I was reading a book recently on ‘effective customer care’ and while browsing through a chapter on ‘creating the environment for customer care to flourish’; I came across some leadership traits the author speaks of. The first on the list was ‘visibility and openness’.

It’s imperative to be a visible manager; showing up on the floor frequently to let people know of your presence – not that you have to catch them doing the wrong stuff but ensuring that you see and hear what is being said and done! It is a leadership trait.

There are many however, who use visibility as a tool, assuming it will fetch them recognition. A very short sighted approach, I would say! When it comes to recognition, performance is a higher value than visibility. The recognition your performance earns for you is far greater in impact and reach than any other strategy that people may suggest you.

What is the need but of recognition at work? Recognition is an important motivator for all of us and not just the manager or our boss. To some it is more important than the money. People require appreciation for their work, on a daily basis. Dr. Eric Berne, who gave the concept of transactional analysis, called it as positive stroke/s. He said that in the absence of strokes (appreciation / recognition) the spinal cord would shrivel up!

We can talk of strategies to make you more visible but visibility without performance wouldn’t boost the morale of any or impress many! Performance speaks for most of us; people who over perform and known by all not only within the organization but the whole industry.

Taking a stroll down the aisle in the office and interacting with employees from other teams is not the strategy to earn recognition. You may actually end up annoying few than winning any friends. The real key as discussed already is performance. You name any respected name from any Industry and you will find out there is more to their success and recognition than those occasional strolls down the aisle!

Of course there are people who work in the back end and not many of them earn success and recognition to the extent someone working or staying in continual public limelight would. But there is always an answer to every question. There are strategies to ensure that after doing good home work; you get your due share of acknowledgment. Our next article on strategies to earn recognition at workplace carries detailed discussion.