Part 4: From Results to People
Giving Recognition for Effort
As leaders we are often told to praise our team members more. But this does not always come easy to us. In high-performing roles where we operate in a punishing, high-pressure culture, being told “You’re doing a great job!” falls way short of motivational. It can, in fact, feel quite patronising to say to our highly qualified and experienced team members. So, we stay silent on praise in the hope that closing the deal or completing the project in itself will give team members the sense of achievement and recognition they deserve. But silence does not equal fulfilment.
The results focussed leader
Results focussed leaders derive pride from doing a great job. They love nothing better than to under promise, then over-deliver. The thrill of the execution, the money transfer, the closing call. The pleasure in receiving an email congratulating the team for yet another golden success. The high-performing team receives recognition from the following markers of success:
· Deal closes on time and in budget
· The client communicates that they are happy
· The deal is celebrated internally
· The deal is celebrated externally, in some cases, through accolades and awards.
When it comes to ensuring that their team receives recognition, the results focussed leader does the following:
1. Applies objective structures and fairness – often takes a systematic approach, praising achievement of certain milestones and stages of the process to the entire team, to avoid suggestion of favouritism.
2. Focuses on performance – delivery is output driven, so praise targets what is achieved, as it occurs.
3. Provides tangible recognition – rewards outcomes in tangible terms such as pay reviews, bonuses, closing lunches.
In doing so, teams are rewarded for what has been accomplished and achieved. Teams receive equal recognition to underline the ethos of team cohesion and contribution. Everyone is recognised for their effort. Or are they?
The conscious leader
The results focussed leader gives recognition to their high-performing team for what they achieve as a whole rather than the learning and progress they achieve along the way. If we want to create a high-performing team who prioritise growth and learning, we must give recognition to the process of learning as performance. We must recognise effort over outcome, stretch over comfort and risk over reward.
When giving recognition to team members, the conscious leader does this:
1. Applies measures of value contribution – rather than focus on team output, recognises individual contributions towards the process of learning such as course-correction, knowledge sharing, collaboration, creativity.
2. Focuses of what motivates the individual – varies the forms and nature of recognition depending on each individual’s motivations and expectations; choosing equity over equality.
3. Provides intangible recognition – balances traditional rewards with tailored opportunities such as challenging projects, profile raising events, mentorship and sponsorship.
The leader essentially becomes the steward of team members’ journey of learning. Performance criteria is widened beyond tangible results to progress in knowledge and understanding. By taking a customer-centric approach to performance – ‘what will they learn?’ – the leader makes choices that prioritise how best each team member can become self-motivated to perform through acquiring skills, knowledge and experience for themselves.
When we praise and recognise effort during the process of performance, we connect people to their innate ability to convert their own potential into exceptional achievement.
If you want to take the courageous leap to being a Conscious Lawyer, reach out to find out more about C-Success Coaching at https://www.kiranscarr.com/coaching.