Word-Of-the-Week #1087: Recognition
June 19, 2025 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word-Of-the-Week #1087: Recognition
Recognition – the acknowledgment of achievement, service, merit, etc.
How often do you feel appreciated at work and home? Do you feel a deep sense of purpose and meaning?
This week features the first half of “Expressing gratitude can transform your work, life. Here are some ways of how workers can incorporate more appreciation into their day” by Cathy Bussewitz for The Associated Press.
“Recognition impacts so many facets of the employee experience. And when you do it well, it connects people back to a deep sense of purpose and meaning,” said Meghan Stettler, a director at O.C. Tanner.
The first thing Alison C. Jones does when she wakes up is to name three things she’s grateful for. It can be as simple as the breeze from a fan or as meaningful as the way a friend showed up for her emotionally.
Jones, an organizational development consultant, said the daily practice has helped her through hardships and the anxiety and vulnerability of starting her own business as a single mom.
“When you practice gratitude, you train your brain to always look for the positive in anything. It just completely shifts everything you’re going through,” she said. “You start to see the lessons in the pain. You start to see the beauty in the very difficult times because you realize, ‘Hey, I’m growing stronger.’”
Practicing and encouraging gratitude can be a simple way to boost morale at a time when layoffs and economic uncertainty are causing stress and anxiety. Some employers have found that workers who receive expressions of gratitude show more engagement and willingness to help others.
Other proponents say expressing and receiving appreciation can help reduce stress, as well as improve a person’s mood and outlook.
But despite its benefits, promoting gratefulness is often overlooked as a valuable way to spend time and resources in the workplace.
Experts in organizational change shared ways to incorporate more gratitude into the workday.
- Start small
If you’re new to practicing gratitude, you can start at home with a routine such as Jones’ custom of expressing gratitude before getting out of bed. She made her gratitude practice easy so it would become a sustainable habit. Her one rule is avoiding repetition and stretching her mind to find new things to be grateful for each day.
Jones also recommends finding a “gratitude buddy” to share with. A buddy may be a friend from work or your social circles, and ideas can be exchanged in person, by text or email, or during a phone call. Many people find it helpful to list what they’re grateful for in a journal.
- Cultivating gratitude in the workplace
At work, a team leader can begin a staff meeting by expressing gratitude for what went well in the last week, suggested Peter Bonanno, a consultant who helps companies design mindfulness-based programs.
As humans, we often have a bias toward negativity, but gratitude “just does an enormous amount to shift people’s mindsets and the way they engage with each other,” he said. “Gratitude is especially powerful in that way. It doesn’t take a long time for people to notice an impact.”
O.C. Tanner Institute, a software and service company, helps organizations find effective ways to show appreciation to their employees, such as managers giving handwritten notes of thanks. The company helped American Airlines develop a system for managers and colleagues to recognize good work with points that can be applied to a catalog order.
It also helped Amway create gift boxes to celebrate workers’ accomplishments and important personal milestones, such as buying a home or adopting a child.
Some companies donate their own products to thank nurses, doctors, police officers, firefighters and other workers who serve their communities. Frontline Builders, a nonprofit organization launched during the pandemic, connects donors of snacks, drinks and personal care items with recipients.
“We’ve all worked in that job where we weren’t shown gratitude and realized how much that stinks,” said Jason Lalak, partnership director at Frontline Builders. “Showing someone gratitude or showing appreciation doesn’t really cost anything, and shouldn’t be that difficult of a thing, and yet it’s rarer than it should be.”
Registered nurse Denise Wittsell remembers how quiet the hospital where she works became during the pandemic. The hallways of Denver Health, typically busy with families and guests, were suddenly empty as visits from outsiders were curtailed and patients battled illnesses alone.
Once in a while, someone from the community would deliver gifts of gratitude: tasty snacks or handmade cards from schoolchildren.
“Those spontaneous recognitions were really sweet,” Wittsell said. “It just felt really kind, and it felt like there was a lot of wrapping around us, a very supportive feeling.”
This week’s focus is about recognition. Has anyone ever spontaneously recognized you? Does your workplace celebrate fellow workers’ accomplishments or milestones?
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Word Of the Week #574: Recognition
July 16, 2015 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #574: Recognition
Recognition – the acknowledgment of achievement, service, merit, etc.
How good is your company at given recognition? How much responsibility do you feel you have? Are you allowed to make important business decisions on your own?
This week features the second of the “6 Needs to Thrive at Work” that Michael Lee Stallard featured in his book, “When workers thrive, companies do too.”
