Helping People to be Proud of Their Work, Proud of Their Company

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's Working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want Working on Purpose. Now here's your host doctor release quartet. Welcome back to the Working and Purpose Program. Thanks you training it again this week. Great to have you. This show has been on here since February of twenty fifteen, and it is my pride and joy. I am your host, doctor Elise Cortes. If we have not metched and you don't know me, I'm a management consultant, organizational logo therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Elise Cortes and Associates help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by articulating their purpose in building inspirational leaders and cultures activated by meeting and purpose to turn those companies from a flatline EKG to a vibrant

1:33 destination workplace. There people are intrinsically motivated to perform at their best, grown to their fuller potential, and are committed to stay in dynamic liver on the company's mission. You can learn more about us and how we can work together at Eliscortes dot com. I do want to give you a fair word in warning here my voice is a little bit off here. I have a little bit of a call from going to lots of conferences and some allergies, so bear with me. I may have to mute on occasion. With us today is Michael Levy. He has helped over five hundred companies greatly improve their engagement scores and reduce turnover through the design and development of award winning employee reward and recognition programs. As the CEO and co founder of work Proud, he regularly advises and implements the recognition strategy for Fortune one thousand hr innovators. He joined today from Dallas. Michael, welcome back for a second time on Working on Purpose, Doctor Elise Cortez, what a pleasure to be with you. Well, your hair is, I mean, your your voice quirky. My hair is a disaster. See, we got that going. We're the one two show exactly. This is mainly an audio or there's a visual command. No, no, people can see that face, that mug and that hair.

2:44 We're doing good. Hey, we're going to get all kinds of engagement because of that hair. Michael. Let's just go with it. We're riding with it. Your my voice, your hair, man, that's the show today. Guy. He was the one with the hair. Yeah, and a funny accent from down under. Yeah, one of us. Well, so you and I have known each other for a few years. We've had some great fun working together and collaborating. It was amazing to be with you and the team in Las Vegas for hr Tech conference. But for those of you who don't know me like I do, can you just give a short introduction of yourself and your company? Sure happy to do so. So. Michael Leevy born in Sydney, Australia, came across to pursue the American dream to the United States. Randomly ended up in Dallas, Texas, and that would have been around nineteen ninety nine. Never left, so go Rangers. Of course, now I'm a huge fan after last night's performance. But started a company involved in building reward programs and during the evolution of that period, watched as some of the companies started to mix in the concept of recognition, storytelling and appreciation as part of their reward program construct. Originally I was curious to see what does storytelling mean? How would storytelling have an impact? And what we discovered was that storytelling and recognition and feedback was as important as the monetary

4:19 reward program elements we were deploying, and so evolved and grew this businessworkproud dot com. You can see some information on it going online. Is the evolution and manifestation of that recognition and story telling principle which has now grown in involved to include some five hundred client programs in operation in one hundred and twenty countries and might well be sort of the gold standard for digital employee experience platforms. Beautiful and of course, hats off you know, the entrepreneurial manifestation station of a concept that actually matters and is landing and being useful to all these companies.

5:03 That that's just tremendous, tremendous ascosip too. Hats off to you and your team, Michael, Thank you. So I want to cover two topics in this conversation here. One is the concept of pride in work, being proud of your own work and proud of your own employer. And then secondly we'll cover on recognition. So you know, I believe that I have been a meaning and work and identity researcher for many many years. I have my own research. I found these fifteen modes of engagement that register how people take into account the kind and level of meaning that they actually experience and how the work relates or informs her sense of identity. So I know the importance of feeling competent and proud of one's work because of that research. But let's start here first for those who aren't really as familiar as we are with this concept.

