84
REVIEWS
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
How to play the fame game Kirsten Levermore reads the book that promises to get you the recognition you deserve
Excellent performance warrants recognition – but how often does it really happen like that? The truth is, more often than not, that workplace recognition is a game: a competition between powerful faces, backstage workhorses and office innovators, struggling against each other to garner fame, until one emerges victorious. The Recognition Book is a pocket-sized guide to the rules of that game. You might think that the tone of your voicemail, a knowledge of computer shortcuts (press ‘b’ to bring up a blank screen during a PowerPoint presentation, recommends the author), or the deployment of a well-practised joke in the boardroom are too trivial to make a major difference to how you are recognized. Yet in this book, such tips warrant two full pages each. Recognition is about sales and marketing, it argues: sadly, great performance is rarely a guarantee of praise. So, while making sure you avoid the cardinal sins of “being late, doing a poor job and missing deadlines”, The Recognition Book advises that you focus your additional energy less on performance and more on selling
Recognition is about sales and marketing. Sadly, great performance is rarely a guarantee of praise
yourself to the higher-ups. One thing missing, though, is any discussion of psychologist Abraham Maslow’s idea of self-actualization: it could benefit from a chapter on self-recognition. So, too, from a discussion of how to deal with an environment that fails to recognize your good works. But this little book – part of the fantastic Concise Advice series – is designed for quick reading, serving as a ‘top-up’ for individuals already pursuing the subject in depth. As a quick revision guide to recognition, it will likely find its place with excellent innovators whose creativity has not found its audience. A feature found in the opening pages deserves a mention: the Recognition Plan. It is a very useful grid for the reader that empowers recognitionseekers to attain everything they are searching for with a few actionable steps. If you’re going to play the game, you might as well learn the rules. — The Recognition Book: 50 ways to step up, stand out and get recognized by Paul F Warriner, published by LID Publishing bit.ly/therecognitionbook
APPS FOR LEADERS: NUZZEL
Drowning in information? Help is at hand, writes Perry Timms Information overload is here to stay. Some 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created every single day, and rising. We cannot possibly know all there is to know, yet the temptation to try is always there – along with the fear of missing some game-changing insight. Now, the machines can help us. Nuzzel learns from you, and then learns for you, giving you the news and industry content you want. We’ve seen this with apps like Zite, Flipboard, and even good old RSS feeds, but Nuzzel hits another level. Connect it to your social media and it will examine content themes, people, brands and Dialogue Q2 2019
media outlets, learning what you consume, then share or ignore to refine your feed. It also scans people with similar interests to make sure you don’t miss out. That means you get the headlines that people are actually talking about and sharing, not just over-hyped Facebook fillers. You can also curate newsletters. This may help or hinder your information consumption; I filtered out Paper.li publications when they got annoying. But if you’re a specialist, a leader of teams/professional areas, or a network/ community manager, this feature should appeal. So, too, will the desktop version.
After a free trial period, Nuzzel requires a subscription. It has become my go-to newsfeed mobile app. With quintillions more bytes of data headed our way, Nuzzel might just be our lifejacket in an ocean of information.
— Nuzzel is available for Android and iOS. www. nuzzel.com — Perry Timms is an independent HR/OD practitioner, speaker, writer and CIPD adviser on social media and engagement. Follow him on Twitter @PerryTimms