Business lessons from The Bear part 5: employee recognition
We’ve all seen, or experienced, tense relationships at work where people jostle with each other for status, respect or acknowledgement. And often, it all comes down to employee recognition, or the lack thereof.
Tension could be caused by a new boss arriving or a colleague getting promoted. It might appear when having to work with a supplier you didn’t buy from, or work with a team you didn’t want to bring on board.
And this type of tension always results in animosity. In positioning. In the behaviour of saboteurs.
In this pivotal chapter, the importance of empathy, teamwork, and the slow building of trust among a diverse and sometimes combative staff comes to the fore.
In this part of my series, Business lessons from The Bear, we’ll look at the dynamic between Tina and Sydney in episode 4 as an example of tension in the workplace. And we’ll explore key strategies and models to understand why tension occurs and how to resolve it for the benefit of employees and customers alike.
Transposed from The Bear: Episode 4
“Dogs”
Page 9
TINA
(Tentatively, almost dismissively)
Chef, can you do me a favour and try this?
SYDNEY
Yeah, sure. Whoa!
TINA
Good whoa?
SYDNEY
Great whoa. It's good.
TINA
(With pride)
Thank you, Chef.
Barnacles and Butterflies – understanding and resolving tension
One of my favourite models is Barnacles & Butterflies. It’s a fantastic model, designed to identify the customers a business should be trying to retain, and the same principle applies to the recruitment of employees.
In this episode of The Bear, for Sydney, the newly appointed sous chef, and Tina, a self-taught old hand at the Chicago beef, that animosity is palpable. For example, when Tina refuses to speak to Sydney in English, instead reverting to Spanish and pretending not to know English. Classic saboteur behaviour.
And saboteurs are real. According to Positive Intelligence, around 5% of employees might be considered saboteurs.
These people aren’t born saboteurs. They are created through disengagement and sometimes through being placed in the wrong place at the wrong time.
‘True friends’ are customers or employees who will remain loyal when times are tough and spend more money or put in the extra effort to deliver that quality result.
‘Butterflies’ deliver profit and quality, but they are often skittish and only here for a while. We often spend too much time and effort trying to keep them.
Our true saboteurs are found in the ‘barnacles’ and ‘strangers’ boxes. ‘Barnacles’ are either people who have been with you for too long, spend only a small amount of money, or (if they are an employee) it’s not in their interests to leave. ‘Strangers’ are people who just don’t know their role. They don’t know why they are there. They don’t know what value they add.
Tina is probably a stranger. She’s full of self-doubt. She’s unsure whether she can excel at what she does. Equally, Tina can also be a ‘True Friend’.
And in this episode, Tina’s cynicism and defensiveness around Sydney’s role and culinary education are challenged when Sydney praises her potatoes instead of criticising them.
Employee Recognition
That is the moment that marks a turning point in their relationship, because Tina begins to see Sydney not as a threat but as a potential ally and mentor.
Moreover, this is a huge opportunity for any business. According to Gallup’s most recent research, employees who receive recognition are 56% less likely to look for another job, and that same research shows that nearly a third of employees say that the best form of recognition is the recognition they receive from their immediate line manager.
For instance, Sydney’s supportive approach, a simple ‘Whoa, great!’, to Tina demonstrates that encouragement can break down barriers and foster trust, even among sceptical colleagues. Ultimately, it can also encourage a path towards mastery.
Three of the motivators for people at work are simple to remember:
- Welcomed: people want to feel acknowledged at work. Not necessarily for the work they do, but actually acknowledged and remembered. It’s how we learn from an early age. We play peekaboo with babies to help them realise that we, as parents or guardians, are not going away. It grows confidence.
- Cared for: as mammals, we grow our intelligence when we are in environments where we are cared for. It creates a safety net for people to take risks and grow.
- Appreciated: people need to get the signals that what they are doing is correct. They need simple feedback loops that encourage them to take the next step.
These three drivers all feed into intrinsic motivation. They don’t require extrinsic rewards, and in some cases, extrinsic rewards can actually undo performance. More about that in later episodes.
Insecurity and pride
The episode highlights that every team member brings unique strengths, even if they're not immediately obvious. And leadership is about recognising and nurturing this potential, not just replacing people who either clash with you or who struggle.
Tina’s initial resistance to Sydney stems from her own insecurities about being overshadowed by someone with more formal training. Empathy and respect can help overcome these feelings
The business argument
Eight years ago, Funding Guru surveyed 3,000 employees in the UK. A significant 62% reported that they suffered from impostor syndrome. Employees working in IT, Healthcare, and Law all exceeded the 62% average. At the right end of the league table were property and construction and leisure, sport, and tourism. And yet still we find half of these workers professing some form of imposter syndrome.
And the impact? Huge. Confidence in your role is critical for an employee’s ability to work fast, to experiment, and to pick up new skills.
Employee recognition and what you can do
Say, “hello.” – Welcomed
Say, “how are you?” – Cared for
Say, “well done.” – Appreciated
Three simple phrases that any business can encourage its leaders to use frequently with every member of their team. The first can be used with every colleague, no matter the team or role they’re in.
I remember working with Anita Roddick, CEO of The Body Shop, who genuinely had little idea of the power that her visits had to stores and how her positive support for them left lasting marks. In fact, she did her visits to learn more about the business and saw herself as just another employee, albeit the founder. However, employees saw her as an inspiration. And while some were intimidated, overall, all were lifted by her taking an interest in their store.
The key takeaway?
A CEO who takes time to say hello to people may not realise the significant impact they have on people.
