Don’t let anyone waste their time. Week 14 of the 52-Week Employee Recognition Plan

I announced in May, 2010, the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan. This is the 14th week of that plan. The lesson this week is:

Don’t let anyone waste their time.

Here is one near absolute truth in life:

Time is the one resource we can never regain.

If there were absolute truths in business this would be one:

Nothing communicates to an employee, a partner, an associate that their value goes unrecognized  than for you to sit quietly while their time is wasted.

Let’s say that in the positive.

The best way to recognize the value of your employees is to insure no one, including yourself, wastes their time.

Your employees are your most precious asset. Their strengths, their talents, their engagement, their passion and purpose along with the resources you offer in creating it are what makes that brand, theirs. By making it theirs you insure it’s a sustainable brand, a brand clearly recognized, one built around a culture of learning that develops new solutions to new challenges.

Their one resource you cannot add to, lengthen or strengthen, is time. Their time.

You can recognize them by recognizing the important of their time.

Make meetings meaningful, if you have to have them. No more silly meetings with participants unprepared, an agenda unspoken, a format undelivered. Make sure you ask if these meetings are helpful.

Give them the tools and support to do their job to the best of their abilities and your training.Cynicism spawns and breeds when systems are down, again and again, or the tools are inadequate.

Give them the policies that respect their dignity, maturity and abilities.

Give them the right incentives that reward their focus and efficient use of their time.

Leave them alone. Do not interrupt their day. Be there when you are needed. Keep a lookout for opportunities to thank them, specifically. But other than that, err on the side of leaving them alone.

Don’t let anyone waste their time.

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You can start with any week of the 52-Week Employee Recognition Plan and make that your first week.

You can take one of those weeks and turn it into a month or commit to an accelerated pace and complete 6 of the weeks in one month.

You can create your own week of employee recognition. Share that journey here. Share it in your blog or Twitter or Facebook.

But do something to recognize your employees! They set your brand apart as your ultimate competitive edge. And the more you recognize their achievements, the more achievements you'll see and they'll enjoy, along with your customers and and shareholders, partners and vendors.