5:48 When you think of being proud of one's first one's work, what does that mean to you? So that's a great question. Construct says I care about the thing that I do beyond the fact that it produces a paycheck and provides benefit and some protection. Very relevant constructs. If one were to transpose the Maslow's hierarchical structure, those would be the bottom levels of sort of the pyramid. From a concept of a human being has this psychological set of needs that begins with the baseline safety and protection and so forth. Well, that's sort of pay and pay roll, and then there might be opportunities for career development. But what happens when you are moving up towards the top of that, And what we've identified and what we focus on is this concept that says, if you're proud of what you do, you're willing to give the discretionary effort to the quality of the execution, no matter what it is that you do, and that if you can tap into a way for people to feel a sense of pride and an emotional construct, then they're likely to give their best, and that it's not about sort of pay or benefit. So from

7:18 a workplace standpoint, it really becomes an interesting tactical and strategic question that says, hey, company, are your people proud of the individual jobs that they do as individual contributors? And if so, how do you sort of evolve and grow and keep that going? And if they're not, well, maybe you want to think about some of their job roles and functions from their perspective that says, why aren't they proud? Or what things could we do? Because all of our jobs have some level of meaning and on the other side, none of our jobs have any real meaning because in the end, it's the end. We all have this sort of levels of pride as we connect to it. So awesome, beautiful answer, and very beautiful answer. I of course, you know, I can geek out all day on the various constructs you just put forth. Now let's say a little something about what it means to be proud of one's company. What's that? So thank you for asking and giving the opportunity to share some of that, so as distinct from the individual contributor doing the things they do each day to produce a certain outcome or influence within a concept of a bigger organization. The pride in the company is the bigger organization and what the organization is doing. First is what I'm doing and how the things that I do on a day day, on a

8:48 day to day basis influence the overall and do I gain satisfaction? The other is and what does the totality of who I work for do and how do I feel connect? Does the company as a sort of third person? Does the company demonstrate a commitment to society? Do they make good things? Do they do good things in the community? Are they perceived as being a positive contributor? And thus the delta between I'm proud of what I do and I'm proud of the company, And you can have any combination of I'm not proud of what I do, but I'm proud of the company. I'm neither proud of what I do or the company. I'm I'm not proud of what I do, but I am proud of the company. So those are independent, though slightly related, though not very much, but they're both interesting questions of how do we inspire that sense of being proud of your work and proud of your company. I really appreciate that distinguishment. That's gorgeous, all right, So now let's do this, Michael. Let's just I think this is first.

9:50 Let me situate for you listeners and viewers, why do I even do this program Because I think the world of work is one of the most profound adventors that we have in like, it's one of the greatest means that we have a realizing our potential. And for many people it occurs as a bad four letter word that both Michael and are out to be able to change and elevate. So let's get under the hood here, Michael, and really get a little bit more technical about this. So let's talk about some of the key drivers behind being proud of one's work. Of course, I've done some research on this matter to in preparation for this conversation, so I know of a few things. But let's let's let you go first, and maybe I can sprinkle in kind of what I've learned along the way. So some drivers are being proud of one's work. So we've got intrinsic an extrinsic, right, So there's the first construct to consider. And let me firstly sort of share with the listeners that it's not just me talking. We initiated a study with doctors Regarlic and doctor Bob Nelson around trying to quantify and qualify some of these principles that we're talking about, specifically, what drives what is pride?

11:01 You know, what makes you pride? And if so, what are the inputs in some of the outputs associated to what causes some set of employees to feel high levels of pride and conversely in either the organization or the company. And conversely, if individuals demonstrate a high level of pride, what are the associated impacts in their work and or if they are proud of the company, what are the associated impacts on performance. Copy of the study available on the workproud dot com website, feel free to download it. And we're going to do an updated survey in the next few weeks and expect to have the twenty twenty three release of the post sort of pandemic release version to juxtapose over the twenty twenty two study data points to see what's changed. All Right, So some of where I'm coming from is just intimating that there is some research that's that's been done and done quite well in my opinion, all Right, So firstly, we've got the intrinsic which is what we're born with. And there is a large portion of the population who find intrinsic pride and do not require anything further that they want to do the best that they can in their individual pursuits. Often high achievers, and they are self motivated, and they might be in any discipline or field or industry, but it's a personality type and treat that if they're going to bake the cake, serve the dinner, look

12:33 after somebody else, write an essay, write an email, put a marketing in, presentation together, etc. They're not going to let it go until it's at least the best version, and that intrinsic motivation drives them forward if not. Now comes the interesting question where does one get source of inspiration to give one's best and feel good about It is extrinsic sources and who might they be or what might they be? Your peers, your subordinates, your superiors, your customers, your family and friends or other relationships. It is other people telling you that you matter. What you do counts you did that well, we see you. And whether again the source be from subordinates or peers or superiors or outside the organization. Those are huge influences of creating a level of individual pride in what one somebody does because someone else noticed it. Okay, that was gorgeous. Let me just say one thing really quick about what you just said there, and then because we have a break coming up here shortly. So one of the things that I know about from my research here is there people can take great pride in just their own knowing that they've made their own contribution. They're proud, they feel good of the contribution that they made. And then so and that's of course registering what we usually call to

