Skyrocket Your Team's Performance Without Striking Out

It was Opening Day of baseball in West Texas. The wind was howling with gusts up to 60 mph. You could literally eat dirt.  And we did. My grandson ran out onto the dusty baseball field with the other little boys. He was just a few years old.  Some of his teammates were still in diapers! It was the beginning of his baseball career. 

His brand new uniform was perfect - orange and purple. He was on the Clemson Tigers team! The coach had chosen that team because he liked the colors. I kinda like those colors too!

Now, 12 years later he was the starting pitcher on opening day of his sophomore high school season. Along the way there have been exciting wins and crushing losses. Yet there’s always been something steady pushing him along. Encouragement and recognition from his coaches (not to mention his parents and grandparents). 

Most coaches get that kids in sports need a lot of encouragement and recognition to push through the hard times, to get better at their sport and achieve a high level of success. My grandson’s best coaches get that every player needs recognition and that recognition spurs players to do their best. 

Sadly many people in leadership positions in the workplace don’t understand the power of recognition. Many of them have bought into the widely perpetuated myth that people don’t want or need recognition since they’re getting a paycheck. 

I know first-hand, from working with tens of thousands of people in the construction and capital projects industry, that people get very little recognition. Sadly, most people receive frequent criticism, while rarely, if ever receiving any recognition. 

You know what I’m talking about. The person in the leadership position is great at pointing out every little mistake, every area of improvement, every place you fall short; yet silent on your accomplishments, the areas in which you have stepped up your game and the ways in which you excel.   

And then the person in that leadership position wonders why they have:

• high absenteeism
• high employee turnover
• low morale
• safety and quality issues
• failed teams and projects

Why do you suppose people in leadership positions don't provide more recognition to their team members? After all, the majority of their people are so dedicated. They show up and work hard. They solve complex problems often in very challenging physical conditions. They spend a lot of time away from their family to do their job. 

Right now, take a minute to complete this simple exercise to assess how well you’re doing when it comes to providing encouragement and recognition to your team members. Write down the names of your team members. Beside each person’s name identify the most recent thing you recognized him or her for and when you gave that recognition.

Don’t underestimate the positive impact encouragement and recognition has on people, how much it’s appreciated and the dramatic difference it makes in performance. 

It skyrockets performance. Only about 30% of people improve with criticism and they improve for only a short time, whereas 90% of people improve their performance with recognition and they’re performance after recognition is long lasting.  

I wish you could have seen those kids on that windy day in West Texas playing baseball. They were beaming! And they played their hearts out. Baseball players aren't the only ones who need recognition. 

Your team members need recognition too! And when you provide them that recognition, your team's performance will skyrocket.