How I lied to my team to make them appreciate each other more

About five years ago, after Covid, my team stopped appreciating each other. They had started remote working and hadn’t replicated many of the behaviours we had in the office. One of those was peer-to-peer recognition.

In the office, our team would regularly thank each other and celebrate each other’s successes in group meetings.

At home, nothing.

To solve this, we decided to lead from the top and recognise a few people each month in our monthly meeting. To get the team involved, we asked them to nominate colleagues they thought deserved a coveted Amazon voucher.

Month 1, I sent out the email asking for nominations. I received zero replies. Not one.

So I lied.

In the monthly meeting, I read out 3 fictitious emails and handed an Amazon voucher to one of our developers.

Month 2, I got one nomination, so I made up two more messages and told everyone there had been so many nominations that I didn’t have time to read them all out.

Month 3, I got so many nominations that we increased the superstar limit to three winners a month.

On my last day running the staff meeting, I had about 50 different nominations and we awarded seven winners.

Feeling appreciated for your work is one of the key drivers of workplace happiness. It fulfils our human need for recognition.

But not all recognition is equal.

• Written recognition (in an email or message) is more powerful than spoken.

• Targeted recognition is more meaningful than a general thanks.

• Peer recognition is more valuable than recognition from your boss.
  

Nowadays we not only have monthly superstar nominations, we also have a high-five system where anyone can send a quick thank you to a colleague. It’s used all the time.

Tip of the week

Recognise a colleague for some good work. If you can write it down.

Power tip

If you’re a team leader, look at ways to make peer recognition easier. The easier it is, the more it will happen. There are plenty of tools and plugins out there. DM me if you’d like some suggestions.

According to the US Surgeon General, two of the five essentials for wellbeing at work are feeling part of a community and having purpose. Being recognised by your peers goes a long way towards fulfilling both.