Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome to How to Use Employee Recognition to Increase Productivity. This is the first topic in the Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate Webinar Series. I'm glad that you've joined us today. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that this series is a four-part series. So we've got today's topic, of course, and then coming up in May, we have Strengthening the Team.

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All right, folks before we get started, I want to remind everybody that you'll be in listen-only mode again. I know we've had some folks that have signed on here towards the end, and so I want to remind you that you'll be in listen-only mode so you're not able to audibly ask questions during the content portion of the presentation. But at the end of the presentation, which will take about 25 to 30 minutes, give or take, you can type whatever questions you have into the question box in the GoToWebinar software, and we will get to as many questions as we can today. Let's go ahead and get started, folks.

Let me begin with the benefits of consistent recognition, and I know that probably most of us on the call today fully recognize that being someone who regularly or consistently provides recognition and encouragement to people, it's an important life skill. It's an important leadership skill. It's an important encouraging skill for an individual.

It's an important skill for parents to have, really anyone in a position of leadership or in a supervisory role or really anyone that wants to be a good colleague or wants to be a supportive friend or a loving family member knows the benefit of consistently recognizing and encouraging others. Now in the workplace, of course, it's particularly important.

The Harvard Business Review reported-- it was an interesting article I read. They reported that employees who have a manager or a supervisor that regularly provides recognition, those employees demonstrate 40% higher engagement in their work. And of course, we all want-- as supervisors and leaders, we all want our employees to be fully engaged. We want them to come to work and give 100%.

Well, this is a way that we can direct people towards that because the research shows that people who are consistently recognized for their contributions, they're having their performance appreciated by their leadership, typically are more highly engaged in their work and again are going to give more discretionary effort. They're going to be more confident. And the bottom line is they're less likely to leave their job.

I know you're all aware of this. We've been living through this period in corporate life or an organizational life, where the world has had a lot more turnover. Organizations across America have had a lot more turnover over the last couple of years than ever before. The Department of Labor had reported towards the end of the pandemic that organizations were experiencing turnover many times more than they were before the pandemic.

And so we've actually had the media actually coin this period of time the Great Resignation because so many people were changing jobs so quickly. And so one way to increase the likelihood that you'll keep your good people and reduce the number of people that want to leave your organization is to consistently provide recognition and show appreciation for their contributions.

We'll talk more about that today. Now another research study that underscores that is Gallup research, and most of you are familiar with Gallup, the polling company. And they do some great employee-engagement work, but they also do a lot of work around the value of employee recognition is that they predict if an organization could double the number of employees who when they're surveyed strongly agree that they've received recognition or praise in the last week, they'd experience a 9% increase in productivity.

A 20% decrease in safety incidents, and a 20% decrease in absenteeism. And, folks, that's significant. Think about that. If you have 100 people in your workplace, and 20 of them, let's say, when they were surveyed by your organization said, hey, I got praised or recognized for the work I've done in the last week. If you could get that from 20 to 40 because your managers and supervisors were more consistently providing recognition, you'd immediately see a nice increase in productivity, and people doing their work more safely and conscientiously.

Fewer people calling out. This really moves the dial when organizations and their managers and supervisors consistently provide-- show appreciation for people's contributions and provide recognition, great things happen. And so that's what we're really here to discuss today. The first thing I want to talk to you about is how do you create more of a culture of recognition and appreciation?

And, folks, and I think this is really important for us to recognize today, and what I'm talking about here when I say culture, how do we create an environment within our organization or within your department? I mean, maybe you're a manager within a large organization. Maybe there's 1,000 employees, and you're managing a team of 12 people. Maybe you might not have a direct influence on the overall culture of the organization because it's hard for one individual manager other than the head of the organization to touch all 1,000 people on a regular basis.

You would certainly have a lot of impact on the people within your department, and so I want us to recognize and remember, folks, that when you can create an environment where people regularly are recognized for the work that they do, they're praised for their efforts, they're thanked for their hard work, they're reminded of the value of what they bring to the organization, when you can create an environment where that happens consistently, great things happen.

Motivation increases. People get more engaged. People tend to be a lot more productive, and they're much less likely, again, to leave an organization. People who are in an organization that they feel good about working for because they know their efforts are appreciated. They know their contributions are valued. They're going to be a lot slower to leave an organization. And again, they're going to be much more likely to give their best effort.