14:03 matter. You mentioned that earlier. What I think is great about your platform is then that gets amplified by the recognition of their colleagues, their subordinates and their and their their their bosses of sorts, and so that becomes a ripple effect or a way of what do I want to say, strengthening even the sentiment of that amplifying. Yeah, I know that I know that word. Yes, I know what that means to you too, as in the logo of your of your copany So okay, so that's one thing, and then a few of the things too that I think is really important here that can be really important drivers and get reinforced. Here is when a person gets to do their work in alignment with their personal values, right, whether it's excellence, whether it's touching somebody's life or empowering someone. And then again so they get that first standard of of if you will, and being able to regis the pride and satisfaction that comes with that. But then again further it gets amplified by being recognized by others, and then it really reinforces. I just think that is such a wonderful it is. It's a one two punch.

15:15 Did you want me to comment on that if you'd like, sure, so, yes, definitely, And I love your work. And I think the construct of having purpose in what one does is in itself a natural fulfiller. If one wants to be filled in life with a sense of satisfaction, of accomplishment and achievement, then the thing for which I've done that has purpose becomes an elevated virtue. The interesting let's say, not counter but dimension to that is for the majority of us. If we looked back in our careers as we transitioned from our education phase, whether at school and or at university, and we asked our earlier self, what do you think you would be doing, and what are the things that are going to be important and what would give you purpose and value. Few of us wouldn't have known, because we all went along our journey and irrespective of where our journey has taken us, generally more random and circumstantial than anything we would have initially anticipated. What gave us that sense of I am doing something of purpose and being fulfilled is that they got that sense of self generated pride or pride that was helped share with

16:49 others and ideally in combination, because they're not supposed to be unique, but one can feed the other. Agreed, And with that, let's let that said on our listeners and viewers and hearts as we go into our first break. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes. We are on the air with Michael Levy. He's a CEO and co founder of Work Proud, where he regularly advises and implements the recognition strategy of fortune one thousand hr innovators. We've been talking about a few of the key inputs of priding one's work. After the break, we're going to hit a few of the key outputs of priding one's work. Stay with us, We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce.

17:53 To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to a lease a LISEE at elisecortes dot com. Now back to working on purpose. Thanks for stating with us, and welcome back to working on purpose. I'm your host, doctor Release Cortes, as I am dedicated to helping create a world where people realize their potential at work, are led by inspiration leaders that help them find and realize their greatness, and we do business at Betters the World. I keep writing my own books, so one of my latest came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called the Great Revitalization. How activating meaning and purpose can radically enliven your business and it helps leaders to understand today's work, what today's workforce wants, and then offers about twenty two best projects to equip them to write it through their leadership and culture.

19:02 You can learn more about my books and my work at at least core test dot com. Buy the books on Amazon if you like. We were just on the area with Michael Levy, the CEO and co founder of work Proud and online recognition and engagement platform. Next, let's then talk about the key outputs of being proud in one's work. How would we get as a result of that? Michael, So, in the study we looked at when you have high individual pride. What were some of the correlations And I'll give you a few of the data points without boring the audience. So job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a variable when comparing individuals who have lower level of pride with a high level of pride had a tenex differential. So, when you feel a sense of pride in the work that you do as an individual contributor, your ten times more satisfied, you know, in terms of john satisfaction, strongly recommending my company to others as a place of employment eight times more likely, which in some way feels like it is natural absenteism, eight times less likely to have unexpected, unexplained absentism, seven times greater satisfaction in pay equity, so you were seven times more likely to feel that your pay was

