Telling staff to “Go fly a kite” is not a great idea, unless you made the kite

At its core, The Kite is about 11-year-old Keith’s search for the perfect gift for his friend Daddy Sherry, whose 111th birthday is fast approaching.

I only recently read this novel by Alberta author W.O. Mitchell, after having seen the stage adaption this summer at the Rosebud Dinner Theatre.

Rosebud is a hamlet of fewer than 100 people, near Drumheller, Alberta. Each year, the community hosts a multi-play theatre season.

Keith’s desire to find the right gift is similar to the question with which many frontline leaders will be familiar. What is the best way to recognize staff for how they contribute and what they achieve?

Keith’s first impulse was to use the money he had saved to purchase a gift.

“I got a dollar and twenty cents saved up,” he tells freelance writer David Lang, to whom he turns for advice. David has come to the community to write an article for Monarch magazine about Daddy Sherry, who is believed to be the world’s oldest person.

“I have a feeling that he would get more pleasure out of something you made yourself than he would out of something you bought with your dollar and twenty cents,” David says.

Keith protests that anything he were to make would not be worth giving.

“Anything a kid like me would make — it’d be a haywire, shaganappi thing …“

“That’s not the point, Keith. Anything you’d buy would be something that anybody with a dollar and twenty cents could walk into a store and buy. If you made it yourself then Daddy would know that you had — that it took you time to make it — and care … ”

Having accepted David’s advice, Keith faced another challenge. “I still don’t know what to make and it’s harder to figure out a present to make for a person than it is to figure out a present to buy for a person.”

To discover the right gift, Keith spent time with Daddy, listening to what he said, as managers and supervisors might do when asking 7 questions to find ways to recognize staff Appropriately.

As the title of the play and book suggests, the result of Keith’s research is a decision to build a kite, which he and Daddy go off to fly as the story ends.

How does this relate to staff recognition? What can you “make?” What could your hands produce that a recipient would value because of the time and care you took to make it?

While you may never make a kite for a staff member, there are other hand-made possibilities.

What comes to mind first is a handwritten thank-you note. When the message of appreciation is obviously crafted by your hand it shows that you cared enough to invest your time to write the words.

That simple card will have more impact than the same words would composed with a computer keyboard to produce a letter or an email.

Short of time? No time to write a thank-you note? Even a few words of appreciation on a sticky note can be meaningful to the recipient because you took the time to write them.

And there is always food. Bring in a batch of home-baked cookies to thank the team for its efforts to complete a project on time. Or invite the staff to join you in the parking lot where you will prepare lunch on a barbecue to show your appreciation.

Because no gesture of appreciation should ever create work for the recipients, take responsibility for the post-barbecue cleanup.

At one school where I worked, the staff prepared a potluck lunch to thank volunteers who helped in their classrooms. The message: because you invested your time to help our students, we invested our time to prepare a meal for you to express our gratitude.

This was a much more powerful expression than a catered lunch, a certificate of appreciation, or identical gifts for each of the volunteers.

P.S. Maybe you could make a kite and present it to a staff member who “helped us soar to new heights.”

Image credit: bigstockphoto.com

 

 

It takes more than trinkets and tokens to convey your message of appreciation.

When people in leadership positions think about recognizing staff, the question that often arises is, what can we give them to show they are appreciated? 

The possibilities are without limit. Trophies, certificates, gift cards, merchandise, thank-you notes, recognition events and letters of commendation to be placed in personnel files are just the beginning. We all have our favourite ways to recognize staff and ways in which we prefer to be recognized.

All of these tokens of appreciation work for some, but not for all. There is no equivalent of a Swiss Army knife, which we can use successfully to recognize all staff. One-size-fits-all doesn’t exist. One-size only fits one.

You will discover that some people value trophies, certificates or plaques, while others quickly relegate these items to the local landfill. Some will treasure and save handwritten thank-you notes, but others will assign value only to formal letters from the boss (or the boss’s boss), which can be added to their personnel file. 

Only one person determines the value of recognition—the recipient. Therefore, it’s important to know them well enough to recognize them in Appropriate ways. Ask questions to discover what’s important to individuals. What are their interests and recognition preferences?

What you learn can be used to discover the best tools to help convey your message of appreciation, but even knowing the answers to these questions doesn’t guarantee success in recognizing staff. 

Identifying the right tools to recognize staff is important, but recognition isn’t about favourite treats, mugs decorated with cartoon characters or books by authors who recipients like. These are just objectives, tokens and trinkets. 

They help convey the message of appreciation, but on their own they will not express your gratitude. That depends on how the recognition is presented. Providing an Appropriate token of appreciation may strengthen your message of appreciation, but the message of appreciation is expressed in words, not with trinkets. Recognition comes from the heart, not from a catalogue of merchandise.

People may not always remember the gifts they receive—they may not always value the gifts they receive—but they will remember the words you spoke and how those made them feel. 

Suggested Action: Examine your staff recognition practices. Are they trinket-based or does your recognition begin with words, with tokens of appreciation used only to strengthen that message?

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Participants in Staff Recognition: One Piece at a Time workshops identify ways to use Appropriate tokens and other tools to strengthen their messages of appreciation. Email nmscott@telus.net or call (780) 232-3828 to learn more or to schedule a workshop for members of your leadership team.

Why I took the easy route and gave gift cards at Christmas

I’m going to come clean with you. This holiday season, I gave gift cards—the same gift cards that I have described as a “cop-out” in the past. I still feel that way, but under the circumstances, it seemed the best way to go.

When you give someone a gift card, especially a generic type such as a prepaid VISA, a grocery store card or a card for a coffee shop, you send messages that are likely unintended:

“I don’t know you well enough to be able to choose a gift that would be appropriate for you.”

“It’s important to treat everyone the same, whether they contribute equally (which is unlikely) or not.”

“I haven’t the time to find the right gift for you.”

At least two of these statements apply to my decision to give gift cards.

With 2016 coming an end, I wanted to express my appreciation in some way to four people I don’t know, but on whose services I rely: the person who delivers my newspapers at 3 a.m. six mornings a week, the post office employee who delivers mail daily, and the people who pick up the garbage and recycling every Thursday.

My solution was Tim Hortons cards for all of them. I’m sure they will be able to use them to purchase a drink or sandwich.

If I knew them in a way we know the people with whom we work each day, I might have found more appropriate ways to express my appreciation.

With staff members, we can discover ways to recognize them appropriately. In some cases, it might be a gift card, but one selected with the intended recipient’s interests and preferences in mind. It could be a gift card for a retailer in whose store they like to shop, a gift card for their favourite restaurant or even to their favourite coffee shop (this article was written while sitting in a coffee shop, but it wasn’t Tim Hortons).

Another option when using gift cards, is to personalize them. At http://www.timhortons.com/ca/en/timcard/personalized-tim-card.php, for example, you can upload a photo which holds special meaning for the recipient, such as a picture of the family or of a place where the staff member dreams of vacationing. Starbucks offers the option of a blank card, which comes with a pen that can be used to decorate the card before presenting it to the person who you wish to recognize.