How to reduce fraud continued to be a top, burning issue among one of our Executive Mastermind groups earlier this week.
We were sitting around the table with the group, facilitating their discussion of all the different strategies they’re using to mitigate fraud risk. They were learning from one another…discovering products, services, and strategies they hadn’t considered before. Some even gained insight into small tweaks they could implement to transform their success rate. All good stuff.
One comment in particular grabbed my attention because it reminded me of something we teach in our supervisor training classes — the importance of “celebration” in employee management.
As someone who is laser-focused on driving RESULTS, ‘celebrating’ used to feel like an interruption and waste of resources (time, money, etc.) among the team.
Maybe you’ve felt the same way in the past before, too.
HOWEVER, years ago I dug deeper into the word “celebrate” — what it means, how it started, the intention, purpose, and psychology behind it.
Why CelebratE?
I discovered “celebrating” is simply reinforcing something or someone matters.
We celebrate birthdays to show people they matter.
We celebrate work anniversaries to reinforce that loyalty matters.
We celebrate increased sales/decreased expenses because profit matters.
If you want more of it, we celebrate it.
At the mastermind table, there was A LOT of conversation about how to effectively train someone to do better going forward. For example, if someone opens a fraudulent email, they share details about the correction, training, and consequences they’ve used successfully in their own organization.
how to reduce fraud by celebrating
Here’s where it became especially interesting to me… and maybe it will for you too.
One person spoke up and said,
“To help bring awareness to the risk, we all send employees test emails asking for personal information. We hope no one responds, or if they do, we hope they DON’T give confidential information. For the few that fail the test, we address it, then train them to do better. But something really effective we started doing — for the 98% who do it right — we celebrate them. We want them to keep doing a great job, so we make sure that we pay attention to them, too.”
That was gold and everyone knew it. I watched as people’s eyes lit up, light bulbs went off, and pens went to paper furiously noting what to do.
That’s a perfect example of using “celebration” to effectively lead and manage employee performance!
Remember: Celebrate what’s going right, not just address what’s going wrong.
Reinforce that IT MATTERS when you do it right. Make them feel seen and valued. If you don’t, they may wonder they’re efforts at working to reduce fraud really even matter. Show them to see and value that they’re doing great work!
It’s natural to work to stop the bleed, especially when the risk is at an all-time high, but don’t miss the opportunity to celebrate what and who is working well.
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Who Needs Your Confetti?
Which people on your team need to be celebrated? Who are the ones working HARD, GETTING IT RIGHT, that may feel taken for granted or overlooked? Who can use your verbal confetti — words of affirmation, spotlighting their success at hitting your performance expectations?
Think about it. Then pull out the party hats and start the celebration!
If your leaders need in-depth help directing employee performance, we show them how in Session 2 of our Leadership Development Plan. Drop me an email — I’d love to tell you more!
