Try This In Your Next Team Meeting

You want to say "well done" more to your team?

I know I do. However, I'm just not a gushing type. Every management course I've ever been on emphasises the need to praise, to recognise, to make folks feel valued. The idea being of course is that feeling valued is motivational and sustains a team. Most of this I agree with of course.

Essentially, you want your team to do a good job. Giving praise is only a tiny part of that equation though. For some people, praise is their fuel, their driving force. Praise them and they'll do anything. For others, it's not so simple. Sure, I like to be told I'm doing a good job. Who doesn't? But does it get me out of bed in the morning? Nope. For me it's all about being engaged. Being engaged in what you're doing and feeling that your effort has some real value. Being engaged, plus doing every day what you do best. Learning new tricks and solving challenges, that's good too. Oh yeah - and a "well done" afterwards is a good bonus. Did I mention the money?

Anyway, you see my point - praise isn't the magic ingredient in management. It's not going to do much if all the other motivational factors are not in play. It's the icing on the cake. (Except for the few people that get so high on praise that it's their wonder drug - give them praise and it will be like a turbo charge).

It's hard to praise well. For me this is because firstly, the person needs to feel like they deserve the praise and secondly, the best praise is delivered in front of others. Tricky.

So - here's my idea. I've tried it out and it seems to work.

At the beginning of your team meeting, ask each team member to write up on a white board (or flip chart) one thing that they or the team (or another team member) did well last week and that helped them work towards achieving their objectives.

It's great! The team write up on the board things they know are worth highlighting. They are happy enough that these achievements are worthy of praise. So - problem one is solved, the person feels the achievement was praise worthy.

Often, team members will highlight things that they have done that aren't actual deliverables but are changes to the way in which the team works together. This is good, because it highlights process optimisation, communication and/or infrastructure improvements.

On other occasions they might highlight softer things like new starters joining the team.

And sometimes they praise each other rather than themselves. A double whammy - public and peer praise!

One interesting thing about this technique is that the team are creating a sense of positive behavioural re-enforcement. By writing the achievement on the wall, they are committing themselves to a viewpoint that this achievement was a good thing to do. Writing something down commits the person in a very strong way to continuing to behave in the same way in the future. It helps form their identity.

The process is unusual. By adopting it the team create a ritual that is a way to mark them out from other teams. Although it's not a big deal, it's an act that they share that others don't. So it strengthens the team identity, and it does so in a positive context.

Once everyone has had a go (I would go last), I then ask each team member to write on a post-it the item that they think was the best achievement of the week. We post the notes together on the wall at the same time. Usually one achievement stands out and I can then spend a few moments praising that effort in front of the whole team.

With everyone in a good mood and in a "team" mode, we then set about the rest of the agenda.

Saying "well done" has never been so easy or so much fun!