Difference between recognition and appreciation

Thank you, Mike Robbins, for bringing to attention the difference between recognition and appreciation. I particularly enjoyed the quote from Teddy Roosevelt: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” There is one little word I’d like to add to your call: Do recognition and appreciation TRULY. That is what will make the whole difference, and your people will notice.

Did you express this week appreciation and recognition, precisely, timely and truly?

https://hbr.org/2019/11/why-employees-need-both-recognition-and-appreciation

Resilience: Put your own life vest on first

As the year races towards an end, our days become increasingly hectic. The list of things to do and targets to meet just doesn’t get any shorter. The meetings roundabout doesn’t seem to stop, actually it feels more and more frantic. And the days and weeks slip away at a frightening rate. What to do? Where to start?

As leaders, situations like these are supposed to be our bread and butter. We’re supposed to relish the challenge, navigate rough waters and lead our teams through difficult times. But frankly, when urgent tasks are raining down on us thick and fast, sometimes at the cost of time for dealing with important issues and the stress levels rise, we can feel like we are losing control. We are desperately looking for times when we can stop & think, better plan, regain energy and feel in control. The point is, to successfully guide your team, you need to get your own house in order – “put your own life vest on first before you take care of others,” as the saying goes.

This is where resilience comes in, courage’s slightly less glamorous but equally important twin. Resilience is the ability to bounce back quickly from adversity and a vital ingredient for any leader. Resilience is the ability to maintain your balance, navigate in uncertainty, maintain a sense of control over one’s environment and move forward in a positive way.

When you are resilient, you understand and creatively exploit your internal and external strengths, so enabling yourself to deal effectively with challenges and significant adversity in a way that promotes health, well-being and an increased ability to deal constructively with future adversity.

And it needs to be carefully nurtured.

To build up your resilience, I recommend three things.

First: keep in mind the place you want to arrive at. If you have a clear picture of your final destination, the success that awaits at the end of the tunnel – if you can put that into words and share it with others, that image will be like a lighthouse, guiding you through the present storm.

Second: focus on your strengths. If you identify your strengths – also asking those you trust for their input and advice – you will realize which ones, in the current situation, will particularly help you, so gaining confidence in your ability to face what is, build up optimism and advance towards solutions.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly of all: you need to manage your energy rather than your time. Resilience is not just a matter of how you stand up to stress, it’s about how you recover and regain energy. Maintaining physical energy is essential. But you also, equally, need to refresh your emotional, mental and spiritual energy.

Most of us have a clear idea about how to look after our physical energy, through sufficient sleep, exercise, breaks, and a balanced diet, for example. With a few simple exercises you can also regenerate your emotional, mental and spiritual energy, too. Expressing appreciation for those around you is just one of the things you can do to boost your emotional energy, for example.

Interested in finding out more? Want to share your own tips? Then please send in your comments!

ALWAYS CHANGE A WINNING TEAM

It’s a cliché we’ve all used: “Never Change a Winning Team”. But it’s one we should all rethink, as my valued colleagues Richard Robertson, MScFilip Fiers, Paul Van Geyt pointed out in their workshop at this year’s ICF global gathering in Prague.

Being a leader, you never forget that your market and customers are constantly evolving, also becoming more unpredictable, and your organisation needs the right mix of competencies to guide it through different growth phases. What will it take for your organisation to stay competitive and innovative as it develops?

In diverse and inclusive teams, which put a premium on individuals with various backgrounds, competencies, personalities and strengths, everyone has a particular contribution to make in managing the challenges and opportunities your organisation is facing in its current growth phase. As members of the team learn from each other and start to understand each other’s way of thinking, the creative dynamic inevitably weakens. Realizing this and being able to look critically at your winning team at the top and be ready to introduce a fresh impulse is one of the hallmarks of a truly courageous leader .

How will YOU make sure your team at the top stays diverse?

“BE QUIET, USE YOUR EARS, SHUT UP YOUR MOUTH…”

“BE QUIET, USE YOUR EARS, SHUT UP YOUR MOUTH, you then may find out that you learn something”. Obama´s advice at Bits19 to men in meetings to address issues of diversity. This is what he said at the White House when he realized that meetings were diverse with experts women in the room who were not be listened to.

How to pave the way for motivated employees & organisational success?

“How many bosses have you had? How many would you willingly work for again?”

“30%” was the result, provided by Adam Yearsley at Bits19.

As a #leader, would you be satisfied with this feedback? I certainly wouldn’t!

To be a good leader you need to start by asking concrete questions: What do your people in your organisation want and need?

If you can really answer this question, you can create the right working environment – paving the way for motivated employees & organisational success.

Jessica Alba´s inspirational words at Bits & Pretzels

“If you want to create true change and have some type of meaning, you probably end up getting a lot of resistance.” True words from Jessica Alba at Bits & Pretzels!

Change might be uncomfortable at the first view. But it is worth fighting for your ideas and engaging others to step out of their “comfort zone”!

This is how you make a difference. This is how you create real impact.