Once again, there are so many different ways to show recognition so I picked a few that were work related. And as Stallard says “they also apply to your relationships at home and in the community.”
Stallard writes, “The second need is recognition. It energizes us when we work with people who recognize and voice our task strengths (“you’re a great manager”) and/or character strengths (“you persevere to overcome obstacles”). It’s almost as if we have a recognition battery that needs to be recharged periodically. The problem is that the plug-in is on our back, exactly in a place we can’t reach, so we must rely on those around us to charge our recognition battery. If it’s not charged, we will feel emotionally and physically drained.”
Another great article I found is “5 Ways to Build a Recognition Culture” by Jessica Miller-Merrell. She writes, “Any type of organizational change takes 18 to 24 months to fully take effect meaning that an employee recognition culture doesn’t happen overnight.
- It Starts at the Top. Any type of culture shift within an organization must have senior leadership support. It’s that simple because without them walking the talk, the change won’t happen. No way no how.
- Empower Your Employees. Map out a formal employee empowerment policy whether it’s the ability to recognition employees on their own or make business decisions. The responsibility one has can make a difference in their level of engagement and care they take in their work.
- Promote FUN. Employees that play together stay together. Make your workplace FUN and ask your staff what they want and need to stick around using employee town halls, stay interviews, or employee surveys. You don’t know if you don’t ask.
- Shower Them with Affection. Employees need to be recognized in both formal and non-formal settings, public as well as private. Sometimes all it takes is a quiet thank you to employees help drive results. Individual employees and cultures prefer different recognition methods too.
- Regular Recognition. And by regular, I don’t mean your annual review or dropping off a copy of the five year employee anniversary catalogue. Regular recognition needs to happen for a positive and engaged workplace.
This week’s focus is on recognition. Do you feel that your talents get recognized? Do you have FUN at work? Do you come home feeling emotionally drained after work?
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Word Of the Week #532: Recognition
October 16, 2014 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #532: Recognition
Recognition – acceptance of an individual as being entitled to consideration or attention.
How many times have you entered a business and not been acknowledged? How does it feel to be ignored? How long is “too long” to make a guest, member, customer or client wait to be served?
I was in Florida last week for the Club Managers Association and thought this would be a good time to revisit my 7 Simple Steps of Service. And #1 is recognition. If you want to be memorable and develop long lasting relationships, you need to recognize and pay attention to all of the people you come in contact with.
First, I suggest you determine how many seconds it should take to recognize your customers, guests, members and clients. When I worked for Houlihan’s back in the 70’s, it was stressed in all of our training the we were to recognize our guests within one minute. Today I would say that is too long! So what is a realistic expectation to strive for? 30 seconds?
Restaurant in Cancun
And secondly, you need to talk about it with your staff so they understand the importance of recognition. The first person your guests, customers, members or clients come in contact with will set the tone of their experience. I believe the quicker we are to recognize people the more positive that experience will be.
I titled my book, “The FUN-Damental Secrets of Service: How to have fun and make your customers feel good about spending their money” because I believe that if you make people feel good about doing business with you they will come back, spend more money, and tell everyone else about you. Positive word of mouth is essential for success in any business. And I am sure you have heard that people will tell more people about a bad experience than a good one!
This week’s focus is on recognition. How much attention are you giving the people that you come in contact with? How many seconds is too long to wait to be served? How does it make you feel when you are recognized immediately?
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Sade Receives Recognition Award
January 10, 2013 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Sade Receives Recognition Award
I wanted to let you all know how well Sade is doing since graduating. She had two job offers within the first 2 weeks. One was full time and the other was part time. The part time job was the one she wanted and I told her, “If you work hard and prove yourself you will have a full time position in 6 months.” Well, she had it in two weeks!
Then she called me to tell me she was recognized at the Holiday Luncheon. The only problem was she was not there. She said, “My colleague called me to tell me to hurry up and get there. But I couldn’t make it because I was too busy taking care of my client. I missed my standing ovation and award because I was doing my job.”
The following is the statement that her Program Director sent to the other office members.
Holiday Party Recognition Statement – December 13, 2012
“I would like to recognize one of our new Kinship Case Managers, Sade Burell, for her great work ethic and positive attitude.
Before coming to work for YFS in June of this year, Sade had personal experience with foster and kinship care and was also a participant in the YFS Turning Point Program. At the age of 18, Sade came to Turning Point with few independent living skills and no money in the bank, but worked with a staff member there for 18 months and learned how to budget her money and take care of herself. She says that she still implements many of the rules and lessons from Turning Point in her own home now. After graduating from the program, Sade went on to earn her Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and is now applying for MSW programs.