20:33 appropriate if you had a high level of pride. I won't go into, you know, some of the others unless that's of interest in the audience. This is all, of course, in a study. What I think is, you know, the key theme is the substantial correlation between individual job satisfaction no matter what you're doing, tied to a sense of pride in what you're doing. And this spans healthcare, retail, manufacturing production, and I think particularly so when we juxtapose it over the generational workplace and a gen Z population which has grown up with a much higher level of expectation in terms of what work is supposed to deliver for them and a desire that whatever it is that they're going to do, they want it to be meaningful. Yes, yes, So the other thing i'd like you to speak to you know, at some point in this conversation, I now makes sense. That's great. I'm fascinated, as you know, as a researcher, as somebody who continues to try to understand the ever evolving workplace and workforce that by I think by twenty thirty, the nomber is that the majority of the workforce will be comprised of gen y and gen z and that means that, whether you like it or

22:07 not, you need to be able to appeal to the way they work and their values in order to attract them and keep them. So great question for me to do a little plug about the technology that my people have spent at least the last decade working on, and that is inspired by the the substantial influence that social media sites has had on the population. So Facebook obviously, you know, followed by Instagram, LinkedIn and the various others. Inspired by the success and massive penetration of those kinds of technologies in the environment in society, we wondered and took on the challenge that said, what happens if you want to take some of those constructs and ideas but maybe put them inside an organization and in a more sheltered and controlled space and focused it on not necessarily an endless series of individual posts about how pretty I am, how good I do the dance move, how great this particular product is very sort of internally

23:41 focused and more into how everybody else is going and how this person's done this great job, or how our company has worked together to produce something great, or how this team has developed something, how here's some innovation, and begin to direct some of that energy firstly within and around the employer brand in the workplace, and also about the successes of others as a way to elevate the totality. Some might have some business agendas within this construct, and certainly there is a business agenda. The business agendas are, we want a good employer brand, We want our talent to give the best. We don't really want them to be absent all the time, we don't want them job shit changing all the time. But there's also I think and maturing of a lot of workplaces, and it's a bit of a luxury to be able to do it, but it's clearly there that says we want people to think what they do and feel what they do has value and meaning, and that we as a totality the company also have value and that we're doing good things. And so the question of well, how do you do that when you've got a gen z population to spend them time on their device where they text their parents and that's how they communicate in the next room. Yes, and they're remote,

25:15 and they might be in different time zones and they may not exactly work the sort of nine to the five hours. Well, we have to take the learnings of what we've seen done successfully in various other social media applications and go we can do versions of that for our internal employee populations, maybe with some controls, maybe with some guardrails, but spin that positivity and now focus it internally on our people and through that build an elevator sense of you know, individual pride and then related company pride. I really like how you distinguished, Michael, how more of the traditional social media platforms really are me focused and this platform that you have built is really others focused or we focused. I think that's really really important to distinguish. And so what I also appreciate, as you know, about your platform is I like the way that it can cascade the culture throughout the organization, especially when it's intentionally used to be able to recognize people that are living the values of the company. Why is that important to the mission of the organization. How does it illustrate how they're living the purpose of the organization as being amplified within through their person. There's so much power in that. So let me put it into a few examples and

26:45 use cases that people can see how that can come to life. That particularly juxtaposed in what was done historically and what can be done. So in the old world and way of thinking, we were all at the office generally the sort of central HQs or the main manufacturing plant. We'd certainly be seeing each other and you know, and interacting the big, big groups sort of town halls periodically and people would be with the business for you know, most of their lives. And that was sort of the workplace definitions and constructs. Nowadays or in this modern time, we can be remote. We can be in multiple separate buildings in different time zones of course, and different geographies. We are communicating digitally all the time in multiple vehicles and mediums, from our mobile devices to our slack and team sort of channels still to traditional email, and then the phone still occasionally lights up on our desk, granted the fact, but the other communication because it's sort of all in place, very noisy and sort of busy, and you know the question of taking time and a moment out to thank people and say you did a great job in handshaking. Well, sort of pre COVID that was still happening a little bit, but post COVID with the remote, you know, a zoom meeting doesn't really provide a good opportunity, you know, nor as a slack channel, as a message or a sort of team's line. So we've got to come up with new formats for now. The benefit of having the new sort of formats and the

28:21 new formats inspired again via the big social media platforms is they can be more public, and they can be shared, and there can be layers of interactivity. There can be the user that has generated the story and has posted the story, and the benefit that the user has in posting a story about somebody else or a group or team is that they see how others are appreciating in the story and that they might like the comments, or they might share the comments, or they write add comments to this story and post. Then you have all the recipients who are reading about these posts and stories, so they're seeing how goodness is happening between people in the organization. They may notice a particular manager that's demonstrating lots of goodness. They say, that's the kind of manager I'd like to work with. And then as you go sort of further up the chain and the hierarchical structure, you might have executives that interact, likely with some of the great stories that have received a lot of interest and excitement. So then you might have a small team that might be working let's say offshore in Costa Rica or in India, or somewhere in the south in Alabama, and an executive somewhere up in the northeast of New York or otherwise then writing a note or comment saying, I see you all out there doing all your great things. And we see that in our big corporate global clients.

