Working with graphic designers, I often get printouts of their artwork with placeholder text where my copy will go. Typically, this text says “clever headline goes here” or “some kind of interesting copy goes here.” We’ve all heard of writer’s block and that typing that first word can be the hardest obstacle to overcome. But it’s nothing compared to the pressure to come up with words that are also clever or interesting. I see those prompts and I literally break out in a sweat. What if I am simply not witty today? What then?

Anxiety aside, I have to admit it’s really good for me. I inherently know that I am expected to write clever and interesting copy, but I wonder if, in the absence of those prompts, I might not. If the placeholder just said “headline goes here” would I simply write a headline and not be motivated to do more than that?

The truth is, we all have (and need) prompts that motivate us to excel. Recognition and appreciation can be powerful ones. Looking around at the cards, trophies, certificates, and personalized gifts that decorate my and my coworkers’ desks, it’s obvious that these items serve a purpose. They inspire us; they make us smile; they say, “Hey, you were fabulous at least once, so there’s a really good chance you can do it again!”


One of our customer service superstars let us photograph her display. Wow, that Cool Beans plant is really taking off!

As a manager, when you say thank you or give employees recognition for a job well done, you’re reinforcing the positive behavior that you want to see repeated. Being recognized feels good, so your recipients will try harder to do the things that get rewarded. When that recognition is tangible, it also serves as a constant reminder to push a little harder.

It’s as simple as that!

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You don’t have to analyze a study on motivational theory to understand some basic principles.  Namely, people respond positively when they are acknowledged and appreciated for their efforts.  This is not limited to the workplace, but in every aspect of the human condition—from raising children to greeting strangers.

So if everyone “knows” the importance of frequent, meaningful expressions of gratitude and praise, why don’t we practice it all the time?

Herein lies the mysterious chasm between a person’s knowledge and their actual behavior.

Take this example: who amongst us doesn’t know the importance of regular exercise and physical activity, eating healthy foods of the correct portion size, and avoiding harmful substances like tobacco?

Now—how many of us actual achieve the full execution of this knowledge, or even a significant percentage?  There would be no rising healthcare costs, and everyone would look like athletes!

What causes some of us to succeed while others fail?  Typically, the secret ingredient is having a coach or mentor.  Every athlete, from grade school to professional sports player, has a coach.  This person provides encouragement and guidance.

Keep this analogy in mind as you work to increase day-to-day recognition behaviors, either personally or in your organization.  Since none of us can realistically have a recognition coach by our side, think of Baudville as the next best thing!

Have you seen our new Recognition Binder System?  It literally is a coach that sits on your desk.  The tabbed dividers are filled with easy to follow (and easy to implement!) tools and ideas for frequent, consistent, immediate, and relevant daily recognition in your workplace.

Allison mentions one of the tools (the IOU Coupons) in her blog post below.

Just like any developing “athlete,” continued practice makes perfect.  Unlike diet and exercise, however, maintaining day-to-day recognition really can be easy!

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On the surface, Kurt is Baudville’s mild-mannered Director of Sales, but when it comes to recognition, he quickly turns into the dashing Director of Positive Mojo. Using his powers as a Certified Recognition Professional, Kurt infuses his team with recognition knowledge and experience, while encouraging them to practice daily recognition with his energetic and creative flair. We’re pretty sure there’s a cape hanging from the back of his door. 

I recently read Randy Pausch’s book, The Last Lecture. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Randy Pausch, it’s no big surprise. Up until fall 2007, Randy was simply a college professor with a young family. It was his actions after he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer that made him known to the world. Even two years later, his name is still, unfortunately, relatively unknown to many.

As his farewell at Carnegie Mellon, Randy delivered a last lecture which was video taped and later posted on You Tube. His lecture, appropriately titled “Really Achieving your Childhood Dreams,” has been viewed over 10 million times on YouTube and was later made into a book.

Randy delivered the lecture not only to inspire colleagues and students, but as a way to leave life lessons that he wouldn’t be able to personally deliver to his three young children.

Although I set out to read The Last Lecture for personal enjoyment, I soon discovered meaningful recognition lessons weaved throughout Randy’s tales. As a college professor, Randy discovered recognition and incentives to be a powerful way to “force” cooperation from peers.