So how do we create more of a culture or an environment where that happens consistently? So one is we need to get senior management buy in, is to make recognition a differentiator for your organization. You want people on the street saying, working for that municipality or that organization, that's a great organization. That's a great place to work. People really rave about it.

And so again, we want to create an environment where people want to be there. They feel really appreciated for the work that they're doing and so think about this. If people feel good about working for your organization, they will be out on the street as your ambassadors telling other people what a great place to work your organization is. We want that. We want to attract the best employees in our area to want to come to work for our organization.

And so that's one key thing. It's going to help with recruiting and retaining our staff. But also if senior management is on board, I know we all recognize this, is that management behaviors tend to run downhill. Modeling is oftentimes, as we all know, one of the strongest parts of teaching or one of the best ways to teach or to help people make good habits and create good and effective behaviors is if they see the people above them doing that.

So if senior management buys in that, you know what, we want to make this a positive environment where people really feel appreciated. We want to make sure that everyone knows we really value their contributions. We want to make that a regular management practice. When senior management is doing that all the time, when they're walking the talk, typically the people throughout the organization, the other managers and supervisors, and even people's colleagues throughout an organization when they see that happening, they're going to tend to do that as well.

Let's really make it a focus within our organizations. If you really believe that this is a difference maker, and I truly believe the research is conclusive that it is, and in my experience, I feel like it's a huge thing and a really important thing for us to make a primary focus. Because, again, that flows downhill. And if senior management is showing leading the way, the rest of the managers and supervisors and then the remaining employees will start to act on that behavior as well.

And it becomes a real awesome part of the organization's energy and culture. Now also in terms of making it a differentiator is making sure people really enjoy working for your organization and feel good about being a part of it is we want to make employees feel valued. It's interesting. During the last couple of years when so many organizations were experiencing record numbers or amounts of turnover. And again, we were in this period called the Great Resignation.

Research was done by human resources professionals about, even during this difficult time, what's keeping people from leaving organizations? What are the factors going into people stay-leave decisions nowadays. And what it came down to, the number one thing it came down to in one big study I read from the field of human resources was that when employees feel valued working for their organization, that single experience of feeling valued-- my employer, my supervisor, my colleagues value my contributions.

I feel like I have a voice. I feel like I'm an important part of the organization, that what I do matters. When they feel valued, when employees feel valued, they are much less likely to leave. They're much more likely to stay and be motivated to do their best work. And so folks, let's make sure. If we can show appreciation of people for who they are, not just for what they do, that's the first piece.

So obviously recognition. We want to recognize people for the work they do, but we also want to recognize and show appreciation to people for who they are. Like, we're glad you work here. I'm glad I work with you. You're a great colleague. I appreciate hanging out with you. I appreciate you have good energy. You're a really encouraging person. I really appreciate working with you.

And when supervisors are spending time with employees not only showing appreciation and recognition, but they're showing interest in people's lives and making them feel a sense of belonging. Like, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're a part of our organization. You bring a lot to this organization. We couldn't do this without you. When people are regularly communicating and encouraging each other in that way, people again feel a sense of belonging.

They feel valued, and they're going to be much more likely to get engaged, do their best work, and stay with the organization. Now, folks, let's also not forget to stress the importance of employee-specific contributions. So for example, one research study showed that one of the greatest predictors of employee loyalty was if an employee feels like the work they do every day matters, that it's significant, that it actually specifically helps the organization to succeed.

And a lot of times, employees don't naturally see that. For example, if you've got someone who's in accounting, and they do a good spreadsheets, and they're good at doing financial analysis. They do a good job of making sure that the organization's profit and loss statement is managed the way it's supposed to be managed, and the financials are handled the way they're supposed to be handled.

But they don't get feedback on how important their contribution is to the overall organization's goals and to the organization's bottom-line results. It may become rote work over time. If people don't get much feedback, folks, even if they're doing work that they often enjoy, and every job has-- we all know this. Everyone's job, there's things that people really love from their job, and some things that they don't like as much.