29:42 And the impact is like seeing sort of fairy lights and Christmas tree lights. It's lot of sparkling across the sort of digital world. That are these little worlds that we create for each of our clients, and so small little can amplify and move and be repeated and to have such great impact. And then the magic is seeing the data that comes off this kind of interaction. Who does it, who does it frequently, what do they do it about, who doesn't do it, which managers do it a lot? So there's also insights in coming off this in a way that says we talk about culture. Companies talk about culture, and they have posters for culture, and there's power points for culture. But to a person who is really working for that organization, the culture are the behaviors and communications and messages in a way in which people interact with each other, and in a world of remote and digital and global, then you better work out how your culture manifests in that construct and how that can then elevate and grow pride by supporting and encouraging positive messaging in and amongst it. Oh wow, that was a lot to chew on, and so let's go ahead and take our last on this note. So, listeners and viewers, if you didn't quite notice that, we've just already gone through the nice little casual turn into recognition, which we're going to cover more after the break. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortez. We're down there with Michael Leeby. He's the CEO and co founder of Work Proud,

31:15 where he regularly advises and implements the recognition strategy for fortune one thousand hr innovators. We've been talking still about the idea of pride in one's work and probably one's company, and made the turn into recognition after the RK. We're going to hit that more strongly, recognition. See what we'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing and meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author, she helps companies visioneer for a greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at eliscortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise A. L i Se at eliscortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host doctor at least Cortes.

32:42 I mentioned in the last break about my latest book, The Great Revitalization. What I did to help you out to be able to assess the extent to which your organization is meeting the standards of today's workforce is I created a three page assessment for you. You can find you at Leasecortes dot com under how do we help tab You'll you'll be able to to tell you up your scorgeously just how well or not you're doing if you're just now joining us. My guest is Michael Levy. He's the CEO and co founder of work Proud, and online recognition and engagement platform. So we made the subtle turn into employee recognition there as the two of pride and work and recognition go hand in hand. But now let's go more deeper into that subject. Michael, you are an expert in the notion of recognition. Where should we start? So the first is that what is recognition in this day, in this day and age and world. Is there a construct that defines recognition that says this communication?

33:45 There's always a communication element. Isn't recognition? This is kind of maybe just recognition? This is good recognition, and that's great recognition. So in his generationally, and you know, I'm on the older side of the generations, as probably many of the audience. Ah, the concept of recognition is that sort of formal communication. I should write a handwritten note, I need to be there and shake the person's and maybe there's a bit more of a formal ceremony for which we in our generation relate totally to that, because that's what we would want to expect, because that's how we were trained and programmed.

34:27 However, I think the rules need to loosen up a lot because we now have a generation that was not raised in that way. Don't mechanically operate that way in the way that they had sort of interactions with their coworkers in particular, not necessarily even with their family members, in terms of the way in which they communicate. As simple meme and the right meme sent at the right time in conjunction with the right association can then be expanded and enhances emotional communication. First, it began with very simplistic basic things such as little smiley faces and the frowns and and so forth, and now those entire emoji libraries.

35:10 So the first thing I think is good for people to understand is the definition and construct of recognition can be loosened up dramatically and will say positive communications, fine, We'll call it recognition s fine. So the important part to begin with is to facilitate positive appreciation in the form of recognition or storytelling and ormal formal versions and digital ones in conjunction, to encourage that to happen, to happen easily, and to happen naturally within an organization. Because we spend way too much time finding the problem and the issue and not focusing on the positive.