In one chapter of his book, he writes about sending a box of thin mint cookies along with research papers to be reviewed to colleagues. He would include a note that the cookies were the reward for completing the task, and he sent friendly reminders, “have you had your cookies yet?” to check on their progress.

Randy also talked about the value of the thank you note. Even as a technology guru, Randy encouraged us to continue writing hand written thank you notes.

What Randy said during his lecture and in his book is neither a secret nor a complicated research discovery. What he conveys is simple: recognition matters; it makes people feel better about themselves, and you’ll feel better for giving it.

 Ultimately, Randy found recognition to be a piece of achieving your childhood dreams. So what are you waiting for?

Randy delivering his last lecture, September 2007.

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Cori is a Certified Recognition Professional at Baudville and a member of the Millennial generation. In addition to writing for the Baudville blog, she’s taking on the task of flooding the Twitter world with positive mojo. Find out more - and join her cause! - at www.Twitter.com/Baudville and by using the hash tag #positivemojo.

There is nothing like a Michigan summer to remind you of what a great state this is. The long summer days have a way of making up for all those long, cold, and snowy winter days. Unfortunately, even with our beautiful weather, this summer has had a symbolic cloud hovering daily over many of my friends and professional associates. As I am sure all of you are aware, Michigan has been one of the states most impacted by the economic crisis, and I personally know too many highly skilled people who are looking for work.
 
Having once been in similar circumstances, I’ve now made it a personal goal to connect regularly with the people I know who are back in the job market. What I’ve found to be so interesting in talking with them is that they seem to have settled into a new perspective on job hunting. While yes, there is imminent fear about financial “peace of mind”, many of them are so disillusioned by Corporate America and how disposable they were, that they appear to be more on a soul search than a job search.
 
When I ask them what they are looking for, they unanimously reply that they want to be valued and have their work matter. They don’t care what their title is, they just want to be paid fairly and be able to impact the success of the organization.
 
My question is: when the tides turn, and the job gates open, what kind of influence will this new group of hires have on the organizations where they land?

With new-found grace and appreciation for their work and the people around them, my bet is it will be profound. People with this type of perspective will end up leading an organization, managing teams, or simply contributing to a team—and bringing with them the groundwork for a “new and improved” point of view for corporations; one that puts a higher value on individual contributions, where managers and employees will recognize and be recognized for the little things.
 
I, for one, can’t wait to see how all my great friends and associates introduce the act of recognition and appreciation to their future employers! 

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Kristy is the Vice President of Product and Merchandising at Baudville. Since joining Baudville a little over a year ago, she has been integral in the development of the functional, innovative, and great looking products you see today. As the fearless leader of a multifaceted team of creative minds, Kristy always stays armed with her secret weapon of motivation: candy!

When I applied for this job at Baudville, it would have been an understatement to say that I REALLY wanted it. It wasn’t just that my current job was sucking the life out of me; it was more that I felt like this was THE job. If it wasn’t this, I honestly couldn’t imagine what it could possibly be. But as badly as I wanted the job, there was actually a “deal killer” for me—they couldn’t have a strict dress code.

The aversion goes years back to when I worked in a corporate job where the dress code was extremely conservative. I thoroughly hated that we were required to always wear hosiery and closed-toed, closed-heeled shoes. In Michigan winters, this isn’t really a problem; but in the middle of August it is. And, for someone with a disturbing number of shoes, the footwear limitations were unbearable. When I got out of there, I vowed I’d never do it again.



Well, I’m happy to report that Baudville maintains a corporate casual dress code, with jeans allowed every other Friday. That’s casual enough for me! And, if you interpret the dress code rules the way I do, then just about anything goes when it comes to shoes (except where safety is concerned, of course). This is good news for adequate rotation of my collection!

I’ve shared this fascinating story with you to make a point about how little things like dress code can make a big difference in employee morale. Studies show that most employees prefer a casual dress code over a formal one. It allows more freedom—including freedom of expression—and helps even the playing field for those who simply can’t afford formal business attire. I’ve also read that in addition to improving morale, it can give employers a competitive edge in attracting (and maintaining) talent.  

