Employee Recognition: The Killer Quick-Win to Rocket-Fuel Competitive Advantage

“Clients do not come first, employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients” – Richard Branson.

Think praising employees (or even praising your partner or children) is the stuff of snowflakes or an indulged Gen Z insecurity?

Think again.

According to a Gallup survey:

💪 Creating a culture of recognition can save a 10,000 employee company up to $16.1 million in turnover costs annually

Yet:

⚡️ 81% of leaders say recognition is not a major strategic priority for their organization

⚡️ 73% of senior leaders say their organization does not offer managers or leaders of best practise training for employee recognition

⚡️ Nearly 2 in 3 leaders say their organization does not have budget allocated to recognition

In other words, words of recognition – ‘thank yous’ / ‘you did a great job’ / ‘you really add value here’ – aren’t just nice-to-haves, they’re corporate need-to-haves, driving happiness, productivity and the bottom line – exponentially.

I hear smart, successful career coaching clients, often on 6-figure salaries, wanting to shift organisations again and again because of a lack of praise and the hit this takes on their self-esteem and sense of motivation and belonging at work.

This isn’t surprising when you consider that recognition is a core human need rooted in the desire to feel significant, valued, and seen.

Neuroscience endorses this – recognition acts as a primary motivator and psychological driver, fulfilling esteem needs by providing validation, boosting dopamine levels, and reinforcing positive behaviours.

Without it, individuals often experience reduced motivation, increased frustration, and potential burnout.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs also rams home the reality that recognition, fitting within the “esteem” band of the hierarchy (reputation, respect) and “belonging” (social connection), must be met before self-actualization, the pinnacle of happiness and success, can be achieved.

Imagine a corporate culture where everyone was operating in that peak purple zone? 😊😊😊 = 💰💰💰

Still sceptical?

🏆 Engagement and Retention: Employees who feel recognized are five times more likely to feel connected to their company culture and four times more likely to be engaged.

🏆 Performance Booster: Recognition acts as an intrinsic motivator. Research shows that 78% of employees work harder when their efforts are rewarded, and 92% are more likely to repeat a specific action after receiving recognition.

🏆 Reducing Burnout: Consistent recognition significantly reduces burnout and turnover rates. A study cited in the results indicates that high-quality recognition reduces the likelihood of turnover by 45%.

It’s not rocket science..

“When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute” – Simon Sinek 🧍‍♂️➡️ 🎯

#workplace #wellbeing #success #profit #people #learninganddevelopment #talent #recruitment #managers #leaders #employeeexperience #mentalhealth #wellbeing #HR

This is Purpose: An Aristocrat’s Inspiring Quest to Change the World

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“A society is measured by the treatment of its prisoners”

 Winston Churchill

 

The article below exemplifies the impact economy + philanthropy at its very best – Lady Edwina Grosvenor, English aristocrat, criminologist + prominent prison reformer helping amongst the most vulnerable in society.

Despite a childhood of immense privilege, she is the founding investor + ambassador for The Clink Restaurant chain, which trains prisoners in catering. She is also the founder of the charity One Small Thing + Hope Street, a residential community designed to keep women + their children together, reducing the number of women in prison + addressing the root causes of trauma.

And while some prisoners may be written off as ‘evil’, the reality is:

– Incarcerated populations exhibit disproportionately high levels of childhood trauma, including abuse, neglect + household dysfunction (ACEs), which are heavily linked to adult criminality, mental health struggles + violence

– Studies show over 60% of young offenders report prior trauma, with high exposure to witnessing domestic violence (41%) or being in care (24%)

– 50% to 75% of inmates are functionally illiterate or have reading skills below 4th-grade level

The impact of the above is significant including:

Emotional Regulation: Trauma hinders the ability to manage emotions + cope with stress, leading to poor decision-making

Violent Tendencies: High scores in childhood trauma (physical/emotional abuse, neglect) are directly linked to increased, violent tendencies

Substance Abuse: Childhood abuse is strongly associated with substance abuse, which often leads to incarceration

Re-traumatization: Childhood trauma predicts higher rates of anxiety, depression + suicide attempts among prisoners, with standard prison environments often triggering past traumatic experiences, leading to hopelessness or anger

It’s easy to judge + polarise people as good or bad which is why her work is so important.

Like it or not, for many, criminal behavior acts as an often, sole, maladaptive response to internal chaos + past trauma.

As the outstanding Gabor Maté, Canadican physician, author + trauma expert says:

“If you study prison populations as I have, you see a common preponderance of childhood trauma and mental illness. The two go together. So a lot of the people are being punished for being mentally ill + they are mentally ill because they were traumatized as kids. So what we have in prisons are the most traumatized people in our society.”