35:58 I want to share one quick data point to just share the really interesting, you know, sort of anecdotal supported by data. We had a healthcare client did a study of a three years fifty thousand employees and tracked recognition data correlated to turnover rates. And the data was just mind blowing. If an employee didn't receive any recognition within the first six months, they were seventy percent more likely to turnover than their counterparts who had received recognition. Huge these maybe small moments of appreciation for a company. Standpoint Question one says, well, we don't like that kind of turnover. That's not healthy, it's flighting expensive and it's also damaging to the rest of the culture of the organization, let alone productivity and throughput and manufacturing and production and quality of care. And there is of elements that would be no doubt influenced by it. But as valuable is to understand, well, why isn't that recognition happening at all? What's happening on the other side, and what things can we do to sort of change it? Do we have good managers, do we have good employees, Do we have employees that are potential future people leaders within sort of teams?

37:24 Based on the data? So, recognition in its value alone its form can be life but should be encouraged for the absence of recognition and the presence of recognition end up being very valuable data sources if you are, as a chief people officer of COCHR, are really interested in evolving and developing talent across all levels of the organization. Okay, so there's two things that I want a presence for our listeners and viewers that relate to concerns or issues of interest in terms of the world of human resources and in leadership today. And I want to connect them to what you're talking about, because they really help further vitalize the import of being proud of one's working, one's company and recognition. If we go back to what you said before the break about you know, literally being able to see you know, the lit up lights of connection from you know, literally across the globe in some cases for these companies and such, whatever the geographic ranges and whatever the time zones are. The two things that I hear coming out of that are so critical that those things meet. One is belonging. So today in the world of diversity and equity and inclusion, we know that there's another. Now there's another letter that goes on too that and that's B for belonging. So when an organization can encourage or invite create a place for people to feel a sense of belonging, that's really powerful.

38:52 So that's one of the things I hear that happens when people feel like they're part of this united organization, very powerful. The second thing that I want to put forth that I know is a really critical topic of major concern for organizations and leaders is the notion of well being. We also know that when people feel a sense of pride in their work and a sense of pride and connection with their organization. Then they generally have oftentimes a greater sense of well being, which is great for absenteeism because it reduces absenteeism. It also reduces healthcare premiums. So these are all really interesting things that I know that are really important to my community when it comes to considering how to address these issues and what you've been describing so far, Michael does it beautifully. I'll even lay a one more dimension on it, and that's the construct of mattering.

39:50 At an opportunity to interview Jennifer Wallace, she has a new book, I think, coming out, and she talked about the importance of mattering as she was in particular interested in the female and motherly role and the expectations that we as society will often place on that role, and that role should be strong and positive and forthright and available and in the moment in order to be the mother role so that when the children are coming home there is that that shining light and source of power and positive influence, in positive energy. So how can one at the end of a really you know, long day of work, which all of us have, you know days, be the best version of some motherly role in a positive way for their family, but if they are not the one that need to be felt positive and that they matter throughout the day, and recognition is such a great and inexpensive and impactful enabler to say I see you and you do matter and then come home to a day whereby you know, then they have another secondary, you know, job.

41:17 So I really liked that from a well being standpoint. It's even extending outside the workplace, but to the consideration as somebody who feels that what they do matters and that they have purpose and that they have a sense of pride, that they may then come back to their other worlds and families, you know, and play the various roles that we want them to play in a positive societal way. So I like the idea of well being at an even bigger level than the influence that recognition can have. Mannering we reckon that we talked about in the first segment, and I completely you know, I aligned with that because that's in the camp of meaning as well. So the things that I think is important and one of the things I guess I should also say is I love about hosting the show is it's a thought leadership platform. So I love speaking in conceptual terms, terms ideological terms, which we have been doing beautifully. I want to get a little bit more granular here for our audience, that is maybe learning about recognition and just sort of speak about some of the ways. I mean, I know there's obviously peer to peer, there's the tangible rewards that you that you and your organization provide to organizations through the way of gifts, et cetera. There's professional development opportunities people get access to, there's events, etc. So can you kind of break it down first, Michael, and help people understand some of the ways people can be recognized that are meaningful. So I think the first thing is finding ways to recognize, appreciate, and share acknowledgement that people. MADA is very subjective to

42:53 the circumstance and audience, no question, So there is no wrong one to do, and people can do it in all sorts of different manners and format and probably some of the different formats may lend themselves to the sort of circumstances and operational considerations. What we, you know, have spent a lot of time investment in is understanding that. And for those that are listening on the radio, I'll give you the audio that goes along with this. But I've picked up my smartphone and I'm pointing at the screen and I'm going to say, every day, for good or bad, we picked this thing up pretty well. One of the first things we do, whether before or after we've you know, used the bathroom and we're looking for something, and the last thing that we do, except for maybe kissing our loved one, is maybe look at the thing, or it's one of the last things that we do.

43:51 And then throughout the day we're picking it up hundreds of times during the day, depending upon the frequency, might change from individual to the individual. You get the eye and the question goes, everybody's got one, and they've got them in their pockets, maybe they're over their breastbones, and that a nice symbolism. And some portion of that time and interactivity, in our view, should be able to say, you work somewhere and what you do matters, and you work somewhere and what the company does matters, and here are lots of good examples of other people who also matter in the company, and from that creating some amount of time and space for positive energy to come down a device. Now, it does not replace other types of recognition, but it is a common and constant beat and theme. It is present, so it can be deployed in any language, in any country, at any time, no matter when you want to interact with it. It happens to have lots of cool little add on things like adding photos of the team, which is really hard to do with a piece of paper, right, or pictures or links to other things. And it has dimension and power that of course makes these smartphone devices and their corresponding apps so incredibly powerful. They also provide

45:22 the opportunity for some data to be generated so that learning lessons and insights can be clinged. This. Of course, any recognition kind of approach and building a culture of recognition should also include maybe some inspirational leadership ideas and messages in the first place. And I know you know, doctor les Contez, you do an amazing job at setting a course and inspiring executive leadership to want to do this. Thank you. But then it becomes a question of how do you bring it to life, how do you keep it, how do you sustain it, how do you report board upon it, how to evolve and emerge upon it? And you know this is where the technology you know of mobile and smartphones needs to at least be a keystone component in a strategy that can then be supported and augmented by little cards that might be handed out or some special commmity of events and some things that you do in break rooms or a town halls, because of course that should have a role. One doesn't replace the other, though, an underpinning of a core technology platform that works mobile and integrated with other his systems should certainly be a keystone. And then you're going to have your other kind of recognition experiences around it and provide some freedom to do recognition. What we share with you as an illustration, some of the clients, you can imagine party City, Party City, it's Halloween getting set up for They're doing photos and team things and competitions because that's the

46:53 theme and the culture and the context, and there's a hell of a lot of activity going on around that right now. Be different to some other clients that might be you know, global and chip manufacturing. I had a client today and I have to say, you know, with employees in Israel, and they had some other number gives and messages and things that they wanted to say, so they were very emotional and art felt and sort of deeper challenges of appreciation and sort of sharing. So the form and flavor will vary depending upon the construct and leadership there and what the CEO's idea and the existing sort of employer brand. But what is clear is that positive energy through recognition and appreciation is a key enabler of all sorts of positive and good things right, both on the purpose side and helping build individual satisfaction and purpose in the job and on the company side to go well. You know, people are what drives the company forward, so we need them to, you know, to give their best. Well done, Michael, because we just finished and run out of time, so that was an incredible way to finish the show.

47:58 You know that I love with you and collaborating with you. I thank you for being the guest today and inspiring and educated listeners across the globe. Thank you much thanks to the opportunity listeners and viewers who If you want to learn more about Michael Levy the working his team do at work Proud, start by visiting workproud dot com. There are many webinars you can catch on via signing up on that form or on that website. And then there is the work Proud Study that he mentioned as well. You can check both of those things out. Last week you to miss the live show, you can always catch a via recorded podcast. We were on the air with Wendy leshol She's the co founder of Fast Forward Group, professional development and executive coaching company. We talked about her new books she co wrote with Lisa McCarthy called Fast Forward five Power of Principles to Create the Life You Want in just one Year. Among many other things, she taught us the recipe to create a bold vision to inspire you to live into this life you want. Next week, we'll be on the air with Sean Harvey talking about his new book Warrior Compassion, Unleashing the Healing Power of Men. You will be touched and inspired by his journey and the work he now does to help create conscious, compassionate and connected cultures, especially in hyper masculine environments. See you there, and remember, work is one of the greatest and best adventures and means of realizing our potential making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four C. Why Together, We'll create a world where business operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance and

49:31 employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there. Let's work on purpose.