NEIL WARREN CONSIDERS HOW WE GIVE PRAISE AND THANKS TO OUR COLLEAGUES IN THE WORLD OF TAX
It is always nice to get a bit of praise on the completion of a hard job. This statement applies whether the job that you’ve just completed involves building work, a theatrical performance or, more relevant to Taxation 2, a tough tax assignment that involved many hours of sweat, toil and graft to get a good result (well, perhaps not too much sweat as it sounds so untaxish!).
And it is even more welcome if the praise is given without being prompted, avoiding the potentially embarrassing answer to the question of: ‘How was it for you?’
Tax professionals are known to have great technical skills and also the ability to analyse complex legislation (which seems to get more complex each year… or half year now we have two annual Budgets to keep us busy!). But how good are we on the softer skills of our work, for example giving credit and praise to our colleagues and staff, perhaps even clients, when a job or task has been particularly well done? Do you always compliment your clients on the quality of their record-keeping… great work, Joan, the year end bank difference was less than £10,000 this year!
I always remember the personal pride at being told that one of my VAT articles for Taxation had a bit of a Shakespearean style about it. OK, my mother might have been a bit biased in her thinking, and you could argue that she was referring to the fact that both Shakespeare plays and VAT articles contain words and phrases that no-one can understand… but it was a nice compliment anyway!
Opening view
I asked Chris Jones, director of tax and accountancy at LexisNexis, whether he thinks we give adequate praise in the world of tax:
‘I hope we do, but the extent to which this is done will vary from manager to manager. Tax professionals take a great deal of pride in their work and it is right to thank staff for their hard work even if we expect a good job to be done. People work harder and are better motivated when they work in an environment where they feel appreciated.’
Chris highlighted the LexisNexis Values Awards as an important vehicle to recognise the efforts and achievements of staff. He can recommend employees for an award as a way of giving them formal recognition for a job well done.
Showing appreciation
The comments of Chris were echoed by Francesca Lagerberg, head of tax for Grant Thornton UK LLP, who commented that ‘it is a sad truth that it’s often easier to point out mistakes or room for improvement than offer a simple thank you. We all know how good it feels to be appreciated for what we do well and for going the extra mile. We should therefore always take the time to give positive feedback to our colleagues, teams and friends’.
Francesca explained the Grant Thornton approach to giving praise: ‘We do try to celebrate success. This might take many forms from a simple well done in person, praise in a meeting in front of colleagues or even a full blown intranet story to tell the whole firm. The most important thing is for praise to be genuine, timely and to come from someone the recipient respects and values.’
Beware unfair criticism
I was very interested in an article on the personneltoday.com website (which I found when I typed in ‘praise staff’ on Google). This emphasised the importance of giving praise in a sensible and controlled manner and the article concluded that the three key ingredients of praise were that it should be ‘deserved, sincere and specific’.
An important point is to recognise the long-lasting effect that positive praise can have on someone and, on the negative side, the impact of unfair criticism as well.
To give an example, the football referee Alan Wiley will probably face taunts for the rest of his career because of the comment made by Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson that he was physically unfit during a game. ‘Keep up with play, ref’ will probably be a constant chant from the terraces in his future games. Even though Sir Alex gave a subsequent apology for his comments, the damage had been done.
As an amusing aside, I also typed in ‘receiving credit’ on Google and, needless to say, I now have about 10,000 sources from which I can get a cheap loan to help my finances, as long as I am over 18 years of age and not a college student!
Taxation Awards
One of the highest accolades of praise in the tax world is to receive an award or be shortlisted for an award at the annual Taxation Awards dinner, recognised as the most prestigious awards ceremony in the profession and coincidentally taking place this week.
As a past winner of the Tax Writer award, I can testify that it is an incredible feeling to receive an award in front of so many colleagues and friends. So, did you nominate anyone from your own tax team? No? Really? Well why not think about it for next year.
Conclusion
In a period when pay freezes and tight budgets are going to be prominent, the effective use of thanks and praise should play an important part in boosting the morale of staff and colleagues, giving non-monetary recognition for their efforts. I therefore encourage you all to give thanks and praise where it is justified.
However, I must now draw this article to a close so I can stand in front of a mirror to give myself a bit of praise… to remind myself that the 40-yard free-kick I netted nearly 20 years ago really was the greatest ever goal scored in the history of football.