Which is why, I suppose, in his superb documentary: “The Wisdom of Trauma”, he stresses the importance of asking prisoners:

“What happened to you?”

v

“What did you do?”

Why does this kind of attitude matter?

Because most decent people care about peace +, cheesy as it sounds, leaving the world a better place.

In the words of Barack Obama:

“Learning to stand in somebody else’s shoes, to see through their eyes, that’s how peace begins. And it’s up to you to make that happen. Empathy is a quality of character that can change the world.”

Read the article in The Independent: “It’s a complete scandal’: The aristocrat fighting to help prison children escape the stigma of crime” here

 

What My Brother’s Death Taught Me About Love

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“Now cracks a noble heart. Goodnight, sweet prince;

And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest”

William Shakespeare, Hamlet 🖌️

Today, I think back 20 plus years ago to when one of my exceptional older brothers took his last breath aged 23.

I’m reminded of a potent learning around love that struck me like a bolt amidst the tragedy – an inspiring revelation which countered the piercing thought I had on learning of Marrow’s terminal diagnosis aged 22 – the latter being, how can life go on without the epicentre of our family? The life and soul of us? The one that makes us crease up with laughter every night at dinner and lights up every room? How will life ever be the same again? “I don’t get it?”, teenage me thought, “If there was a battle, it’s him I’d send in”.

With hindsight, that’s probably why he was sent the worst kind of battle – because he was best placed to handle it and harness it to inspire and transform other lives. A bittersweet legacy of the best and worst kind.

I’ve never seen the power of love more than when Marrow received his terminal cancer diagnosis. The seeming ease with which my parents navigated that situation stopped me in my tracks. Outwardly unflinching but I’m sure inwardly in a world of unimaginable pain. It wasn’t something I’d have associated with tragedy, their contrasting strengths illuminated and fortified in full force at the very worst of times. How horribly beautiful.

My pragmatic dad at his calm, problem-solving, stable best and my mum at her strongest, loving and most uplifting. Equally, the strength of character, wisdom and emotional maturity they instilled in a young man given a death sentence on the springboard of life revealed itself with a quiet force none us could have anticipated – a tenacity, humour, wisdom and bravery that brought home the power that parenting can yield in truly shaping character. I remember thinking in a real moment of truth – the person you spend your life with is everything, strengthening your fortitude or struggle at the best and worst of times whether the happiness of your children, your own success, your ability to navigate adversity and beyond.

It must be why studies say the quality of your life depends on the quality of your relationships.

This is something Marrow recognised as key to his fighting spirit, noting the reciprocal power familial support gave him. Tellingly, he signed-off a letter to my twin and I days’ before his death with an Austin Powers quote to that effect: ‘Sorry I have to write, but it helps me get ‘the info’ out. Quite selfishly, you two help me’.

What beautiful circularity that the ways of his two little sisters could’ve been as mutually beneficial to him as his strength was to us.

If I was privileged to have a child who dealt with outrageous misfortune like that, I think I’d have tasted the highest form of success. And one of the greatest testaments to love there might be.

The Top 5 Regrets of The Dying + Why Death Shows Us How to Really Live

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“Cancer need not be the epilogue. In many ways, it’s the introduction to a richer life of wisdom”

Matthew Pritchard ☁️

 

To mark the 25th anniversary of my brother’s death at 23, and to make sure that you also make the most of life, check out the top five regrets of the dying observed by the best-selling author, Bronnie Ware. These bore true of her time in palliative nursing irrespective of people’s rank, profession or otherwise:

1. I wish I had had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

“This was the most common regret of all. When people realise that their life is almost over and look back clearly on it, it is easy to see how many dreams have gone unfulfilled. Most people had not honoured even a half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made. Health brings a freedom very few realise, until they no longer have it.”

2. I wish I had not worked so hard.

“This came from every male patient that I nursed. They missed their children’s youth and their partner’s companionship. Women also spoke of this regret, but as most were from an older generation, many of the female patients had not been breadwinners. All of the men I nursed deeply regretted spending so much of their lives on the treadmill of a work existence.”

3. I wish I had had the courage to express my feelings.

“Many people suppressed their feelings in order to keep peace with others. As a result, they settled for a mediocre existence and never became who they were truly capable of becoming. Many developed illnesses relating to the bitterness and resentment they carried as a result.”

