Another great post by Sergeant First Class Deb Richardson. Deb is an Army Reserve Public Affairs NCO who most recently led US and NATO communications in Afghanistan. As a civilian, she is the product marketing and public relations manager for Nisos, a boutique cybersecurity company in DC.
I work for a boutique cybersecurity company. They’re a niche business and hire experts from around the country to ensure they maintain an elite staff of professionals. Communicating with a group that is geographically displaced is difficult but the leadership implemented something recently that has been a game-changer.
On slack, they have a channel called ‘winning’. ‘Winning’ is a new addition — they made a conscious decision to communicate success to the entire team. Every member of the organization is on this channel. They bought into everyone knows everything all the time and they’re better for it.
“Thank you @Bob and @James for your work in closing the deal with X, a contract worth $70,000.” Bob and James do not work in sales — they’re just two operators who seized an opportunity to help.
“As most of you know, we had a highly interesting article published in the NYT today which has already been picked up by other outlets highlighting our work uncovering a pretty unsavory collective. As you may not know, this article took a ton of work from a bunch of people on the team to pull off, with many twists and turns along the way. Special thanks to @Jeff, @Cindy, @Beth and @Tim.”
This also serves as a form of education. Invite leadership to this channel so they develop a better understanding of your team, it’s role, the number of people and hours required to make projects work and the pride you have collectively in your work. It serves as a resource for the junior enlisted so they learn what each rank/position does, how they can best help their team and what topics they need training or educated on.
No more silent clapping. Get in the habit of acknowledging hard work and commitment as soon as it happens. If you noticed it, it’s worth communicating. Be specific, include important details so the process can be duplicated later. If the success is new to the organization, schedule a whiteboard class so others learn how and what you did to make it successful. Consider conducting a webinar with PAOs in other units to teach, train and mentor. Maybe even write a post for MaxDis.
Then rinse, wash and repeat.
Personnel recognition should not be beholden to a calendar when it’s such an important part of organization culture all year long. It’s low cost, high impact. This communication style will ensure your team maintains high morale, it is proven to increase productivity and you will grow a culture of life-long learners.
