Many thanks to my friend Jeffrey Fry for sending me this wonderful video.  It’s encouraged me to be bolder in affirming my family members, friends and the people I meet day-to-day.

Validation, affirmation, recognition or whatever else you call it is relevant in the workplace and to life outside of work.  When I speak or teach about Connection Cultures I tell people that the need for recognition reminds me of a battery that every human being has and the plug-in to recharge the recognition battery is midway up our back and between our shoulder blades, a place we can’t reach so that we need to rely on the people around us to recharge our recognition battery. If it stays charged, we are more energized in life.  If it goes uncharged, we are drained of life.

Another point to remember is that recognition need to be genuine.   As my friend and co-author Jason Pankau says, give people sugar not saccharine (the fake stuff).

So here’s the question I’d like you to consider: are you charging or neglecting to charge the recognition batteries of the people in your life?