How to Recognize Your Team

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Have you ever felt under-appreciated or under-recognized by your boss? Whether you work for a multi-national corporation or you have your own network marketing business – it’s important to recognize employees/downline!

I work remote, and that can be pretty isolating. I don’t get to take part in “food days” or other fun recognition days that home office employees get to participate in. I do however, get to wear my pajamas all day if I want to….{ok, I do! LOL!}

How can employers or our upline best recognize our accomplishments?

- REALLY get to know employees/downline…for example, I LOVE to garden/homestead, I love fitness and nutrition (annnnd I also LOVE chocolate), personal development books, and I LOVE pretty stationary. BOOM – tons of gift ideas there! Heirloom seeds, a gift box with nuts and other healthy items, or a box of gorgeous stationary!
  
  I LOVE this foiled stationary!

Do you have a lot of events that your remote people can’t take part in? Maybe you could keep track of the dollar value spent on each employee… and every quarter, use that dollar amount to buy one of the gifts for these remote employees (based on what you’ve learned from getting to know them!)
Have a travel allowance set up for these remote employees to take part in at least the year-end holiday party everyone else gets to go to! I was able to participate in BOTH holiday parties offered by my team and that meant a LOT to me.
What if your employees are working in the same office? A little note, or a treat. Heck, if you were to drop by my desk and say, “Kathy, I wanted to let you know that I REALLY appreciate all you do for us. The way you handled XYZ situation really shows leadership. Keep up the great work!” I would be over the moon. I had a team leader like this and for this reason, I performed BETTER. I was in the top 5% of the entire company under his reign. I prefer more frequent recognition over once per year recognition.
Here are some really cute ideas I found from some bloggers:

“Thanks a LATTE for all that you do!”

“You are officially the best ____ employee!”

“Poppin’ in to say thanks!”

They really don’t have to be expensive gifts! FEED ME AND I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER. However – there is a caveat. If you KNOW I am on a special meal plan/diet – if you go the extra mile and research what’s acceptable for that, you will officially be my favorite person. There is nothing worse than having delicious food on my desk that I cannot eat….and giving it away:'(

- Do you have an employee who has worked their tail off? Maybe you have an employee out on medical leave and the entire team is having to pick up the slack…PLEASE. Recognize it! Cater lunch for the team, maybe get each person a flower, or even better….a raise;) Think about it this way. Maybe that employee has found efficiencies where they can do twice the work in the same amount of time – yet they are getting paid the EXACT same amount. If this is not recognized come bonus/raise talk, I can promise you that morale will be exceptionally low.
- What about in your network marketing business? Every Thursday is the start of a new week for my network marketing business, so this is my “Rewards & Recognition” day! Not only is it payday, but I LOVE RECOGNIZING THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF MY TEAM! I make up pretty posts w/ their picture plastered on it and always give a lengthy description of how amazing that person is. When they join my team, I send them a book called Go Pro by Eric Worre.

Go Pro

Girl Code

When they rank advance or hit a certain goal, I like to send them Girl Code: Unlocking the Secret to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur by Cara Alwill Leyba.
Once my coaches hit diamond, I provide them with a free photo shoot so that they may have good photos to use for marketing purposes. Once they reach Star Diamond, I’ve got more expensive gifts for them that are based on their personality and likes.

Whichever way you decide to recognize your team members, know that is is essential to both the morale and well-being of the entire team.

A special note: PLEASE follow through on what you say you’re going to do. As a remote employee I had a manager who made many promises to send things (wasn’t expected, but appreciated!)…. and…. he never sent it. “I’ve got a gift card for you!” “I’m overnighting some popcorn to you.” Etc.

xoxo

Kathy Haan