Today I did a webinar for one of the largest, oldest banks in the world. You would recognize the name, I’m sure.
The webinar was titled Developing Emotional Intelligence and I made the comment that peer recognition is emotional intelligence. I was asked to do this webinar because of my Pluralsight course titled Leading with Emotional Intelligence. In this webinar I shared the idea that peer recognition is emotional intelligence… a perfect display of the fourth pillar of emotional intelligence, which is empathy, or awareness of others.
Peer Recognition Is Emotional Intelligence!
The five pillars of emotional intelligence are:
- Self-awareness
- Self-regulation
- Motivation, or self-motivation
- Empathy, or awareness of others
- Social skills, or soft skills
We can talk for hours about any of these pillars, what they mean, what they look like, and how to work on them. One of the messages from my webinar this morning is that working on any of aspect of these pillars will improve the world… first, your world, then the world around you.
I say peer recognition is emotional intelligence because you are practicing, of course, the fourth pillar. But, you have to have a certain amount of self-awareness (pillar 1) to understand that your kind words and recognition are meaningful. No matter your role or tenure, realizing that your recognition can impact others.
Taking the time to do it (pillars 2 and 3), and doing it well (pillar 5), are important.
But I love how you have to have empathy, and be aware of what others are doing, to appropriately recognize your peers. You might recognize the good results they bring, or maybe unseen results but you know they did something extraordinary for them (like, they did something outside of their comfort zone). Either of these are great reasons to recognize one of your colleagues!
You don’t have to wait for your teammate to do something unusual or extraordinary. Recognition for normal accomplishments helps people know their normal contributions are seen and valued.
The alternative is your peers and colleagues, maybe even your friends, don’t think what they do is important. They question their value. This is not good!
Peer Recognition Is Aligned with Words of Affirmation
One of the five love languages is “words of affirmation.” When you recognize a peer or colleague you are sharing words of affirmation with them. I think this is profoundly powerful even if the person doesn’t think words of affirmation is one of their love languages. I’ve found that people who have other love languages want, and even need, words of affirmation every once in a while.
Don’t think people who say they don’t care about this kind of recognition really mean it. Deep down everyone appreciates being seen, valued, and recognized. Actually, if you study the love languages you’ll learn that while some people favor certain love languages over others, they can all be important, impactful, and powerful.
Peer recognition can also be an appropriate way to actually implement love languages at work (whereas physical touch might be, well, you know, inappropriate at work!).
Snowfly Makes Peer Recognition Easy
If peer recognition is emotional intelligence, and improving emotional intelligence can help you create an amazing culture at work, what are you waiting for?
One of the core features of our software is the peer recognition suite. We allow you to write what your peer did and even award them points they can convert into prizes. That means your kindness and recognition can go beyond words and become something tangible! I guess that would be a win-win, don’t you think?
If you don’t have an employee recognition system in place, contact us. If you do have an employee recognition system in place but it’s not working, or has lost its luster, contact us.
We want to help you get real value and real results from an employee recognition system. It’s what we do!