It comes with every job description, but one of the things-- the difference makers that makes people feel valued is if their supervisor and their colleagues and the organization consistently reminds them of what you do matters. Like, for example, I remember one story of a director of accounting talking to an accountant, a staff accountant when one was assigning a spreadsheet. And this accountant probably does thousands-- does 100 spreadsheets a year.

I don't want to overstate. Maybe 100 spreadsheets in a year, or 200 spreadsheets in a year. And it was interesting that the way the story went was that accountant would tend to think that another day, another spreadsheet. What's special about this? Not really recognizing that the work that they were doing, the number crunching they were doing, the financial analysis they were doing really mattered.

But when their boss sat down with them and showed them, I want to show you because you are so good at financial analysis and your spreadsheets are so accurate. And your analysis of the numbers is so insightful. I want you to see how some of your analysis shows up in our senior manager's report up to the head of the organization. And that would be an eye opener for that employee, and that would give them extra motivation to do the work.

Because they now realize that what I'm doing matters. It's just not another spreadsheet because most people in accounting you do a lot of those. That's part of the work that most people do in the accounting field. But to know that the work-- those spreadsheets and the analysis that you're providing is actually contributing to the overall success of the organization.

It's a part of what's going to senior management. It's really making a difference for the organization. That's going to motivate that employee to want to do an even better job, and it's going to make that work more fulfilling for them, make it more meaningful for them. That's important to make people feel valued, and the last but not least, folks, make sure you give your employees a consistent voice.

I know we've all heard about this. Everyone says people need a voice, but I got to tell you, I think more than ever, ever nowadays, we live in such a technology-oriented world and a virtual world. And the virtual world is very helpful in a lot of ways, but I think when people feel like they actually have a voice where they're not just sending messages virtually around, but people are coming to them asking for their opinion, that when work plans are being developed, the higher ups are seeking them out.

My boss, the executive director for Deer Oaks, does an incredible job with this. She consistently gives me input into things that we're doing. She'll even send me emails and say, hey, I got this going on right now, Greg, what are your thoughts and gives me a chance to respond. And it makes me feel-- it makes me feel valued. It makes me feel significant. It makes me feel important to her.

It makes me feel important to the organization. That matters. That helps in my motivation. It's one of the reasons why I've been with Deer Oaks going on 13 years now is I have a supervisor that really makes me feel like what I do matters, and then I have a voice. I feel like I have input into what we're doing, and people need to feel that. We need to feel a sense of belonging.

We need to feel like we have a say. We need to feel like our voice matters, our opinion matters, and so let's make sure we do everything we can to give as many people as you can within your span of control a voice and input into what's going on. By now, how do we make recognition most effective? Obviously we can do general recognition. We can do specific recognition.

Let's drill down into this a little bit more. So here's some of the how to's of recognition. I got this information from a wonderful book called The Carrot Principle. It was really about some really good research around employee recognition and best practices. And so here's some of the how to's of recognition is that for recognition to be most effective, it should be frequent.

And so this shouldn't be something, folks, that we do every once in a while when someone you hits a home run or does something really significant. It should be something we make a daily habit. Ken Blanchard, who wrote-- some of you might remember Ken Blanchard. He was the author of a best selling series called The One Minute Manager, and then there was a lot of follow ups to that around that minute theme.

In The One Minute Manager he talked about one-minute praisings, like trying to walk around and catch someone doing something good and looking for things to recognize people for. I try to do that on an almost daily basis because I find that it's really important to people that they know on a regular basis that people see the good that they're doing. It's encouraging to people. It's uplifting for people.

It's motivating, and it's interesting. Gallup research shows that to make people feel valued. Again, remember, people feeling valued nowadays is one of the major reasons that people decide to stay in an organization because my organization values me. They need to receive some form of recognition every seven days. So it's not enough to get a nice attaboy or attagirl email from your boss in January and then not get any recognition for the next six weeks.

It needs to be something that people get on a weekly basis and on a daily basis if practical. I'm always looking for-- when people send out-- when people on our team at Deer Oak send out when they submit work, when they send out completed work, when they send out some sort of correspondence, and I can weigh in on. I'm always saying, hey, great job with that. Hey, that was really creative. Thanks for going the extra mile on that.

I'm always looking for ways to make people feel like we notice them. We notice their efforts. We notice the great work they're doing and again to make them feel valued, to make them feel seen, and make them feel like what they do matters and make them feel significant. But we have to do it regularly to really make it most effective for people. The next thing, of course, is it needs to be specific.