4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

“Often they would not truly realise the full benefits of old friends until their dying weeks and it was not always possible to track them down. Many had become so caught up in their own lives that they had let golden friendships slip by over the years. There were many deep regrets about not giving friendships the time and effort that they deserved. Everyone misses their friends when they are dying.”

5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.

“This is a surprisingly common one. Many did not realise until the end that happiness is a choice. They had stayed stuck in old patterns and habits. The so-called ‘comfort’ of familiarity overflowed into their emotions, as well as their physical lives. Fear of change had them pretending to others, and to their selves, that they were content, when deep within, they longed to laugh properly and have silliness in their life again.”

If you think you’re too busy to consider the above, all the more reason to ⛵️

For as Steve Jobs, the man who ‘had it all’, warned:

“At this moment, lying on the sick bed + recalling my whole life, I realize that all the recognition + wealth that I took so much pride in, have paled + become meaningless”.

Confused about where to start with life or career change? Drop me a line: www.melanie-pritchard.com

Why Negative Emotions are Essential to Career Clarity + Change

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Confusion and clarity are much closer together than you might think! 👯‍♀️

Indeed, as Alan Cohen says: “Confusion is the last stop on the way to clarity” ⛱️

We often feel panicked when we feel confused, overwhelmed or apathetic about our careers (or lives!)

And while not wholly fun ways to feel, negative emotions are often helpful emotional signals, revealing unmet needs and things we crave more of, whether:

🍓 Feeling flat in our life or career and not knowing why

🍎 Feeling repeatedly stressed and being unsure if it’s due to your boss, the company or the role or field itself

🍈 Not knowing if you’re the problem or you really do need a change.

I say again, negative emotions are merely signals for unmet needs and once you get clear on what those are and where they’re not being met, the rest is easy.

As Marie Curie said: “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood” 🏹

To see how coaching can help you move from confusion to clarity fast, book a free discovery call here: www.melanie-pritchard.com / email melanie@melanie-pritchard.com 🍒

Don’t believe it works? I didn’t either before I tried it so don’t take my word for it, see what my clients say here: https://lnkd.in/eMR3TjD4

A Powerful 3 Step Communication Hack to Optimise Relationships

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“Good communication is the bridge between confusion and clarity”

Nat Turner 💡

 

I’ve never been one for sharing personal relationship stories on here – but this one is too good not to share.

I’m still friends with an ex-boyfriend below, probably cos he was a good friend to me and a very genuine guy.

And though our love story wasn’t meant to go beyond what it did, like all relationships, I learnt some valuable pearls o wisdom.

The main one being the value of calm communication. Note – the calm gentle tone was more vital than the words as per studies which show tone and body language account for 65% of communication’s impact, with words being only 35%.

Food for thought, hey?

That was definitely one of his superpowers – a bit like my dad, it was as if in that moment when others might have been angry or agressive (like when I snapped some skis he leant me 🫢), he did what Mr P advises:

“If someone is upset or doesn’t listen, repeat yourself slowly and calmly until they do”.

I’ve never, btw, heard my dad raise his voice once. Ever. No wonder I don’t do well with moody people 🫢

The What Why How handy communication tool below gives structure to the complex business o communication, boosting clarity, closeness and relationship success when you’re struggling to express something. It can also be applied at work 💼

Here’s how the 3 step formula goes:

🔦 What’s important to you

🔦 Why it’s important

🔦 How much of it you need (if relevant)

Continued below ⬇️

You can also ask it in questions if you’re getting to know someone professionally or personally:

For example:

🏈 What are two things that make you feel loved?

🏈 Why is that important to you?

🏈 How often need that?

How would you feel if someone asked you that?

How would it benefit you both?

Another example might be:

🍊 Being open about your worries is important to me

🍊Cos it builds my sense of trust n closeness

🍊 So I’d love it you could try to be open about stuff that’s worrying you when it’s weighing on your mind

What do you think?

What comes up for you if you apply it to pain-points in your life or work?

Simple tools like these can give a how to things that might otherwise block us and transform the complex into the simple.

In fact, often it’s not that we’re not good at communication – it’s a totally learnable skill – we just need the tools and willingness to be slightly vulnerable.

And what do we know about vulnerability?

It’s strength in disguise and it’ll always draw you closer to the right people and organisations 🏹

Try it n see 🪀

☘️ To upgrade your life or career, book a free discovery call: www.melanie-pritchard.com

7 Success Hacks to Expedite Entrepreneurial Success

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“The harder you work, the luckier you get” – Mike Pritchard 🏒

💎 Unhappy, unfulfilled or apathetic about your current career?

💎 Unsure if you have the energy or clarity to change direction?

