We’ve all worked in a team where we’ve not got the reward we have wanted. Perhaps it was overlooked.
You know the feeling – you have gone the extra mile, done a lot of extra work and it appears not to have been noticed.
It is the same for the sheepdog. Even when it is just calling him to back off from the sheep it is important to give recognition for what they have done. Without that recognition the dog is not so keen to do it again. The hard part is giving recognition at the right time. It’s not so much the amount of praise it’s all about the timing.With a dog the most important thing to train is the stop command. Even if it is all going wrong, and boy sometimes it does, if you can stop the dog then that really does help.
Stop digging the hole. It makes life a lot better!
Just stopping any activity gives the space to think, to step back and see the bigger picture. It gives us time to review what’s happened, what’s not working and what is working and make a new plan.
Telling off a dog is so hard to do since we need to catch it in the act of the wrong deed – it almost needs to be pre-planned. There’s no point in calling the dog back from chasing the sheep then reprimanding him, since he will feel by coming to you he’s done something wrong. Hence why Fenton keeps chasing those deer!
It’s a fine balance between criticising and praising – and very much about timing. How often at work are we ‘recognised’ for doing something wrong yet not for having done a great presentation or achieved a report ahead of time for example? Building a team of inspired and engaged people is helped massively by how and when the leader gives recognition, negative and positive. Tough love is needed sometimes.
I love this quote from the late great Jim Rohn: “Be so busy giving recognition you don’t seek it yourself”
How do you recognise your colleagues, associates or family members? And how (and when) do you choose to reprimand them?
