I announced in May, 2010, the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan. This is the 18th week of that plan. The lesson this week is:
Be their friend...later. First, be their friendly leader/snowplow/roadpaver/resourcehunter/champion.You can be their friend after you be their leader. A leader is one who is chosen. It’s one who serves. A leader is one who leads to a higher purpose, an inspiring goal, who inspires and finds ways to bring the best from those they lead and reach goals they could not see, before.
You can be their friend after you remove the obstacles. These are the obstacles for their career, for their work, for their tasks. These are the obstacles that interfere with their passion, their success in living it, their role in building your shared success.
You can be their friend after you pave the road they drive at work. Smooth the bumps. Listen to them; take their advice; heed their warnings. Avoid time-wasting buzz-killing meetings. Work to insure all the players are A-players.
You can be their friend after you have found the resources to insure their talents shine. Upgrade their computers. Give them better desks, bigger monitors, nicer chairs. Find better applications and resources. Find the cash to reward them and not another one-hit wonder agency.
Do all that and they will give you the honorific: friend.
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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.
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