💎 Certain you need to shift paths but don’t know where to start?

Here are 7 things I’ve learnt about starting a business and changing career that helped me get to where I am today:

🛼 Many people see starting a business in black and white terms – as either reckless financial uncertainty and lack of experience or wonderful freedom working your own hours and having complete control over your life. The truth is somewhere in between. Many people work ‘normal’ jobs while growing a business and if you aren’t willing to put the time into getting good at what you do or learn how to market effectively, you may find y’self managing the most wonderful chateau with no road signs for punters to find or an awful place that looks great from the outside only 😶‍🌫️

🛼 Growth mindset is the winning factor in success or failure. Yes, you should play to your strengths, interests and values to optimise success but embracing confusion, mistakes and fear as the essence of development and growth versus success or failure is key to resilience and success 🥇 There are no mistakes, only positive learnings. As Churchill says: ‘Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts’.

🛼 You can learn a lot about the field you want to set a business up in from working for others in the area you’re headed. I learnt a lot from working for a coaching leader in London and wouldn’t have learnt how to create structured coaching packages that optimise client success and stability otherwise. Don’t reinvent the wheel, research the market, build commercial awareness and then hone your own.

🛼 ‘You don’t have to get it perfect, you just have to get in going’ – Marie Forleo.
Let go of having the perfect website or product at the start. Minimum viable product is the baseline for businesses like mine – especially if you’re playing to natural strengths – and you can improve from there whether niching your service area, perfecting your copy or becoming skilled at your craft.

🛼 Action builds belief. If you wait to be ready you’ll never be ready. It’s tuning into your passions and taking small steps forward that boosts confidence, motivation and success. You’re bound to feel fear pushing outside your comfort zone but if you’re not feeling fear, you’re not growing. Embrace fear as a barometer for growth rather than a reason to stop ✋

🛼 It’s much easier to bridge gaps in skills and experience than you might think, especially when you’re clear on what you want to do and what your strengths and USPs are. High-results producing wins like volunteering, internships and taking short courses or investing in certifications can leapfrog you in new directions and rebrand your CV fast 💨

🛼 There’s no confusion in truth. Once you’re clear on who you are and what you need to be happy, there’ll be no stopping you. Yes, you need to consider important factors like money and earning potential but until you get clear on your framework for happiness, success and fulfilment, you’ll struggle to get the clarity and confidence to make big decisions like changing careers. I can assure you, having done career and life coaching for ten years, the answer is much nearer than you think 💭

To learn more about getting clear or optimising your career, book in a discovery call with me 🙂

If I could do it, you can too ❣️

The Simple Success Hack That May Surprise You

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“Attention energises, intention transforms”

Deepak Chopra 

 

Ever wondered why you’re unable to make change despite feeling frustration, boredom, anxiety or depression about your current life?

Here’s why 🤫

To make any big change in your life, you need to do more than recognise discomfort – you need to create the time, space and resources to get real clarity. From there, change becomes easy.

Ever wondered why people telling you what you should do rarely works? Because sometimes it comes more from a place of projection, protectiveness and bias than objectivity and real listening – truly sitting in the moment with you and really hearing what lies beneath is usually quite different, leaving you feeling heard, understood and pumped to uplevel your life.

This is exactly what I thought coaching wasn’t when I first started out. Honestly, I was hoping it was a quick fix involving talking to a wise owl who could help me cut corners and expedite change fast.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

When I heard it was being guided by the coach asking a series of questions to help me work out who I was and what I wanted, I thought it sounded like hot air.

Then we started practising coaching – and I ate my words fast 🤭

I quickly realised helping someone connect to who they truly are and what they truly want versus telling them what they should do, is where the magic happens.

I see this kind of magic happen daily with clients – whether midwives moving into project management, financiers moving into consulting, lawyers moving into coaching or graduates moving into advertising and beyond.

It’s not rocket science, but boy does it work.

As a wise friend on Mindline once said, really active listening is like developing a sixth sense.

So I say again – attention energises, intention transforms. Finding space to be truly heard and to deconstruct what’s really going on for you is an essential component to creating the intention required for change.

So if you’re feeling misaligned with your life or career, what’s stopping you?

And if you’re still feeling stuck, remember, nothing changes if nothing changes 💫

Why My Brother’s Death at 23 Taught Me That Courage is the Most High-Performance Habit of the Lot

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“Courage is the complement of fear. A man who is fearless cannot be courageous”

Robert A Heinlein

 

I have a confession.

 

While many of us have felt it, I sometimes struggle with people who doggedly refuse to move from victim mindset + are unwilling to do anything differently. Obviously, mental illness can keep us there, which is truly hard.

