Recognize and Reward

Showing appreciation for someone's hard work is not only a great business practice it fits in all facets of life. The same philosophy that is so successful in business works for relationships, for family and for meeting personal goals. Look for the behavior that you desire and recognize it with the anticipated outcome of seeing more of that behavior repeated.

The Carrot Principle is an outstanding book on employee recognition.  According to the authors, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton, the important factors to remember with daily recognition are to keep it:

1)  Timely

2)  Specific

3)  Frequent

Timely, you have to recognize the achievement when the act occurs.  Otherwise, the person may not know exactly what you are recognizing,

Specific, they need to know specifically what it is you are rewarding.  If you leave it at "Good job.  Thank you for all of your hard work." it will be very difficult for the person to know what it is exactly that they did good.  This means that chandes of seeing it repeated are slim to none.

Frequent, I don't think that you would ever hear "please stop saying thank you; it's too much."  When it comes to recognition there is never too much.  This is true whether your giving praise to an employee, to a spouse, or to one of your children.

“There are two things people want more than sex and money... recognition and praise.”
-Mary Kay Ash

Start by recognizing small wins; your daughter cleans her room, your husband loads the dishwasher, you run your first mile.  Write a thank you note, remembering to be specific, and see their reaction.  I bet it will be easier to get them to do it again.

Here's how my training week went:

MONDAY
rest

TUESDAY
rest
Huge employee recognition day at work.  Our owner really knows how to make our top sales perfomers feel like their at the top.  Do you think they felt special after being treated to this?

WEDNESDAY

12 mile run.

THURSDAY

5 mile run

30 minutes strength training.  I love my BOSU

The name BOSU means BOth Sides Up.  With the flat side down you can stand or sit on the BOSU.  With the round side down you can also stand on it or use it to do balanced push-ups.  I use it to do most of my arm and core strength training to get more done in a shorter period of time.

I stand on the BOSU while doing shoulder presses or other upper body strength training.  By adding the balancing aspect to my workout I work more muscles at once, meaning I get more workout with less work.

FRIDAY

5 mile run

SATURDAY

rest

SUNDAY

16.5 mile run

18 holes golf

I rewarded myself with a ginormous hamburger and french fries for achieving my goal today.