And so what I want us to think about is just telling someone something in general, like, hey, Bill or, hey, Ann, you've been doing a really good job lately, and I wanted to say thank you. Excuse me. I mean, that's better than not providing any recognition at all, but the research shows that recognition is most impactful when you get specific about what you're telling someone they're doing well.

Like, for example, that monthly report you turned in, Sue or Bill. That monthly report you turned in last month was really top shelf. I mean, I love the charts and graphs that you included in it. I think it really made an impact when we sent that on to senior management, and I want to thank you for going above and beyond. I thought it was fantastic. That's the kind of thing I'm talking about.

The research shows that kind of recognition gives the most impact for people, and that makes them really feel like my boss knows specifically what I'm doing and truly appreciates it, truly approves of it, and feels good about it and then also timely. We want to make sure recognition happens as close to the effort or accomplishment that you're providing recognition for as possible.

It's really, as we know, important to provide close to immediate feedback whenever possible, especially nowadays because, again, we live in this virtual world. People are so used to getting immediate feedback because of virtual communication. People are so used to getting same-day responses, within the hour responses, after hours responses, on the weekend responses.

And so it's important to make sure that it's timely feedback. Like if someone does something really well, don't like put that off to the side and think, OK, when I see them next in a couple of weeks, I'll remember to say something to them. No, take a moment now. Even though you might be busy, take a moment now to write a note, pick up the phone, walk down the hall, whatever the case may be, and provide that recognition.

That's going to have the most impact if it happens closely after the effort or the accomplishment occurred. Now, of course, we also want to tailor recognition to the individual. And I know we all know this. It's intuitive for most of us. But again, recognition is not a one size all-- to be most effective, it's not a one size all practice. Different employees have different needs.

I'll never forget this. About four years ago, I went to one of the supervisors on my team, and we had just as a team-- on our team for Deer Oaks, we had just accomplished something really significant for the organization, and I wanted to celebrate it. And so I went to my colleague and said, what do you think we should do? And I had one idea of what would be impactive for the team.

But because those people report directly to her, she was much closer to them. And I said, well, what do you think? Here's what I'm thinking, and she said, I don't that that's going to-- that everyone's going to-- she said, I appreciate the gesture, and it would be good to do. But I don't that know that everyone's going to be as excited about what you're suggesting as others would be because not everyone's motivated by the same thing.

So I took a minute and I said, well, tell me. We went person by person. I said what would motivate this person, and what would motivate that person, and so on. And I really appreciated this, and she shared with me that a couple people on the team had particular needs that I wasn't even aware of at that time. And so she said, if we could do a small bonus, she said think for those individuals, that would be really appreciated based on what's going on in their life right now.

She was really close to their day-to-day needs, and so we customized that recognition. I went to our executive director, and I made the case for that, and we did that. We did a one-time small bonus, and I now not every organization is set up to do that. But I wanted to share that as an example of tailoring recognition to the individuals, and that went a long way.

The individuals really seem to appreciate that gesture because it was specific to their needs, and it really met a need that a couple of folks on the team were dealing with at that particular point in time. And so try to be thinking about, OK, who wants group recognition? Who likes individual recognition? Who likes to be taken to lunch as recognition? Who would like a monetary gift or a gift card as recognition?

Who would like to have an email sent to them and having the executive director copied? Just be thinking about what recognition works best for each person so the recognition you provide will be as impactive as possible. And remember also, on a daily basis. I think a daily habit is so important to do this, folks. It can't be something we do once in a while.

To be most impactive, it needs to be something we do regularly. So again, be looking to catch people doing something good. So as you're opening emails, as you're having conversations with people, as you're going in and out of meetings, as you're looking at completed work, just be on the lookout for what can you provide recognition for, what can you say thank you for, and be thoughtful about how you give that recognition so it works best for that person.

All right, so I want to drill down a little bit more into different types of recognition, just to get us broaden our thinking about all the different ways that we can provide recognition more specifically and more consistently. And so important times to provide recognition. I talked a lot about day-to-day recognition. I do that in a lot of different ways. I will do handwritten notes. I use a lot of emails. Occasionally, I'll send a text.

I do a lot of informal thanks for people. I just try to make it a practice. My boss does a really good job with that as well. I really appreciate that. Then task-specific recognition, and so this is important as well. When people turn in a completed work, or when they send out an example of something that they're doing that you're really impressed with, or the end of a project or something like that, I mean, take the time to provide recognition in front of peers.

So maybe you wait for a staff meeting to recognize that, or you go to that person one on one to recognize that. Again, that can depend on how you know that person most like recognition. I have found that some individuals get embarrassed being recognized as part of the group. They're more comfortable receiving recognition one on one, where other people eat it up. They love being the center of attention.

So you just got to, as we all know, get to your staff and make that recognition specific to the needs of each person. Above and beyond recognition, that's like the example I gave you earlier, where we came up with that one-time bonus because our team had done something way above and beyond normal. And so I wanted to do something very special, and so we came up with that one time bonus that my boss approved, which was fantastic.

And it really carried a lot of weight with the team, or it might be the presentation of a formal award. You might go out and have a plaque made for a person who did something really spectacular above and beyond or maybe a team award right for a team that did something above and beyond. Career recognition. Deer Oaks has a wonderful career recognition process.

I have right here to the left of my desk, I have a beautiful crystal plaque that was sent to me when I hit my 10-year mark for Deer Oaks. I'm in year 13 now, but a few years ago when I hit my 10-year mark, they sent that to me. Honestly, even though I've been with Deer Oaks for 10 years, I didn't realize that that would be as impactive as it was for me.

I was like, wow, and I look at that, and I look at it regularly. It's beautiful, and they also sent a check along with that. It was really, really nice, and it was funny. Just the other day looking at it, I thought to myself-- getting ready for this presentation-- I thought about, OK, I'm only a couple of years away from 15 because I know there'll be another recognition in 15 years.

So that was a motivator for me, and it keeps me feeling really great about working for the organization. So be thinking about that. What can you do? A lot of organizations do have formal programs, formal recognition programs for people that hit those career milestones. So be thinking about what you can do. If you don't have that, be thinking about maybe instituting something like that.

And then, of course, celebrating important events. And so I love, if the team does something great, use a team gathering to celebrate that. Take the team out to lunch together or call a special team meeting to celebrate a record that the team accomplished. And so those are important as well, but be as creative as you can in how you provide recognition.

Now let's not forget group recognition, and now there's two different ways to look at this. Individual recognition obviously is going to be the most specifically motivating to individuals, but group recognition is important as well because people have a sense of belonging when they're part of a group. One of the reasons I love Deer Oaks, and I'm in my 13th year, and that's the longest I've ever stayed in any organization before, is because of the team we have.

I have a great boss, but I'm also really bonded to my team. My boss does a great job of providing a lot of team recognition and group recognition. It's a team building opportunity, folks. Teams don't necessarily bond together as well as they could, unless the leader's intentional about it. A lot of times individual team members, of course, will form cliques or they'll connect together on commonalities or they just work side by side for a long time.

But for a team to really feel a sense of identity and we're in this together and having pride in team accomplishments and to really value teamwork is when the leader provides consistent recognition for what the team does together. The achievement of team goals, showing appreciation for great collaboration and teamwork. Our team, we collaborate on a lot. I think that's one of the hallmarks of working for Deer Oaks.

We really collaborate a lot, and I enjoy that much more than I ever did before. My boss has done a great job of creating an environment where we value collaboration and working together. And it's really helped bond our team even stronger, cemented an even stronger bond for the team. It also acts as a team recognition, also acts as a catalyst for that sense of belonging.

It's interesting. Another reason people would want to stay in an organization is they feel a sense of belonging. If people feel like I have a work family where they don't just go to work and say these are my coworkers, but they feel like they have a work family-- and I definitely am blessed with that at Deer Oaks. Again, you enjoy your days more. It increases job satisfaction, and again, at the end of the day, you're going to be much less likely want to go to work somewhere else because you don't find that everywhere.

And people, they want to stay with the people that they care about. Now if you do-- let's remember this one tip, folks, because I'm getting to the end here. We'll open it up for questions. When you're providing group recognition, try to keep the recognition focused on group accomplishments. For example, when you're in a team meeting or a group meeting, if you're giving group recognition, and then all of a sudden it's easy to do, you turn and say, Bill, you were really the leader here. You did the best.

