Doctor SpinThe PR BlogInternal CommunicationsSplit Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback
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Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback

Keep your positive reinforcement separate.

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

tl:dr;
Combining recognition, rewards, and feedback tends to send mixed messages, leaving team members uncertain about cultural conduct. The Split Sessions Framework underscores the importance of separating praise, rewards, and feedback in communicative leadership.

Table of contents

I use Split Sessions for recog­ni­tion, rewards, and feedback.

Positive rein­force­ment is crit­ic­al in fos­ter­ing an open and trans­par­ent intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tions culture.

This blog post high­lights the import­ance of sep­ar­at­ing recog­ni­tion, rewards, and feed­back in com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship and provides a frame­work with rules for effect­ive implementation.

Here we go:

The Split Sessions Framework

Recognition (praise), rewards, and feed­back are power­ful rein­force­ment tools for com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­ers. They are also fun­da­ment­al for improv­ing intern­al com­mu­nic­a­tion and fos­ter­ing a cor­por­ate cul­ture of open­ness and dia­logue. 1Silfwer, J. (2024, November 13). The Ritual of Giving Instructions | Communicative Leadership. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​g​i​v​i​n​g​-​i​n​s​t​r​u​c​t​i​o​ns/

Key takeaway: Strive to sep­ar­ate dif­fer­ent types of inter­ac­tions (feed­back, praise, orders/​instructions, rewards, etc.) to pre­vent con­fu­sion and anxi­ety with­in your team. 2Silfwer, J. (2023, December 30). Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​p​l​i​t​-​s​e​s​s​i​o​ns/

The chal­lenge for any lead­er is a) to keep such ses­sions sep­ar­ate and b) to main­tain con­stant levels over time.

Recognition (Praise)

Recognition = acknow­ledging (prais­ing) the con­tri­bu­tions of a team member.

  • Team mem­bers should be recog­nised for doing their job as per their job description.
  • Team mem­bers shouldn’t be “pat­ted on the head”; detail how the task was done well.
  • Team mem­bers will almost always per­form bet­ter when receiv­ing praise (pos­it­ive rein­force­ment) reg­u­larly; all man­agers must be engaged in this activ­ity. As a rule, all employ­ees should recog­nised for their per­form­ance at least once daily.
  • When giv­ing praise, nev­er hand out rewards or provide feed­back simultaneously.

Rewards

Reward = incentiv­ising a team mem­ber to pro­duce res­ults that exceed expectations.

  • Team mem­bers should be rewar­ded for pro­du­cing res­ults above what is expected.
  • Be mind­ful when hand­ing out rewards; reward­ing team mem­bers for doing jobs that they are already paid to carry out can cre­ate a cul­ture of con­fu­sion or, worse, entitlement.
  • Rewards must be just, rel­ev­ant, and sys­tem­at­ised; hand­ing out dif­fer­ent rewards arbit­rar­ily will likely cre­ate con­flict and encour­age destruct­ive intern­al behaviours.
  • When hand­ing out rewards, nev­er give praise or provide feed­back simultaneously.

Feedback

Feedback = let­ting a team mem­ber know if the work has the inten­ded effect.

  • Team mem­bers should ideally get feed­back with­in the revi­sion win­dow; i.e. they must be giv­en a chance to error-cor­rect imme­di­ately for the feed­back to have the inten­ded effect.
  • If you miss the revi­sion win­dow, feed­back should be giv­en in the format of dis­cuss­ing and revis­ing goals and processes.
  • Feedback is feed­back, wheth­er it’s “pos­it­ive” or “neg­at­ive.” Provide both in a bal­anced, con­struct­ive, and unemo­tion­al manner.
  • When provid­ing feed­back, nev­er give praise or hand out rewards simultaneously.

The Split Sessions Framework under­scores the import­ance of sep­ar­at­ing praise, rewards, and feed­back in com­mu­nic­at­ive leadership. 

Learn more: Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback

Communicative Leadership is Critical

In lead­er­ship, the way mes­sages are con­veyed is just as import­ant as the mes­sages themselves. 

