Whose back have you patted today?
As human beings, we crave recognition and acceptance. It’s wired into our DNA. We want to be a valued member of our pack — be it our family, our tribe of friends or our workplace.
While it would be lovely if everyone could simply recognize their own worth to the team, that’s not how we pesky human beings work. We need validation. We need the “atta boy.” We need the public acknowledgement.
And your employees need it from you. Even if you never work with them.
This is even more critical if you are not fully back in the office. Remote work means nothing happens by lucky accident. You don’t just walk by someone and remember to thank them for staying late or knocking it out of the park at the team training.
I know for some of you this feels ridiculous. I’ve had agency owners say to me, “I keep paying them. That means they’re doing a good job.” While it may not be in your nature to demonstrate your gratitude or call out the behaviors you want to reinforce in your team — it pays off. If it’s not your style, think of it like eating vegetables or walking 10,000 steps even though you don’t want to.
It’s an investment in the longevity of your agency and that employee.
Drew points the way
If you naturally love to catch your people doing things right and shouting it to the moon — awesome. Except, you aren’t doing enough of it. And odds are, it’s not as universally spread out as it could be. You need to schedule and track it, to make sure you’re spreading the love evenly among your people.
I know…it feels artificial. And it is. But with a good outcome. I have a lot of friends who schedule date night with their main squeeze. Is that artificial? Sure…but you know who gets quality time with their mate every week? Right, the date night schedulers.
It can be as simple as a spreadsheet. Make sure your favorites don’t get all of the praise. Put a note to yourself on your calendar on Wednesday or Thursday. Use some code to remind yourself to go out of your way to pat someone on the back before the week is out.
As I mentioned last week — agencies are struggling to find good hires. If you have good people on your team, you want to keep them. If you don’t shower them with praise, someone else will…as they are wooing them away from your shop.
Spread the love people, spread the love!
Says our friend Drew McLellan, CEO of Agency Management Institute
