At a holiday party guests were telling horror stories about recognition done badly. I hope you’ve never been on either side of recognition like these examples.

A lady with over twenty-five years of service with her organization was presented with her very expensive and well-made twenty-five year award with much less than fanfare and recognition. Her boss delivered it to her office one day, still in the cardboard box. He sat it on a chair in her office and basically said, here’s your service award, followed by a question about a project the lady was working on.

Here’s another fine example of a recognition faux pas. A sales guy had won two awards in one quarter. One for salesperson of the month and another for salesperson of the quarter. At a sales meeting it was announced that he would receive gift certificates as  rewards for these accomplishments. Months later he mentioned to his boss that he never received the gift certificates. The boss suggested that he buy the gift certificates for himself and expense them.

Organizations can spend significant time and money developing recognition and reward programs, but they are only as effective as the managers and supervisors who implement them.