Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback

I use Split Sessions for recog­ni­tion, rewards, and feedback.

Positive rein­force­ment is crit­ic­al in fos­ter­ing an open and trans­par­ent intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions culture.

This blog post high­lights the import­ance of sep­ar­at­ing recog­ni­tion from rewards from feed­back in com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship, provid­ing a frame­work with rules for effect­ive implementation.

Here we go:

The Split Sessions Framework

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The Split Sessions Framework: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback

Recognition (praise), rewards, and feed­back are power­ful rein­force­ment tools for com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers. They are also fun­da­ment­al for improv­ing intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tion and fos­ter­ing a cor­por­ate cul­ture of open­ness and dialogue.

The chal­lenge for any lead­er is a) to keep such ses­sions sep­ar­ate and b) to main­tain con­stant levels over time.

Recognition (Praise)

Recognition = acknow­ledging (prais­ing) the con­tri­bu­tions of a team member.

• Team mem­bers should be recog­nised for doing their job as per their job description.
• Team mem­bers shouldn’t be “pat­ted on the head for doing their job”; a simple ‘Good job!’ will be suf­fi­cient in almost all circumstances.
• Team mem­bers will almost always per­form bet­ter when receiv­ing praise (pos­it­ive rein­force­ment) reg­u­larly; all man­agers must be engaged in this activ­ity. As a rule of thumb, all employ­ees should hear a ‘Good job!’ at least once daily.
• When giv­ing praise, nev­er hand out rewards or provide feed­back simultaneously.

Rewards

Reward = incentiv­ising a team mem­ber to pro­duce res­ults that exceed expectations.

• Team mem­bers should be rewar­ded for pro­du­cing res­ults above what is expected.
• Be mind­ful when hand­ing out rewards; hand­ing out rewards for doing jobs that team mem­bers are already paid to carry out can cre­ate a cul­ture of con­fu­sion or worse — entitlement.
• Rewards must be just, rel­ev­ant, and sys­tem­at­ised; hand­ing out dif­fer­ent types of rewards arbit­rar­ily will likely cre­ate con­flict and encour­age destruct­ive intern­al behaviours.
• When hand­ing out rewards, nev­er give praise or provide feed­back simultaneously

Feedback

Feedback = let­ting a team mem­ber know if the work has the inten­ded effect.

• Team mem­bers should ideally get feed­back with­in the revi­sion win­dow; i.e. they must be giv­en a chance to error-cor­rect imme­di­ately for the feed­back to have the inten­ded effect.
• If you miss the revi­sion win­dow, feed­back should be giv­en in the format of dis­cuss­ing and revis­ing goals and processes.
• Feedback is feed­back, no mat­ter if it’s “pos­it­ive” or “neg­at­ive”. Provide both in a bal­anced, con­struct­ive, and unemo­tion­al manner.
• When provid­ing feed­back, nev­er give praise or hand out rewards simultaneously.

The Split Sessions Framework under­scores the import­ance of sep­ar­at­ing praise, rewards, and feed­back in com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship.

Learn more: Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback

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Communicative Leadership is Critical

In lead­er­ship, the way mes­sages are con­veyed is just as import­ant as the mes­sages themselves. 

“Leaders’ com­mu­nic­a­tion styles, par­tic­u­larly pre­cise­ness, are cru­cial for effect­ive know­ledge shar­ing, per­ceived lead­er per­form­ance, and sub­or­din­ate sat­is­fac­tion.”
Source: Journal of Business and Psychology ¹Vries, R., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2009). Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders’ Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership … Continue read­ing

Effective com­mu­nic­a­tion is a corner­stone of suc­cess in lead­er­ship and man­age­ment, par­tic­u­larly in how lead­ers deliv­er praise, rewards, and feedback. 

A well-thought-through approach enhances com­mu­nic­a­tion clar­ity and builds trust and respect with­in the team. As a lead­er, your choice and deliv­ery of words are instru­ment­al in shap­ing your team’s cul­ture and per­form­ance. Leaders can foster a more pos­it­ive and pro­duct­ive work envir­on­ment through clar­ity and consistency. 

