IT Leadership

Recognizing the achievements of your technical teams is an important aspect of IT leadership. Being able to demonstrate appreciation for your team’s hard work motivates teams to sustain their efforts and encourages them to maintain high performance. However, recognizing achievements goes beyond the simple gesture of saying “thank you” (although it is a good starting point!). Leaders must be able to adapt their recognition techniques to suit the diverse personalities and backgrounds of their teams, and ensure that recognition is both fair and impactful. In this article, we explore the importance of recognizing technical teams’ achievements and provide diverse tips and tricks for leaders to effectively show their appreciation.

The Importance of Recognition

Recognition is a fundamental psychological need and is essential for an individual’s growth, self-esteem, and sense of wellbeing. From a managerial standpoint, recognition has been shown to improve employee engagement, productivity, and performance, and reduce turnover rates. Despite the benefits of recognition, 43% of employees who quit their jobs cited receiving insufficient recognition as a key reason for their departure. This leaves many questions open for leaders who aim to create an effective and appreciative work environment. How can leaders recognize achievements in a meaningful way? What aspects of recognition are the most important? Who should be recognized, and what effects do different types of recognition have on teams?

Recognizing Effectively: Tips and Tricks

IT leaders often recognize individuals or teams who have achieved notable successes, such as completing a challenging project, resolving a technical outage, or delivering a critical software update. But achievements and their associated recognition vary widely across teams and individuals. What feels like an appropriate form of recognition for one person may not be the same for someone else. To recognize effectively, IT leaders must adapt their approach to suit the recipient’s preferences and needs. The first step is to understand the diversity of your team and the different personalities and cultures within it. What kind of recognition would a particular team member appreciate? To provide recognition that is both fair and impactful, IT leaders must be aware of potential biases that may influence their recognition practices. These may include giving preferential treatment to those who are similar to you, or overlooking the achievements of employees who are more reserved or less vocal in their self-promotion. Fair recognition recognizes the efforts and achievements of all employees, regardless of their background, personality, or position within the team.

1. Get Personal

Recognition should be tailored to the individual. Get to know your team members and what motivates them. Some people may appreciate public recognition in a team meeting or a shoutout on LinkedIn, while others may be embarrassed or uncomfortable with the spotlight. Understanding your team and their preferences will help you to provide recognition that is meaningful to them.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Get Creative

IT leaders often employ a variety of creative approaches to demonstrate their appreciation. This could include bringing in snacks or creating a personalized trophy or award. Creative approaches to recognition not only show that you are making an effort to appreciate your team members, but that you are doing so in a way that aligns with their interests and personality.

3. Demonstrate Authenticity

Recognition is most impactful when it is genuine. Authentic expressions of appreciation from leaders can foster a deep sense of trust and respect between manager and team members, creating a culture where recognition is truly embedded.

4. Avoid Over-Recognizing

While recognition is important, it should be reserved for truly outstanding achievements. This will help ensure that your team continues to value and aspire to recognition, and that recognition is seen as a meaningful gesture rather than a trivial commonplace occurrence.

5. Be Timely

Recognition should be given in a timely manner. The sooner you acknowledge an achievement, the more likely your team members will see the direct results of their work and feel good about their impact.

6. Acknowledging Effort and Improvement Should Be Recognized Equally

Recognization is often focused on end results and key milestones. However, sitting down with team members and acknowledging the effort they have put in, even if the end result was not what was expected, is just as important. Recognizing effort and progress demonstrates to your team that you value them, regardless of the outcomes. This is particularly important in technical teams, where the focus is often on innovation and the journey towards finding a solution.

7. Flip the Script

Consider acknowledging and celebrating when you have learned from your team members. Taking an interest in their specialized skills and seeking opportunities to learn from them can be a great way to show respect and appreciation while also fostering a culture of mutual learning and improvement.

8. Create a Culture of Recognition

IT leaders often employ various strategies to embed recognition within their team’s culture. This may involve creating awards with meaningful titles, such as “The Customer Champion Award” or “The Creative Solution Award”, and passing these trophies along to deserving team members on a recurring basis. Developing a culture of recognition involves embedding recognition practices into team rituals, such as weekly wrap-up meetings or post-project debriefs, to ensure recognition occurs consistently.

9. Make Recognition a Team Sport

In addition to recognition from leaders, fostering a culture where peers recognize each other’s achievements is also important. This may involve establishing a system where any team member can give a “kudos” or “props” to a colleague for a job well done. Peer recognition not only provides additional motivation for employees but also increases team cohesion and collaboration.

10. Make Recognition a Part of Your Company’s Values

Including recognition as a core value will embed it within your company’s culture. Talking about recognition and appreciation openly and often will help to normalize these practices, and ensure they are prioritized by leaders and team members alike.

Conclusion

Recognizing achievements goes beyond the simple gesture of saying “Thank you”. IT leaders play a crucial role in adapting recognition to the diverse needs of their teams, ensuring that appreciation is both meaningful and impactful. By developing an awareness of the many different personalities and backgrounds that exist within IT teams, leaders can implement fair and effective recognition practices. This article has outlined the importance of recognition and provided tips for leaders to recognize achievements in a meaningful way.

By implementing these strategies, IT leaders can create a culture where team members feel valued, motivated, and engaged.

I hope this article provides you with ideas on how to recognize your team’s achievements and how to be a more inclusive leader.