In her current role at YFS, Sade serves grandparents and other relatives raising children, helping to prevent other youth from entering on re-entering formal foster care. I’m recognizing her today because in the last 6 months Sade has learned her hob duties quickly, joined a task force for professionals who were formerly involved with Child Welfare System as youth, always volunteers to help out with support groups, holiday events, and anything else I need help with, and always comes to work with a great attitude. Working with her daily inspires me to stay positive and always look for the good in difficult situations and I want to thank her for that and for all her hard work with the Kinship Program!”
I am so proud of Sade and all that she has accomplished. She will always be a part of my life!
Word Of the Week #11: Recognition
April 20, 2009 by Susan Clarke · Comments Off on Word Of the Week #11: Recognition
Recognition: acceptance of an individual as being entitled to consideration or attention.
How many times have you entered a business and are not acknowledged? It happens too many times. Do you want to know what I think? I don’t need to pay for abuse!
Ultimate Recognition
If you want to be memorable and develop a long lasting relationships, you need to recognize and pay attention to the people you come in contact with. I suggest you determine how many seconds it should take to recognize your customers, guests, members and clients. Secondly, you need to talk about it with your staff so they understand the importance of recognition.
My book is titled, “The Fun-Damental Secrets of Service: How to have fun and make your customers feel good about spending their money.” I believe that if you make people feel good about doing business with you they will come back, spend more money and spread the word.
This week focus your attention on the people that you come in contact with and recognize them immediately! Watch the response that you get from them and how it makes them feel.
Reader Responses
“You are right on. I can remember when I was a Junior Manager, this would happen to me. I would think, “Hey, here I am, I am not invisible.” I would be exploding on the inside with thoughts, ideas, information and just because I was not in the business for several years, didn’t mean I didn’t have great ideas. Now that I am the “Senior” Manager and have been in the business now for 35 years, I have made sure I do not do this to younger managers. My problem now is that I build the Junior Managers up so much, they think they are better than they are, Ha. LOL. Oh well, the price we pay sometimes.” — Don Vance
“WOW back to you………..Raise the Bar — How exciting are your dreams? Most people don’t aim too high and miss—-they aim too low and hit! Horse sense is what keeps horses from betting on what people will do.” — John Beck
“When I worked at Central Institute for the Deaf (CID), we would always invite anyone who gave at least $1,000 a year, to the Institute for the Graduation ceremonies. On graduation day, the kids who were graduating -(Which meant being mainstreamed because their speech and their lipreading skills were so good that they could handle being with normal hearing children in their home school districts. Graduation was based on this skill, not on age or completion of certain grades. Sometimes the graduates were as young as 5 or as old as 15.) – the kids who were graduating would each give a personal speech. It was always a very moving experience. Also graduating would be the newest audiologists and the newest teachers who were getting their Masters degrees from Washington University. CID is the Speech and Hearing Department of Washington University. Anyway, on this one particular graduation day, a family who was considering giving a sizeable donation to the Institute ($500,000) was present for the festivities and had the attention of all the big wigs. Another contributor, a 92-year-old lady that no one really knew much about, was also planning on attending. I (not being a big wig) was assigned to help her because of her age etc., although she had driven herself there and really didn’t need anyone’s help. In the process of talking to this woman, I learned that she was one of the very first teachers at CID over 75 years prior. What a thrill that was for me! I introduced her to the President of the Board, the Director of the Institute, and all the very newest teachers. She had a great time that day. A few weeks later, her lawyer called us and told us she had been considering making a significant contribution to CID and after her recent visit, decided to firm up the details. That gift was one million dollars! I couldn’t believe it. I called to personally thank her and reminded her of who I was. She said she remembered me and went on to tell me that “it is not often that you go to a place as a complete stranger and leave that place feeling like a very important person and when you are old, you don’t have too many days where you feel important at all. It was one of life’s greatest lessons to me and if I ever get around to doing a Signposts of My Life Album, it will be recorded there. Every day in this business of album-making and helping families preserve their photos and their stories, we meet very special people. From the outside they may look pretty ordinary. We might even make judgements about their ability or inability to be consultants or their ability or inability to make purchases. But the truth of the matter is, we never really know what another person is capable of. People need to feel good; they need to feel important. There is so much pain in people’s lives that is often not visible. Let us be the first maybe, to lift them up and brighten their day. Let us help them to feel good about doing business with us. Let us help them to feel important, that they are valuable.” — Deborah Timko