Demanding role of HR in building a “Culture of Recognition” | Dr. Madana Kumar | VP & Global Head – Leadership Development

Truett Cathy, the founder of the fast-food chain in the US, Chick-fil-A, asked a rhetorical question. “Who doesn’t need encouragement?”. Then he answered it by saying, “Only those who do not breathe.” We can easily replace the word “encouragement” with “Recognition” and the saying stays true in the context of recognition.

If it is so important, why is it a huge challenge to implement this as a culture in organisations? In my view, there are two reasons for this.

First, we as human beings are wired to catch people do the wrong things and correct them. We are instinctively good at this. We notice the only thing that was missing from the shopping list that we gave someone else, we notice the only subject in which our child got less than an A+. We notice quickly the one thing what went wrong, in an other-wise well managed and well organised program or event. Let us face it, as human beings we are excellent at catching people do the wrong things.

Secondly, at an organisational level, we have reduced recognition to the level of yet another process to be completed in the annual HR calendar. We allocate specific budgets to this, and work on organising R&R events periodically. While doing this, we believe that only extraordinary achievements are worth recognition I such events. Normal achievements are considered as “part of the job” and hence do not qualify for recognition. After all, they were supposed to get it done, isn’t it?

It is time that organisations shift from these mindsets and embrace what Ken Blanchard, the famous author of “One-minute Manager” and several other books on leadership, calls a culture of “Catch people do the right things”. To make this shift, HR has to stop managing R&R as a process, and need to become a catalyst in embedding recognition as a culture within the organisation. Leaders and managers need to be trained in being generous in praise. Peer recognition needs to be encouraged. There are several tools that facilitate peer recognition. But the tools will fail miserably if not implemented in the right spirit. For example, a peer recognition tool that requires several tiers of review before a recognition is “approved” is as bad as having no peer recognition tool at all.

A culture of Servant Leadership helps in this transformation immensely. A Servant Leadership culture encourages, empowers and enables leaders to view and value others as human beings, and helps them to go beyond the question “how much do they deserve?”. We have proven that this works. HR can and should play a key role in making this shift in philosophy towards the culture of recognition.