Do your employees feel recognized and seen at work?
I interviewed David Novak, the former CEO of Yum! Brands, for my book, The Future Leader. He shared a story that has stuck with me for years.
Earlier in his career, David started a new executive position at Pepsi and wanted to learn everything he could. He met with 12 of the company’s best merchandisers and asked who was the merchandiser everyone looked up to and turned to for help. Over and over again, people talked about how much they loved an employee named Bob. From the end of the table, Bob started to cry. He had been working at Pepsi for 47 years and never knew anyone felt that way about him. He had never been recognized for the work he put in.
That experience hit David like a ton of bricks, and he vowed to create a culture where employees were recognized and rewarded.
As president of KFC, David created a recognition award and gave employees a rubber chicken and $100 for a job well done. His wall was soon covered in pictures of excellent employees holding their recognition chickens. When he became president of Pizza Hut, his reward was a big cheese head. And at Yum! Brands, it was wind-up teeth.
In each case, he didn’t ask permission–he just started recognizing employees and showing appreciation. And that created a culture of recognition that spread to other areas of the company, with more leaders creating their own versions of the recognition system.
Something as simple as saying thank you can profoundly impact employees. You don’t need permission to recognize and acknowledge your employees, and it can make all the difference in their experience and your culture.
How many Bobs are working for your company, unaware of their impact? It’s easy to get started and recognize their work.
I put together a video which talks about this in more detail. Please check it out below and if you want more content like this you can subscribe to my Youtube channel.
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This episode is sponsored by Workplace from Meta.
Workplace is a business communication tool from Meta. Think Facebook, but for your company.
It’s part of Meta’s vision for the future of work. A future in which we’ll all feel more present, connected and productive.
Start your journey into the future of work at workplace.com/future.
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