 

I recognise I may be a bit intolerant having seen my 22 year old brother choose courage at the worst of times – untimely death.

Nobody Googles ‘Glioblastoma’ + comes away feeling hopeful. Ironic the ‘my brother died of a brain tumour’ line is a conversation stopper because his defiance in the face of adversity made it hard for us to view him as anything but inspiring, radically altering the course of my life for the better.

 

Courage is a powerful thing – especially when the stats tell you you’re f*cked + hope, for all intents + purposes, is lost.

 

But that’s the magical thing about courage.

 

It’s truly metaphysical, uniting improbable points of likeness like strength in suffering, bravery in hopelessness + humour in adversity, in the most breathtaking ways.

 

It finds hope in the hopeless, inspiring life’s Greats to do their highest work on Earth – the most inspiring of whom usually have real reason to be victims – the Nelson Mandela’s of Apartheid, The Viktor Frankel’s of the Holocaust + the Martin Luther King’s.

 

A few days’ before my brother’s death, he wrote my sister + I a letter oozing a courage that blew my mind: ‘Obviously I’m a bit narked because I thought we could win, so now we have to reassess winning + how we define that’.

 

w o w

 

That’s the thing about courage – it takes your breath away – because it’s grit + defiance that flies in the face of fear –

+ you never really know it’s there until the sh*t hits the fan.

 

In truth, Matthew had always been a bit special, with an understated charm + charisma that lit up rooms – but none of us were prepared for how he made suffering his crowning glory.

 

Even in his darkest hour, he found the courage to reframe the hopelessness of tragedy: ‘Cancer need not be the epilogue, in many ways it can be the introduction to a richer life of wisdom’.

 

Towards the end of his letter to his little sisters, my twin + I, he wrote: ‘So we need to have a lot of fun (underlined) over the next few months or so’ (before signing off with an Austin Powers quote).

 

I’m privileged to see courage daily in my career + life coaching clients – who are, by definition, deeply courageous, seeking the magic hidden in stress. They inspire me daily.

 

So when life feels impossible, remember, courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s defiance over fear. As Maslow says: ‘One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again + again; fear must be overcome again + again’.

 

So when you wobble, remember, there is purpose in pain. As Freud said:

 

‘Pain has nothing to teach those who don’t find the courage + strength to listen to it’.

Career Success Story: Overwhelm to Clarity & Fulfilment

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“Attention energises, intention transforms” – Deepak Chopra 💫

I can’t take much credit for my clients’ transformations because as Deepak alludes to above, magic happens when you create space to explore how you really feel and what that reveals about your unmet needs. When you get clarity on that, you have what I call your Roadmap to Happiness ~ and from there, you’re away.

Ailsa was a talented Creative with snazzy brands all over her CV when we first met. However, under her slick image and sexy LinkedIn profile she wasn’t feeling happy or fulfilled and was worried that she was becoming depressed.

She feared she was beyond help in her confusion.

As is so often the case, the reverse was true.

She was a frustrated powerhouse of a human with an X-Factor personality to boot.

Within 2 sessions, she was fizzing off the wall like a human Haribo with the kind of clarity and passion that shoots rockets into space.

It was a joy to behold – and not a-typical to see this kind of energy surge after session 2 where we clarify a client’s values (the things we need to be connecting with to feel truly fulfilled).

Even if one leading value isn’t met eg work life balance / innovation, it can leave you feeling quite out of sorts.

Her success reflects her hard work and resilience.

She showed up.

She dug deep.

She was brave enough to acknowledge she was confused, frustrated and fast becoming the kind of girlfriend she didn’t want to be.

That space in between is a vulnerable place to sit. It’s uncertain, it’s the grey zone and it’s frosted with fear.

It takes courage to dig deep and take a step upwards towards truth versus downwards towards the ‘should’ led world of ego, illusion and outward box-ticking, where you may seem impressive but your soul is starving inside.

As ever, emotions are signals that light our path to happiness if we know how to interpret them.

I’m just a vessel to support that magical journey.

And boy is it a sight to behold intense growth, self-awareness and self-actualisation in such a short space of time.

So please trust me when I say, there’s clarity beneath confusion, there is power amidst vulnerability and there’s huge potential for deep fulfilment if you have the courage to get curious in the space in between.

In the stunning words of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor:

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom” ☁️

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Want to learn more?

Book in a free discovery call to learn more about Life / Career Coaching or Corporate Success Masterclasses 🥂 www.melanie-pritchard.com

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