Here’s a thing. Just before Christmas I was the keynote speaker at the Eversheds IT conference in Birmingham. The event was a combination of me speaking, which took up most of the afternoon, some group work, a couple of excellent videos (not involving me) and then a round up by the CIO.
We then all got changed into our penguin suits and posh frocks and hoovered up some really delicious scoff. After dinner the CIO ran an awards ceremony for the staff and key suppliers who had also been invited to attend.
Now the reason I mention this is two-fold: –
- The fact that they had invited the suppliers really did make us feel part of the team and to be presented with awards for various things (not me I hasten to add) was even more inspiring.
- The employee awards represented genuine achievement across the whole department and whilst everybody could see the fun side they were also taken very seriously; and so they should have been.
As the awards were being presented you could see the recipients grow taller by the second. Honestly it was a pleasure to watch.
I didn’t see anybody receive an award that the room thought was ill-deserved which only served to strengthen the team spirit and boost morale. Sadly I was flying to Germany very early the next day and so could not stay for the disco but I heard later a good time was had by all. Not surprising: there was enough energy buzzing around to give EON a run for its money.
As I have mentioned on many occasions if you want to establish rapport and strengthen your management techniques one of the key things you need to do is show people that they are appreciated and valued. This awards dinner, and the event as a whole, managed to achieve this with room to spare.
You may not be able to organise an event for your team or your department on the same scale but it doesn’t have to be. Fair and just public recognition for exceptional results or effort above and beyond the call of duty in say, a team meeting will do just as well.
In these hard times you may not be able to award large pay rises or offer promotions and even training is being cut back (shame on you 🙁 ) but you can recognise contribution which will go some way towards filling the gap.
Congratulations Paul, it was a truly great event.
Image Courtesy of David Castillo / Free Digital Photos.net
