Acknowledgement and Recognition- the flip side

[Meera Mishra]

I was following Rafique’s blog on acknowledgement and recognition and found it invigorating as well as intriguing. Rafique enlists the positive effects of this on the receiver, giver and the community. He suggests that acknowledgement and recognition are a step towards better performance of the individual (so far so good) and the team (this is where it gets tricky). This set me thinking...and hence this blog, my first one (Thanks Rafique!).

While agreeing with Rafique and others who commented on the positive aspects of acknowledgement, I would like to raise another aspect of this.

In the context of a (fiercely) competitive work environment how does one publicly acknowledge someone for their outstanding contribution or excellence without generating jealousy and insecurity among peers/ others?

Even within a family or community setting the by-product of acknowledgement and appreciation could often be resentment and agony among others. Indeed it may motivate many to strive for excellence but does it also not aggravate (many) others, which in turn may result in backbiting and underhand activities aimed at undermining the person who is acknowledged?

My question is- is this inevitable? (I would not like to think so)
And if not, what should we keep in mind when acknowledging, recognising or appreciating someone so that it does not unleash a negative undercurrent in the workplace, family or community setting causing more harm than good?

I look forward to hearing your experiences and views.

[Geoff Parcell]

Meera

One way of tackling this is to appreciate and recognise the action of that person, thereby encouraging others to similar actions.

In a work environment it is good if the acknowledgement comes from fellow workers rather than the boss.

Perhaps some shared goals will take away the element of competition then co-workers will rely on each other to be successful.

JUst some thoughts

Geoff

[MariJo]

Dear Meera,

This is an interesting point you highlight here. For me, what is really important is the attitude I develop within myself. I realized that everyone has worthy things to be appreciated and acknowledged. It is not only the 'excelent' performance what needs to be appreciated, which of course is easily detected. But we can also (and most important) look for anything that we appreciate in everyone around us.

Sometimes people do fantastic things even when the outcome has not been the expected one... and you can be there to look for those things and appreciate and acknowledge them. Sometimes, a big accomplishment has been surrounded by many small acts that have contributed but normally go unnoticed.. and you can be there to appreciate and acknowledge them.

As you say, if we just appreciate excellence and outstanding contributions we could be contributing to certain imbalance and probably unfairness. But if you look for all contributions and give them recognition, more people will feel better with what they do.

I have experimented myself how important it is that someone comes and tells you how s/he liked a small thing that you did without even paying attention to it, how s/he remarked you saying the right words at the right moment, how your presence was felt eventhough you thought you have done nothing. I could start there looking at myself in a very different way and I could realize then that there is not small contributions to the whole (unless we leave them unappreciated).

Thank you for making us think of this.
MariJo