“Good job” is a throwaway line that does little to motivate future performance. Better leaders go further. They link the distinct contributions of team members to specific outcomes. “Your ability to get others to collaborate made for a smooth process and allowed the team to achieve its goals.”
Instead of saying, “You did a great job on the assignment,” a motivational leader might say, “Your execution speed made the difference for the project to exceed the client’s expectations.”
Rather than saying, “The team really valued your work product,” an effective leader might say, “Your work product was an exemplar and served as a model so others could improve their efforts. Without it, we wouldn’t have crossed the finish line under time and budget.”
Research consistently shows that feedback is more actionable when it is highly specific. The same is true with recognition. Specificity makes a huge difference.
When leaders are detailed in their recognition, team members feel more highly valued. The best leaders don’t just offer praise. They describe it in full color.
“Nice job,” “Way to go,” and “Awesome work” are adequate but fall short in fully recognizing quality work.
Being specific makes the behaviors underlying the recognition more repeatable. Better yet, leaders who connect the dots and make their descriptions of praise highly vivid and definitive validate what quality looks like for everyone.
The next time you call out great work, be specific. Describe exactly what the team member did and why it made an impact on the outcome.
You’ll likely see a big smile from someone who now knows you value them. Even better, they will know precisely what to do next time.