There has been buzz around the ‘ville that we may go totally casual, but I have a theory that we never will for one big reason: casual days are used as rewards. When teams finish a big project or reach a goal, they get awarded a casual day. People look forward to the possibility, and with the absence of that option, the company would lose a 100% free (not to mention fat free) way to reward us. To some, it may seem like a minor perk, but I can truly feel a different vibe on impromptu casual days and casual Fridays. Baudville has seen enough of this positive mojo to know that it works, too.

If you’re not already wearing jeans every day, then think about using casual days to reward for your staff or raise morale around the office. These coupons are a fun way to do it:



Need other ways to affordably recognize your team for everyday wins? Try our Recognition Binder System!

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Allison is Baudville’s one (and only) Copywriter. She’s been writing for a variety of media for more than eight years, so if she tells you she has been there and done that, she probably has. Before embarking on a career in writing, Allison worked as a department manager where she used Baudville products to motivate her team. She’s what we call a true believer!  

I have the key to a supply room in my office that is attached to a Baudville lanyard - Imagine Believe & Achieve.  Each time I see it in the drawer or pull it out to use it – it makes me stop and think about the power in these three words.   As I was mulling over possible content for this blog, I saw the lanyard.  As Cori knows, writing is not one of my strengths but, she always has some encouraging words that inspire me to push through the challenge.  I also know that I can count on her to correct my errors – did I forget to mention how great Teamwork is?  It is amazing what a little belief can do for me – both belief in myself and the belief that others have in me.

I recently prepared material for a recognition training class for Baudville’s management team.  Along the way, it was an amazing reminder of how much leadership and recognition are intertwined.  Simply put – Great leaders recognize.   Leaders have a tremendous amount of influence on their followers – probably more than they know.  They have the great honor and responsibility to mentor, guide, encourage and nurture their followers to levels of success and excellence that may be difficult to imagine. 

I found studies that show that if we predict and believe that something will occur (good or bad), a person’s behavior frequently changes to make that prediction more likely to happen.  Test it out for yourself, believe, recognize and speak positively into someone’s life on a consistent basis and watch the results.  The best outcome of all is how you feel when you see the positive impact that you can make on that individual and their success.  It’s truly a Win-Win.  It’s fun to watch our employees put on their Recognition Glasses, search for the positive in others and post notes from Baudville's exclusive peer to peer daily recognition.  We’ve definitely got some Positive Mojo going on here at Baudville.  Join in the fun. 

In closing, I must say, “Believe in yourself!”  It all starts with imagination and a vision for the future.  Let’s hold on firmly to the picture of achievement in our mind and watch it become a reality.   Imagine, Believe & Achieve - this is one of my favorite themes – it truly inspires me every time I see it.  Although I absolutely love our new products that are cool, hip and contemporary, this theme will remain on my top 10 list for years to come. 

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Cindy is the Human Resources Manager at Baudville and has over 14 years HR experience. In addition to her HR Generalist duties, she’s the center of positive mojo for the company and heads up many of our recognition initiatives, events and awards. In other words, she’s got it going on!

We’re an employee recognition company (obviously), so we hold ourselves to pretty high standards when it comes to recognizing our own. Last Thursday, we celebrated a very special Baudvillian in a very special way.

Joe has been a designer at Baudville for 20 years! That’s a big milestone at any company, but especially at Baudville, which has only been around 26 years. Joe has seen the company grow from 12 employees to more than 70. When he began at Baudville, he moved in an entire art department of tools, paper and drawing. After all, those were the days before computers were an office norm (now you know how long 20 years really is!).

Joe has not only helped shape Baudville products, he has become a critical component of the culture, too. Over his 20 years (I was only 5 when he started, by the way), Joe has played an influential role in the recognition culture at Baudville, often putting on a mascot suit and dancing for the enjoyment of his peers.

The accomplishments and successes Joe has had over the years are too numerous to neither count nor name. We celebrated all of them at an employee meeting last week that featured surprise gifts and a commemorative video (check it out here or on Facebook). The great thing about the public celebration and the video was that the entire company felt motivated and engaged in our mission – recognizing one another.

What are you doing to make service awards meaningful to your team? Are you personalizing each award so that it actually has an impact on the recipient? Are you presenting awards (however big or small) in public, in front of a team, to get additional miles out of your motivation? If you’re not, you should. Service anniversaries are opportunities to recognize and motivate more than just the celebrated individual. They can impact an entire team.

