My niece Meera, learned to a walk a few months back.
It is obviously a super fascinating experience to see how a baby learns to walk.
What I observed was that my cousin Priyanka (and Meera’s mom), used to cheer Meera, when she took even a single step. It was pretty evident that the cheering sent a message to Meera.
What was that message?
No seriously, think about it before you go ahead.
The message was that Meera was being convinced that she is doing something meaningful. She was being convinced that the steps that she is taking matter. When her work was being ‘recognized’, she used to smile… and was encouraged to take another step.
As we get older, we sometimes fail to give this kind of recognition to our colleagues, bosses, and also the team that we lead.
In one of his Ted Talks, Dan Ariely talks about a LEGO experiment. In the LEGO experiment, there were 2 groups. Both groups were asked to make LEGO models and they were paid a certain amount of money for each model. The only difference was – The LEGO models of one group were kept intact, and the LEGO models of the other groups were destroyed right after they were made.
Can you guess which group made more LEGO models?
Yes. The group has LEGO models were NOT destroyed, made more models.
Because they felt that their work mattered.
When we put our heart and soul in our work… we expect someone to ‘Recognize’ our work. So I urge you to recognise the work of your colleagues and your friends and your bosses. Recognizing doesn’t include giving false praise. Recognizing simply means acknowledging it, listening intently and then giving feedback if needed.
Let everyone feel that their work matters. We will then create a magical world.