Recognition at work: 5 ways to develop it

Recognition at work is one of the key motivating factors, whether you are a manager, an employee or a manager. This recognition can take a wide variety of forms depending on the needs of each individual. When one person needs to be recognized for their results and the achievement of their goals, another person will need recognition for their efforts. Other individuals will be more sensitive to being recognized for who they are as a person, their qualities and their talents. When we talk about signs of recognition at work, we talk a lot about feedback. It means saying to someone, “This is what you are doing well, this is what you can improve on.” Feedback is a way of showing the person that we are interested in their professional development. It is a way of giving him a sign of recognition.

The act of recognition can also be the act of entrusting a new project to an employee to give him a territory of complementary autonomy. It means recognizing the individual's right to develop and learn.

Recognition at work also involves celebrating the successes of the team to stimulate collective recognition or celebrating the success of someone within a team to recognize the success of that person within the team.

At Talentis, we noted five major axes that will be useful to activate individual recognition.

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The 5 key areas for developing recognition at work

1st axis to develop recognition at work: cultivate recognition through apprenticeship

You can stimulate someone's recognition through their feeling of learning, their feeling of developing. Some people need to feel recognized by the fact that they are learning, that they are developing, that they are being challenged, that challenges are set for them, etc...

2nd axis to develop recognition at work: highlight everyone's sense of usefulness

How can we help this person to be recognized for their usefulness? How is his work useful for everyone, for the team, for the company? Whatever the job, there are people who need to feel useful regardless of the hierarchy level. Does this person feel how much their contribution is indispensable?

3rd axis to develop recognition at work: valorize successes

Showing a person's usefulness is important for their need for recognition, but it's even more effective to show success. How do you value your successes within the team and the company? Of course, you should not do it excessively, but showing that a person succeeds from time to time means showing appreciation and encouraging them to continue on this path.

4th axis to develop recognition at work: recognizing human qualities

How does this person feel recognized in the quality of their relationships, in the trust, in the pleasantness of the relationships? It is very important for any human being to be recognized by their peers in order to feel useful and stimulated, and this is especially important in the workplace where recognition mostly comes from colleagues, managers and customers.

5th axis to develop recognition at work: valorize collective successes

Some employees are more sensitive to being recognized as a person and others are more sensitive to the concept of the collective. In the professional field, there are people who are sensitive to the fact that the team is recognized by the other teams, by the boss, etc. And this dimension of recognition should not be overlooked either, in other words: how can we value what the team has achieved this year? What has it progressed on? What are we all proud to have made progress on? What did we have more trouble with? But what did we learn from that?

We must therefore not forget to stimulate the need for collective recognition, which is a little less important in our French culture, but which is very important in certain cultures, especially Anglo-Saxon cultures.

How to develop recognition at work through professional coaching?

At Talentis, as a professional coach, our job is to help people identify their needs in terms of recognition, but also to remain vigilant not to constantly be in an indiscriminate thirst for recognition. In other words, make the coachee work on his ability to feed himself and to give himself feedback. We need to help the person identify what is important to him or her in terms of recognition, but also to make them aware of what they should contribute to and the value they should bring to the business.

There is also a second dimension, as a professional coach, that of making the team work on this ability to give each other signs of recognition. Namely, work on feedback and ensure that the culture of recognition is more in a culture of permanent learning rather than a culture of flattery. The purpose of recognition is to help people grow, develop, and feel appreciated, useful, and effective.

In conclusion, everyone should be very vigilant about what is important to you and what you need. Pay attention to how your quest for recognition is balanced with your desire to contribute and the reality of the contribution you make to teams. Be careful not to fall into the ego trap, where this unbridled thirst for recognition can sometimes appear to be immature. And set up moments within your team of feedback, of expression, of what is important, what we have succeeded, while listening to everyone's perceptions, since everyone does not have the same needs for recognition.

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