I announced in May, 2010, the 52 - Week Employee Recognition Plan. This is the 23rd week. The lesson this week is:
Share your failures.
May readers may have just turned away. Involuntarily they inhaled, a silent gasp, before they clicked away.
Share my failure, you say? Are you crazy, you ask?
Um, in a word...no.
If you share your failures, openly and honestly, you set the right table. That’s the table where successes and failures are shared. Even celebrated. That’s the setting where fear is removed. In its place are found recognition and trust and respect.
Recognition and trust and respect are some of the building blocks of engagement among members of an organization. They are recognized for their contributions. They trust their ideas will be respected. And they know their failures will be treated with respect.
A setting where failures are openly shared is a setting where ideas can be offered and explored. You know what happens with ideas, don’t you? Some of them turn out to be useful. Some of them contain solutions for new products and services, invitations to enter new markets and serve new customers and generate more revenues.
And all of those conversations that convert ideas into solutions, invitation, new customers from new markets and new revenues from old and new customers....all of those conversations create engagement. They create excitement.
And you’re shown as...well, human. A human that’s comfortable with compassion, kindness and forgiveness. That makes you someone they can trust. They can trust you with their ideas, their dreams and yes, their failures. That trust, those conversations begin the process of building a culture of learning. You need to learn daily in order to grow daily to conquer the new challenges you face daily. those conversations begin to happen daily.
Share your failures.
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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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