Talent Tips: Changing Minds

By Roy Saunderson

Getting everyone to change personal beliefs about employee recognition is hard to do but essential if you want people to appreciate employee contributions.

For many years when giving workshops on how to be more effective and authentic in giving employee recognition, I often used the words, “Beliefs—Behaviors—Results,” in a PowerPoint slide or on flip charts to help participants understand the power and differences of recognition and rewards.

It was much easier to talk about how one can impact behaviors and results than it was beliefs. Beliefs, of course, seemed so much more personal and unchangeable. Yet how often do faulty beliefs, hang-ups, and barriers get in the way of noticing and appreciating people’s great work? Can we really do anything to alter people’s beliefs in the learning environment? Can we change people’s minds?

Getting Desired Results

To learn what we can do with beliefs, we have to start with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey’s “seven habits” suggest, and look first at “results.” Results clearly look different depending on the type of work we do—from making a sale or a product referral in a bank to maintaining stable health measures for patient care in a hospital, or successful learning objectives achieved and implemented from a course for the new recognition program.

How can we motivate people to achieve these unique and desired results? This is where creating a reward paradigm is most appropriate. First, you have to set clear expectations so everyone knows the objective. Next is providing the training or learning to engender the skills and knowledge on how to achieve the task at hand. Resources such as tools or equipment might be required. Feedback should be given to guide the individual closer to the desired result if not on target. And, finally, you can reward the individual when the desired goal is obtained. Rewards can be defined as something given or done in return for meeting a predetermined goal, for merit, service or achievement, and maybe monetary.

Results fall easily into the behavioral and reward framework of “IF” you do this, “THEN” you get that. When a project is completed or a milestone is reached, it is appropriate and good management practice to provide acceptable social reinforcement or provide some tangible reward corresponding to the task achieved. Results are maintained when we reinforce and reward the desired outcome.

Achieving the Right Behaviors

Employees tell us one of the problems they have with rewards is they only receive them when the goal finally is accomplished. Their complaint is generally that no one ever says anything along the way to getting the results.

What a lost opportunity for acknowledging people for the many actions and behaviors leading up to the final outcome. And what a wonderful chance to draw upon the art and practice of recognition to validate the work done and the worth of the individual who did it.

Recognition can be defined as the tangible or intangible expression of acknowledgement for an individual’s contribution, achievements, or observed behaviors. This can take the form of verbal or written acknowledgement, a small tangible token of appreciation, or simply a display of caring and respect for an individual for who they are and for their potential.

Sometimes because we have not hired right, set good job expectations, provided education or training, or given needed feedback along the way, it can seem for a few people under our stewardship there is nothing even to recognize. For these folks it is not only finding the right job fit and doing the things we have neglected to do, but also providing a dose of encouragement to light the way for them to achieve the right results.

Behaviors are achieved as we observe them and consistently encourage and recognize their occurrence.

Impacting the Power of Beliefs

Yes, we can help change people’s beliefs and attitudes about things they haven’t been willing to change before. The missing piece of the puzzle surrounding beliefs came when reading “The Heart of Change” written by John P. Kotter, Harvard Business School professor. Kotter said, “People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.”

Let’s connect Kotter’s statement to employee recognition. Often, recognition is flagged in a company when it shows up as a low score on an employee engagement survey. But managers don’t just automatically initiate new practices or program improvements when they receive a report with the survey scores. They forget employees who lack recognition are more likely to leave the organization. They miss the connection of high employee satisfaction contributing to high customer satisfaction measures, which leads to higher profits. So giving managers the numbers and the statistics—the “analysis”—rarely changes their thinking.

Contrast this with showing managers video- recorded interviews of several employees, some of them who feel well recognized by their managers and some who do not. Have the interviewer ask direct questions about their motivation to excel at work, their feeling of morale and connection to the company, their intention to stay or whether they have looked for another job recently. Such a contextual, real-world, non-data-driven presentation changes the whole picture. Management wakes up because they have been “shown a truth” that cannot be denied or ignored, and “it influences their feelings.”

Finally, it becomes clear that “feelings,” which are an essential part of the equation to giving people authentic and “real” recognition, are also the catalyst for influencing and changing people’s beliefs. Beliefs, then, are impacted when you show people a truth that influences their feelings.

As managers and employees initiate new behaviors of meaningful and effective recognition giving, leaders can express acknowledgement for their actions—the recognition. As recognition is included on performance reviews or 360-degree feedback tools as a key competency, managers can be measured and receive appropriate bonuses or pay changes—the rewards.

Suddenly, changing one’s mind and beliefs looks very rewarding.

Roy Saunderson is author of “GIVING the Real Recognition Way” and president of the Recognition Management Institute, a consulting and training firm specializing in helping companies “get recognition right!” It focuses on showing leaders how to give real recognition to create positive relationships, better workplaces, and real results. For more information, contact RoySaunderson@RealRecognition.com or visit www.RealRecognition.com.