That can make others in the group feel left out. And so if you recognize individual contributions, make sure-- during a team meeting, make sure that every staff member's contributions are mentioned. If you're focused on group recognition, but you're also going to highlight a few folks, make sure you highlight everyone in the room. If your goal is to do group recognition, and you also want to highlight a few individuals, try to highlight something that everyone on the team is doing really well.

I try to make that a practice. Like during one of our bi-monthly team meetings, we'll be talking about something the team is doing really, really well. And then I'll go around the room and say and, so-and-so, you've done this to contribute to it. And so-and-so, you've done that. My boss will do the same thing and add some of those things for individuals, but we want to make sure that no one feels left out.

All right, last but not least, there's a few other important considerations I want to leave you with is I want to remind us of the significance of recognition, folks. This is important. This is a game changer. I would have to say in all the organizations-- I've been in the workforce now for over 40 years, with Deer Oaks now, I'm in my 13th year as I mentioned.

Many of the organization I work for over the years did not make this a consistent habit, did not make recognition a regular event. It was something that would be a one off, that people remember to do once in a while, or maybe if something really great happened, someone would take the time to recognize it. At Deer Oaks, we've gone out of our way to make it consistent, and it makes a huge difference.

Mark Twain, one of the greatest writers in American history, most of us know Twain, Samuel Clemens. He had a quote that said, "I could go a whole year on a good compliment". What struck me about that is here is a guy who was one of the most acclaimed writers in American history. But even he could go a whole year on a good compliment. That says something. It's part of-- it's wired into us. It's a need that we have as people to receive recognition for the work that we do.

Folks, let's not forget that. That's why it's so important to make it a daily practice. Again, according to The Carrot Principle, the book I've mentioned a couple of times, providing recognition is the number one behavior that employees want to see from their supervisors. They want to make sure that the boss catches them doing something good. They want to hear the boss saying, great work, great job.

They want to feel like their work is appreciated. And remember, folks, again, we're talking about using recognition to increase productivity. Recognition is motivating, and it's going to be most motivating if we make it specific to each person's needs. And we do it on a regular basis, and we're creative with it like we've been talking about today. But remember, folks, motivated people are going to be more engaged and productive.

And there's a lot of research that supports that. So again, let's not forget to practice this on a regular basis. It's a really important part of what leaders should be doing to maximize productivity. Last but not least, don't forget to say thank you on a regular basis, folks. I've actually had people push back when I've made this point and say, why do I need to thank people for doing the job that they're paid to do.

They get a paycheck, don't they? I've actually had a few people say that over the years. Folks, people don't just work for the money. Yes, we all need a paycheck. We need to make ends meet. We need to provide for our families, absolutely. But people, we have more needs psychologically and in our hearts than just the paycheck. We need to know we matter. We need to know that what we do has value.

We need to know that we're helpful. We need to know that we belong, that people appreciate us. Don't forget to say thank you. It makes a big difference. One of the things that sticks with me. There was a guy working for a local parks municipality. He had a team of seven people. He was talking about how hot and sweaty it is in the summertime for these guys working outside in the Parks Department.

They're cutting the lawn and weed whacking the ball parks and cleaning up the parking lots, and these guys are working hard, really working hard. And it's hot, and they're tired at the end of the day. He said, every single day at the end during the summer when it's hardest, when people are kind of gutting it out, it's really hot and sweaty out there, he shakes everyone's hand at the end of the day and says thank you for everything you did today.

I really appreciate you, and that really stuck with me. And so let's regularly express appreciation for people's contributions and their efforts. Folks, the book The Leadership Challenge, it has a lot of great research in. It says that 70% of employees wish they were more appreciated at work. Again, appreciation shows value, and that keeps people around. We want to keep our good people.

And, folks, last thing, don't just show appreciation for results. Express appreciation for people's efforts as well even if you didn't get the results you were hoping for. I made the mistake in the past of only sending out recognition or giving recognition to people when they got great results. But I woke up probably about-- I don't know-- seven or eight years ago really succinctly thinking, wait a minute. If I'm only saying thank you and great work if someone got a super result, what about the people that also did great work, put in a lot of effort, but just didn't get the result, and that was out of their control.

