{"id":15911,"date":"2016-09-12T12:08:21","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T17:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/?p=15911"},"modified":"2016-09-14T15:10:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T20:10:55","slug":"appreciation-communicated-employee-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based?"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most frequent questions I am asked when I’m conducting training for a business is: Should you show appreciation to someone who isn’t performing well?<\/p>\n

Tension exists in the world of recognition, employee engagement, and appreciation.<\/a> There are differences of opinion on the relationship between an employee’s performance and recognizing them. Should you recognize an employee if they aren’t doing well in all areas of performance? Is appreciation independent of performance?<\/p>\n

To address the issue, I think we need to keep two foundational principles in mind:<\/p>\n

The purpose of work is to provide goods or services to customers in a profitable manner.<\/strong><\/p>\n

People are more than “production units”, even at work.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both sides of the argument have valid points. Wise supervisors don’t communicate recognition without considering employee performance. For example, why would you reward an employee who doesn’t show up to work regularly or on time? There are some “bottom line” behaviors that need to be in place — showing up is one of them.<\/p>\n

Conversely, if employees are only recognized when they produce results “above and beyond” the norm, they begin to feel that they are only valued as a super achiever.<\/p>\n

\"57783880<\/a>When referring to newer team members, a helpful mental image is that of a youth sports coach. When a child is learning a sport, good coaches don’t berate or punish them if they cannot perform some of the higher-level skills. Rather, coaches encourage and support “good effort” on behaviors that approximate what they are looking for. They try to shape the athlete’s performance closer and closer to the desired goal. If the focus is solely on what a new team member isn’t doing well, the player can get discouraged and give up.<\/p>\n

I think the same is true with employees who are growing into their position (or even learning what “work” is really about). Supervisors should focus on and encourage those actions that are moving in the right direction. Then when appropriate, give gentle corrective instruction on critical skills that are still lagging.<\/p>\n

Finally, appreciation can be communicated for characteristics that aren’t necessarily related to productivity. I personally enjoy working with cheerful people more than grumps, or warm, friendly colleagues in contrast to cool and indifferent ones. So I can express appreciation to a colleague<\/a> for those qualities even if they are not the highest producer on the team.<\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n

Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most frequent questions I am asked when I’m conducting training for a business is: Should you show appreciation to someone who isn’t performing well? Tension exists in the world of recognition, employee engagement, and appreciation. There are differences of opinion on the relationship between an employee’s performance and recognizing them. Should you… Continue reading…<\/a>","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[198,150,501,2,20,511,232],"tags":[166,791,1121,1831,235],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nShould Appreciation Be Performance-Based? - Appreciation at Work<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based? - Appreciation at Work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the most frequent questions I am asked when I’m conducting training for a business is: Should you show appreciation to someone who isn’t performing well? Tension exists in the world of recognition, employee engagement, and appreciation. There are differences of opinion on the relationship between an employee’s performance and recognizing them. Should you... Continue reading...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Appreciation at Work\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-09-12T17:08:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-14T20:10:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/appreciationatwork-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/09\/57783880_l-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@drpaulwhite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@drpaulwhite\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Paul White\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Paul White\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/695df42d67dbe288b5b2db6cd2ff58ac\"},\"headline\":\"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based?\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-12T17:08:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-14T20:10:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\"},\"wordCount\":410,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"appreciation\",\"employee recognition\",\"performance-based recognition\",\"poor performers\",\"recognition\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Authenticity\",\"Business\/Leadership\",\"Employee engagement\",\"Featured Post\",\"Leadership\",\"Managers\",\"Recognition\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\",\"name\":\"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based? - Appreciation at Work\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-09-12T17:08:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-14T20:10:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/\",\"name\":\"Appreciation at Work\",\"description\":\"Making Work Relationships Work with Authentic Appreciation\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Appreciation at Work\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/AAW-Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/AAW-Logo.jpg\",\"width\":1075,\"height\":281,\"caption\":\"Appreciation at Work\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drpaulwhite\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5-languages-of-appreciation-in-the-workplace\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/drpaulwhite\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AppreciationAtWork\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/695df42d67dbe288b5b2db6cd2ff58ac\",\"name\":\"Paul White\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/avatar_user_8_1663256855-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/avatar_user_8_1663256855-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Paul White\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Paul White is a psychologist whose focus is \\\"making work relationships work\\\". Co-author of the best-selling, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace has sold 500,000+ copies. His company, Appreciation at Work, teaches employees and leaders how to communicate authentic appreciation, which improves employee engagement and organizational functioning. They have an online assessment, the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory (taken by 275,000+) which identifies the specific ways individuals prefer to be shown appreciation.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/appreciationatwork\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/paul-white-ph-d-3178276\/detail\/recent-activity\/shares\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/drpaulwhite\/_created\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/drpaulwhite\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based? - Appreciation at Work","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based? - Appreciation at Work","og_description":"One of the most frequent questions I am asked when I’m conducting training for a business is: Should you show appreciation to someone who isn’t performing well? Tension exists in the world of recognition, employee engagement, and appreciation. There are differences of opinion on the relationship between an employee’s performance and recognizing them. Should you... Continue reading...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/","og_site_name":"Appreciation at Work","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork","article_published_time":"2016-09-12T17:08:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-14T20:10:55+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/appreciationatwork-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/2016\/09\/57783880_l-300x200.jpg"}],"author":"Paul White","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@drpaulwhite","twitter_site":"@drpaulwhite","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Paul White","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/"},"author":{"name":"Paul White","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/695df42d67dbe288b5b2db6cd2ff58ac"},"headline":"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based?","datePublished":"2016-09-12T17:08:21+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-14T20:10:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/"},"wordCount":410,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["appreciation","employee recognition","performance-based recognition","poor performers","recognition"],"articleSection":["Authenticity","Business\/Leadership","Employee engagement","Featured Post","Leadership","Managers","Recognition"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/","url":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/","name":"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based? - Appreciation at Work","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-09-12T17:08:21+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-14T20:10:55+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/blog\/appreciation-communicated-employee-well\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should Appreciation Be Performance-Based?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/","name":"Appreciation at Work","description":"Making Work Relationships Work with Authentic Appreciation","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#organization","name":"Appreciation at Work","url":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/AAW-Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/AAW-Logo.jpg","width":1075,"height":281,"caption":"Appreciation at Work"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork","https:\/\/twitter.com\/drpaulwhite","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5-languages-of-appreciation-in-the-workplace","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/drpaulwhite\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/AppreciationAtWork"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/695df42d67dbe288b5b2db6cd2ff58ac","name":"Paul White","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/avatar_user_8_1663256855-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/avatar_user_8_1663256855-96x96.jpg","caption":"Paul White"},"description":"Dr. Paul White is a psychologist whose focus is \"making work relationships work\". Co-author of the best-selling, The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace has sold 500,000+ copies. His company, Appreciation at Work, teaches employees and leaders how to communicate authentic appreciation, which improves employee engagement and organizational functioning. They have an online assessment, the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory (taken by 275,000+) which identifies the specific ways individuals prefer to be shown appreciation.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/appreciationatwork","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/appreciationatwork\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/paul-white-ph-d-3178276\/detail\/recent-activity\/shares\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/drpaulwhite\/_created\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/drpaulwhite"]}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4rPvw-48D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15911"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15991,"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15911\/revisions\/15991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.appreciationatwork.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}