TO PLAY THE VIDEO CLICK ON THE ARROW.

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Cori is a Certified Recognition Professional at Baudville and a member of the Millennial generation. In addition to writing for the Baudville blog, she’s taking on the task of flooding the Twitter world with positive mojo. Find out more - and join her cause! - at www.Twitter.com/Baudville and by using the hash tag #positivemojo.

At the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Annual Conference in New Orleans, we met lots of new friends. One of them was Michael Long, aka the Red Recruiter. Michael was so smitten by our positive mojo and sassy shirts, that he recently wrote a blog post about us. Read it on his blog, www.redrecruiting.com.

Michael is currently involved in the Red Shoe Project that is raising awareness for the San Francisco-based organization, My New Red Shoes. The organization provides underprivileged children with clothing for their first day of school. Michael found it to be a worthy cause, and so did we.

As part of the project, individuals are contributing pictures of red shoes to the project’s Facebook group. Naturally, we couldn’t resist adding a little Baudville flair to the mix. We don’t put our feet up very often  at Baudville, but we’ll do nearly anything for a good cause.

I’ve written before about how past companies that I’ve worked for didn’t practice employee recognition. At my previous employer, the culture was such that it was hard to imagine them ever doing it. Former coworkers that I talked with about this new job actually thought it was a bit strange. Their attitude seemed to be that it was a nice idea, but not for us. Not for you, really? You’re so confident and content that you don’t need a pat on the back once in awhile? I didn’t buy it then, and I’m not buying it now.

What’s funny is that they were so quick to write off recognition. Maybe they were harkening back to the late 1990’s, when corporate corridors were lined with motivational posters that implored you to soar to new heights, but gave nothing in return. (Remember those?) Partnered with stilted award ceremonies, they garnered more cynicism than inspiration. But recognition doesn’t have to be exaggerated or contrived; in fact, it has the potential to be really effective if it’s not.

If you want to build a recognition program, remember that there is no prescription for how it is carried out—you are at liberty to write the rules and you can make it anything you want.

Think about your company culture. It’s often upper management that forms that culture and the people who stay there long term become an influential part of it as well. It’s up to those players to create a program that they’re comfortable with that’s in tune with the company’s vibe. Don’t like flowery cards? Don’t use them. Can’t imagine ever giving a trophy? Then trophies aren’t part of your program. The core of a recognition program is recognition itself—and that can take many different forms.

We took this to heart when we started developing our latest products. As a result, there is *literally* something for everyone. Within each product category there is a range from traditional to contemporary, simple to elaborate, cheeky to sincere. We’ve also taken the conventional recognition items like trophies and certificates and turned them on their heads (so to speak). So, if you’re thinking recognition has to be serious and formal, you might want to take a second look:

Daily Recognition Paper Trophies            Everyday Certificate Pads          Peel-and-Stick Recognition Notes

Recognition, whatever its form, is vital to maintaining a happy, satisfied, and productive workforce. Find something that works for your organization and go out there and do it!

If you’ve known Baudville for a while – ok, maybe a LONG while – then you remember a program we used to offer customers called ePraise. ePraise was a pioneer ecard program of interoffice ecards designed to recognize, thank and congratulate co-workers.

Baudville is pleased to announce the return of ePraise FREE on Baudville.com!!!!!!! We hope the service will encourage more companies, managers and employees to do recognition daily.  For the official announcement, you can read the press release in our News Room.

We hope you’ll enjoy using our exclusive ecards in addition to your in-house recognition program. While we like the convenience of sending an ecard to a co-worker, we know that you get more miles out of you’re your recognition if you deliver a tangible handwritten note that the recipient can display.

If you were to visit Baudville (and we hope you do!), you’d see employee desks plastered with certificates, thank you cards standing in a row, and appreciation awards in proudly posted displays. We see the value of daily recognition every day in the office of positive mojo. Interested in bringing some to work with you? No problem.

Start with ePraise and let others catch the recognition bug, then slowly expand your program to a Kit and Caboodle, or some note cards in your favorite theme. Watch the culture and attitudes around you grow a little more positive with each kudos you deliver.  Before you know it, your office will be known for its positive mojo, too!!

Enjoy ePraise and keep doing it daily! Here's a couple examples of the new ecards and fresh designs available on ePraise.