Honours and awards are constantly a hot topic in the workplace. It’s such a thrill to see people recognised, especially those we know and admire. But there can also be an eyebrow raised by others, which is often the product of surprise, disappointment and even the odd sour grape.
So why do honours & awards generate such extreme emotions, positive and negative? I’ve come up with a theory, which revolves around four essential ingredients to get an honour and/or award from thought bubble to reality:
1. The challenge
Every honours and awards process starts with a challenge. Sometimes this can be thrust upon you, like a new system that needs to be introduced or a short-notice humanitarian assistance mission. Other times an individual will identify the challenge themselves, like revamping procedures. While the nature of the task might differ, it is always a challenge that kicks off the process.
Picture the challenge as a mountain. It won’t be a small hill, otherwise everyone would be climbing it. And whatever the challenge is, it won’t be easy to complete. Which brings us to the next step…
2. The triumph
Once the challenge is identified, it’s over to an individual (or group) to see whether it can be overcome. Sometimes people will baulk at the size of the challenge, which generally results in the task being passed to others or not being completed. Others will give it a go and fall short for a variety of reasons (lack of support/resources, insufficiently skilled etc). But sometimes, people will tackle the challenge head on and triumph.
If the challenge is a mountain, these people will get to the top. But if someone scales a mountain and no one is there to see it, did it actually happen? This brings us to step 3…
3. The advocate
Just as a mountain-climber and their spectator, the same goes with amazing feats at work. The only difference is, it’s not enough for someone to just witness the triumph. They also need to dust off their keyboard and write about why it deserves to be recognised. But before they start putting the words together, the advocate needs to know there’s somewhere to send these words and that it won’t be for nothing. Which is where the fourth and final ingredient comes in…
4. The system
Almost like oxygen surrounding the mountain, honours and awards would not exist without a supporting system. The system gives the advocate confidence their nomination will be taken seriously. It supports advocates and helps make their submission as effective as possible. The system encourages advocates to nominate people for awards, and carries that nomination to the awarding authorities for approval. And finally, the system generates the accolades that come back to members which celebrate the triumph over their challenge.
Bringing it all together
The combination of these ingredients, or lack thereof, is usually where the different emotions come from in the workplace.
For example, if someone takes up the challenge and triumphs, but an advocate either doesn’t see it or isn’t motivated enough to write a nomination, this can lead to dissatisfaction and deflation. Disappointment occurs when workers and advocates have different views on the complexity of the challenge e.g. the worker might think it deserves an award, but the advocate sees it as no more than a positive comment in their performance report. Sour grapes emerge from those who perceive they had a similar triumph and weren’t rewarded. These negative emotions are usually caused by the absence of one of the four ingredients or the inadequate combination of others.
But on the flipside, how good is it when the ingredients align and someone gets rewarded who truly deserves recognition? People are motivated, energised and inspired when they see people from their community receive an award. They enjoy reading about their feats and what they’ve done to make their part of the world a better place. Aviators who are recognised double down on the great work they do and start looking for their next challenge. I see these positive emotions far more often than not when discussing honours & awards; which makes me believe that our system, while not perfect, is pretty darn good.
Making a great system better
So how do leaders and managers ensure we continue to generate the positive emotions from our honours and awards systems while minimising the negativity? Here’s a few thoughts:
1. Prepare to triumph
We never really know when the next challenge will arise, so do your best to prepare the aviators in your team for whatever lays ahead. Get them on relevant courses. Give them additional responsibilities when you can. Allow them to use initiative. And create an environment where they know they have your support no matter what, even if they attempt a challenge and come up short.
2. Be the advocate
If someone in your team takes on a challenge and triumphs, consider nominating them for an award. The system will provide you plenty of support, guidance and templates to help get through the process. Think about the positive message it will send not just your team, but your community and the wider Air Force.
3. Support the system
We need everyone’s commitment to make the honours and awards system as strong as it can possibly be. This can be done in many ways, from celebrating our aviators’ achievements to reminding everyone about the dates for the next Air Force honours board (which, incidentally, is what prompted me to write this post).
So the next time you’re at work, think about whether you’re doing everything you can to support this system. Every little act helps strengthen and promote an Air Force culture of valuing and rewarding our people.