I thought I need to start showing more appreciation to people for their efforts. So I made a real focus over the last seven or eight years to not just say thank you and show appreciation for work that gets the results I'm looking for but also for putting in a great effort. So all right, folks, I know we covered a lot in a very short period of time today. Let's open it up for questions. If you have any questions, please type your questions into the question box in the GoToWebinar software in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

All right, I've got just some house cleaning questions from the beginning here is what do we need to present to receive the certificate of completion? Let me remind you of that. We talked a little bit about it at the beginning. Our staff is going to track attendance. So all you have to do is register either for the live events like today because we then will pull those attendance reports.

So you don't have to worry about that, since you're here in your registered, and you attended, and GoToWebinar gives us reports, you're already in the system. And you got credit for today. If for the three subsequent sessions, Strengthening the Team coming up on May 20, Moving from Manager to Leader coming up on August 26, and How to Effectively Delegate Tasks and Responsibilities coming up on November 18, you can either attend those live, or if you miss any of those live, you can still hit Reply to any of your GoToWebinar invitations from Deer Oaks and ask us to send you a copy of the recording link.

Even if you miss it live, and you view the recording, we track that as well. And you'll get credit for that as well. So we will do all the tracking. You don't have to worry about submitting anything, and again, if you attend all four of these this year, either live or by recording or by viewing the recordings on demand afterwards, you will get credit. And you'll receive at the end of 2024 your Leadership Certificate.

All right, so I've got some good questions coming in now, folks. If you do recognition too often, will it begin to lose its meaning or value? I honestly don't think so. When you look at the research, when it shows-- when research shows that now people need to receive meaningful recognition at least once a week. I don't think we can overdo this. Now I think you can do the same-- you can overdo the same type of recognition.

Like if you're always sending out a thank you email after every time someone submits completed work, and that's all you're doing, sure, that can become kind of rote. So you need to spice things up a little bit and maybe use meetings for recognition, do some things one on one, provide a lunch, provide a gift card. So be creative and vary it up a little bit.

But I think the message here today is, make a habit out of consistently providing some kind of recognition and appreciation for your staff on a regular basis. You'll get the greatest return. Here's a good one. What's the best way to show appreciation for a large group of 100 plus people? I think that's great, and so I've got a couple of ideas that come to mind.

One is in your team meetings, you can survey people, or you can survey people informally and say, hey, the team is doing really, really well this year. And we're looking for ideas to provide some recognition, and you can give people some input into what kind of recognition works well. Oftentimes, when you have a big group, doing something like a team picnic.

I had one guy who had a team of 25 people, give or take I think, and he brought in-- because he was renowned for his barbecue. During the summer, he brought in his own personal smoker, and right behind the office, he barbecued lunch for the team every Friday from Memorial Day to Labor Day. I thought that was really cool. What a great team building event, and I thought it was great.

And he did it to say thank you to the staff for their efforts, and I thought that was a wonderful way to show appreciation and also do team building. And really I could tell his staff really was really appreciative of what he did. But you can get people's input. Sometimes people are going to want to go off site. Sometimes they're going to want to do a team picnic. Other times people are going to say just if there's any way we can do gift cards but try to find out from the team how they most like to be recognized.

With large groups, you can do team building events that can also team building slash recognition where you're doing a big picnic, and at the same time, using the picnic to recognize people's performance. Whoever's performing at the highest level, or you can be giving out team recognition at those events. Just be thoughtful about how you do that. That's a good question.

All right, someone said the name of the book again. It's The Carrot Principle. I've got the book right here on my bookshelf. Let me get the name of the author for you real quick. It's Adrian Gostick. It's The Carrot Principle. The author's Adrian Gostick. G-O-S-T-I-C-K. The Carrot Principle. It's a really good book. One of our colleagues said, making recognition specific to the person really makes the appreciation genuine.

Absolutely, I appreciate you sharing that. Oh, and one of our colleagues is reminding us of Friday 3/1 is Employee Appreciation Day. Folks, what a perfect day to reach out and say thank you and show appreciation to the team. Another one of our colleagues said, I'm someone that can give recognition easily so making the recognition specific has really made a big difference. Thank you for that. That's great. Appreciate you sharing that success.