Create a Gold-Medal Experience

Award presentations can be a new experience not only for the presenter but also for the award winner. Whether you are giving an award to an employee for years of service or an outstanding contribution to the company, preparing for the recognition event is important. You too can create a gold-medal experience for the winner!

A great recognition event can create pride, increase employee satisfaction, and establish trust between employees and managers. However, a bad recognition event can actually have the opposite effect – employees will leave, become disengaged, and slow company growth.

According to Chester Elton & Adrian Gostick, authors of Managing with Carrots, The 24 Carrot Manager and A Carrot A Day, “the world’s most successful organizations have learned that they must make a recognition event something memorable – with almost as much ceremony and emotion as an Olympic-medal event.” Each organization can accomplish this if they remember the six tips for an effective awards presentation.

First, the right person needs to make the award presentation. The CEO of the company doesn’t need to be the person to present the award. It should be the highest-ranking manager who personally knows the employee and their accomplishments. The presenter also needs to create emotion through specific examples of why the employee is getting the award. This creates emotion in the recipient and the audience.

Second, train managers in making great presentations. They should know the employee and be able to talk about what the employee does for the organization. They should only talk about the positive things and also shouldn’t tell “off-color” jokes or say something politically incorrect.

Third, if an award has to do with corporate symbolism, managers must be able to explain it. They also need to explain how it ties into the values and goals of the organization.

Fourth, invite coworkers to the presentation and ask two or three to talk about the recipient. Employees will appreciate the organization and will be more successful when they are invited to participate.

Fifth, allow the winner to make their own comments. This allows them to thank people who have helped them as well as those who participated.

Sixth, the presenter must close with a sincere thank you to the recipient and everyone who attended.

Following these six simple tips ensures a gold-medal experience. You can help further the goals and values of the organization. To learn more about presenting awards consider reading one of these articles: