Using The Rule of Three to Improve Morale, Performance and Profitability

Randy Lane • March 28, 2012

When was the last time you were truly recognized by your GM, PD or co-hosts?

Unbelievably, a lot of GMs, PDs, and coworkers worry that the act of praising will lose meaning. Well, how often do you tell your partner you love them? What would happen if instead of every day, you just said it once or twice a year?

As employees, most of us can never receive enough sincere recognition. It never gets old.

Gone are the days of intimidating or belittling employees and talent. If you want the best from your staff and co-workers you have to recognize them in an authentic and tangible way. Recognition extended to every member of the team will create a society of engaged employees excited about a common goal.

How will purposeful recognition accomplish this? 

Health Stream Research interviewed 3,000 people and asked, “What do you really want from your job?”. Employees ranked “pay” number three on their list. Number one was “Career/Learning Development Opportunities”. Number two? “Recognition”.

Our philosophy for working with talent has always been to inspire and empower by recognizing achievement. We first focus on what was done well and why it worked. Applying this template companywide is paramount to a company’s ability to survive.

The Three Rules of Recognition: Administer C.P.R.

C ONSISTENT: Be consistent with low cost, high-touch recognition. This could be as simple as a specific email about a job well done.

P ERFORMANCE BASED: When your people go above and beyond, they deserve more of a response from the organization. The reward should be customized to the achievement AND to the individual.

R ECOGNIZE TEAM ACHIEVEMENT: These celebrations reinforce your brand and thank everyone on a team, division or entire company.

How does this translate to the bottom line?

Companies that effectively recognize excellence enjoy a return-on-equity (ROE) more than three times higher than the return experienced by companies that don’t, according to a ten year study of over 200,000 thousand people around the globe.

Radio is a team sport; our goal is to entertain, emotionalize and participate with our listeners. The better we are at connecting with each other in the building, the better we’ll be at connecting with our audience.

-written by Cliff Dumas

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