I’ve been exploring ideas around self-promoting at work, being recognized, and motivation as it relates to recognition and achievement.
What is the relationship for you between achievement and recognition? How do you know you’ve achieved something? What forms of recognition do you want for your achievements (from self? others?)? Is there a relationship? If you achieve something alone in a forest and no one ever knows about it, is it still an achievment? Are you motivated by achieving, by recognition, a combination, or something else altogether (e.g. power or relationship or family or …)?
4 responses so far ↓
1 Chris // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:40 am
No, it doesn’t count. We have finite time on this earth, but the only “achievements” that are worthwhile are the ones which benefit others. Now, if you “achieve” privately and then after your passing those achievements are released for the betterment of your fellow man, then you achieved something.
Recognition is nothing more than an embellishment for achievement. Achievement can stand without recognition ( which is an active acknowledgment of an achievement ) but achievement without adoption ( which is a passive acknowledgment ) is only activity.
If I invented a perpetual energy engine but didn’t share it with anyone, was it an achievement? I think not. Whether we like it or not, the larger part of the “deeper meaning” we are all genetically driven towards is the betterment of our societies. We’re designed to help complete each other.
Chris
2 Shaun Dakin // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:42 am
Another good post. It reminds me of the movie with Nicole Kidman in which she plays a small town NH woman obsessed with being on TV. I think she says something like, “It is not real unless it is on TV”.
I really don’t know. I would imagine that it depends on what it is that you do.
In my particular “business” - The National Political Do Not Contact Registry - I needed to be “seen on TV” in order to gain credibility and legitimacy. I needed to testify on the Hill in order to be a “player”.
So, while I love what I do, I do need (must have) recognition in order to move forward.
It is kind of like something falling in the forest and no one being around. Does anyone hear it?
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
http://StopPoliticalCalls.org
3 isle // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:49 am
Achievement is the positive result of having accomplished a personal goal, right…so regardless of recognition, it still made a sound.
If you cut down the tree *just* to hear it fall, or for someone else to hear it fall, and it is heard, that is also a fullfilled goal, not not as loftly, the sake of doing just to do.
I think if you cut down the tree, and no one heard it, but you chopped it up, build a cabin and used the kindling for a fire, and cooked your food,
you don’t really need someone to tell you if they heard it. They would likely smell the smoke.
Smoke being residual post-audio tree felling confirmation, that’s the kind of recognition I like.
Ok, I admit, there was a point in here somewhere…I just burned wood all winter and I am still traumatized.
Interesting post.
4 Marco // Apr 30, 2008 at 10:55 am
I think there are several sub-categories of achievement that are all coded with their own rules.
For instance - on a personal level if I set a goal for my own betterment and I achieve it I don’t necessarily need anyone else’s recognition (in truth it is likely that I kept the goal to myself). Even so it is important that I grant myself the recognition and praise for the achievement no matter how small it is. I believe success is a habit, if you don’t recognize/praise yourself for your achievements along the way then you are removing part of your motivation to continue in that habit.
On a professional level recognition is VERY important IMHO. While I believe that we all need to seek out occupations that are fulfilling to us on a personal level - despite what others may think, we are all to some degree or another dependent on the opinion others have of our work product to advance and prosper. As much as I may enjoy what I do there is also an element to my professional choices that centers around providing for the needs and wants of my family and myself. Regardless of how happy I am with my own efforts, if I am not receiving the praise and recognition for what I believe to be deserving accomplishments than i don’t feel like I am making forward progress and NOTHING can strip my motivation faster than that. (This is especially true if a lack of recognition is coupled with a lack of meaningful feedback from my superiors on what I can change to begin deliver results that will earn their recognition).
Leave a Comment