“Formative feed­back should be non-eval­u­at­ive, sup­port­ive, timely, and spe­cif­ic to improve learn­ing and should be tailored to indi­vidu­al learner char­ac­ter­ist­ics and task aspects.”
Source: Review of Educational Research ²Shute, V. (2008). Focus on Formative Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78, 153 – 189. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​3​1​0​2​/​0​0​3​4​6​5​4​3​0​7​3​1​3​795

Avoiding Cultural Uncertainty

Research sup­ports the idea that lead­ers should give feed­back and provide praise on sep­ar­ate occa­sions. According to research by O.C. Tanner, high­lighted in a SmartBrief art­icle, 42% of employ­ees who received recog­ni­tion from their lead­ers also received a mes­sage of “here’s how you can do bet­ter” in the same com­mu­nic­a­tion. ³Miller, J. V. (2018, October 9). Here’s why you need to sep­ar­ate praise from feed­back. SmartBrief. https://​corp​.smart​brief​.com/​o​r​i​g​i​n​a​l​/​2​0​1​8​/​1​0​/​h​e​r​e​s​-​w​h​y​-​y​o​u​-​n​e​e​d​-​s​e​p​a​r​a​t​e​-​p​r​a​i​s​e​-​f​e​e​d​b​ack

Combining recog­ni­tion, rewards, and feed­back tends to send mixed mes­sages, leav­ing employ­ees uncer­tain about cul­tur­al con­duct. This sug­gests that sep­ar­at­ing recog­ni­tion from rewards and feed­back is cru­cial in ensur­ing both are received as inten­ded, without under­min­ing the effect­ive­ness of either.

When praise, rewards, and feed­back are inter­twined, it dilutes the impact of both. Employees may begin to ques­tion the sin­cer­ity of the praise or feel that every com­pli­ment has a catch.

PR Resource: Communicative Leadership

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Doctor Spin’s PR School: Free Leadership PR Course

Take advant­age of this Free Leadership PR Course to sharpen your pub­lic rela­tions skills and become a con­fid­ent and influ­en­tial lead­er in any industry.

• Communicative Leadership in Organisations
• The Checklist for Communicative Leadership
• Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback
• The Sword of Certainty: Information is Power
• Principles of Communicative Discipline
• Speak First: The True Leadership Hack (to be published)
• The Ritual of Giving Orders (to be published)
• Symbolic Pacing in Communicative Leadership (to be published)
• Serve Decisions, Not Solutions (to be published)
• The Servant Attitude for Communicative Leaders (to be published)
• Troublemakers as Cautionary Totems (to be published)
• The Inverted Curve of Leniency (to be pub­lished)
• The Fireside Solace: Over-Sharing for Leaders (to be published)
• Leadership Rhetoric: Micro Speeches & Poethic Schticks (to be published)

Bonus Content

• 11 Evil Leadership Techniques

Learn more: All Free PR Courses

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PR Resource: Checklist for Communicative Leadership

“The single biggest prob­lem in com­mu­nic­a­tion is the illu­sion that it has taken place.”
— George Bernard Shaw

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The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

How can you ensure your lead­er­ship is express­ive and pre­cise in prac­tic­al situations? 

As a rule of thumb:

• It’s gen­er­ally bet­ter to “over-com­mu­nic­ate” (tol­er­able added effort) than “under-com­mu­nic­ate” (sub­stan­tial added risk).

Make sure to pass these com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship checks:

• This is what we are doing.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is why we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is who will be doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is how we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is when we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is where we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?
• This is for whom we are doing it.
  Is the explan­a­tion clear? Do you have ques­tions? Can you repeat the inform­a­tion back to me?

Being a great lead­er can be a daunt­ing task. However, with effort (and atten­tion to detail), all lead­ers can prac­tice express­ive and pre­cise communication.

“Expressive and pre­cise com­mu­nic­a­tion styles have a stronger link to lead­er out­comes than per­son­al­ity traits extra­ver­sion and con­scien­tious­ness.”
Source: Human Performance ⁴Bakker-Pieper, A., & Vries, R. (2013). The Incremental Validity of Communication Styles Over Personality Traits for Leader Outcomes. Human Performance, 26, 1 – … Continue read­ing

Learn more: The Checklist for Communicative Leadership

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