“Leaders’ com­mu­nic­a­tion styles, par­tic­u­larly pre­cise­ness, are cru­cial for effect­ive know­ledge shar­ing, per­ceived lead­er per­form­ance, and sub­or­din­ate sat­is­fac­tion.”
Source: Journal of Business and Psychology 3Vries, R., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2009). Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders’ Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership … Continue read­ing

Effective com­mu­nic­a­tion is a corner­stone of suc­cess in lead­er­ship and man­age­ment, par­tic­u­larly in how lead­ers deliv­er praise, rewards, and feedback. 

A well-thought-through approach enhances com­mu­nic­a­tion clar­ity and builds trust and respect with­in the team. As a lead­er, your choice and deliv­ery of words are instru­ment­al in shap­ing your team’s cul­ture and per­form­ance. Leaders can foster a more pos­it­ive and pro­duct­ive work envir­on­ment through clar­ity and consistency.

“Formative feed­back should be non-eval­u­at­ive, sup­port­ive, timely, and spe­cif­ic to improve learn­ing and should be tailored to indi­vidu­al learner char­ac­ter­ist­ics and task aspects.”
Source: Review of Educational Research 4Shute, V. (2008). Focus on Formative Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78, 153 – 189. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​3​1​0​2​/​0​0​3​4​6​5​4​3​0​7​3​1​3​795

Avoiding Cultural Uncertainty

Research sup­ports the idea that lead­ers should give feed­back and provide praise on sep­ar­ate occa­sions. According to research by O.C. Tanner, high­lighted in a SmartBrief art­icle, 42% of employ­ees who received recog­ni­tion from their lead­ers also received a mes­sage of “here’s how you can do bet­ter” in the same com­mu­nic­a­tion. 5Miller, J. V. (2018, October 9). Here’s why you need to sep­ar­ate praise from feed­back. SmartBrief. https://​corp​.smart​brief​.com/​o​r​i​g​i​n​a​l​/​2​0​1​8​/​1​0​/​h​e​r​e​s​-​w​h​y​-​y​o​u​-​n​e​e​d​-​s​e​p​a​r​a​t​e​-​p​r​a​i​s​e​-​f​e​e​d​b​ack

Combining recog­ni­tion, rewards, and feed­back tends to send mixed mes­sages, leav­ing employ­ees uncer­tain about cul­tur­al con­duct. This sug­gests that sep­ar­at­ing recog­ni­tion from rewards and feed­back is cru­cial in ensur­ing both are received as inten­ded without under­min­ing the effect­ive­ness of either.

When instruc­tions, feed­back, and recog­ni­tion are inter­twined, their impact is diluted. Employees may begin to ques­tion the sin­cer­ity of the praise or feel that every com­pli­ment has a catch.

Communicative Discipline

For cor­por­ate com­mu­nic­a­tions in gen­er­al, and com­mu­nic­at­ive lead­er­ship in par­tic­u­lar, I recom­mend a dir­ect approach to intraper­son­al communication:

As a PR advisor, I refer to these prin­ciples as com­mu­nic­at­ive dis­cip­line. 6Silfwer, J. (2023, December 24). Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect). Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​a​r​k​i​n​s​o​n​s​-​l​aw/

  • Rationalise and sim­pli­fy — nev­er let trivi­al tasks or top­ics become com­plic­ated or emotional.
  • Prioritise uncom­fort­able dis­cus­sions and tackle com­plex and sens­it­ive mat­ters head-on. 
  • Promote a con­cise com­mu­nic­a­tion cul­ture and debunk rumours and gos­sip straight away.
  • Always ask for recom­men­ded solu­tions when someone presents you with a problem.
  • Reward reach­ing decisions, con­clu­sions, or con­sensus before actu­al deadlines.
  • Listen respect­fully to under­stand and com­mu­nic­ate with the abso­lute expect­a­tion of being respected.
  • Be fair and con­sist­ent by dis­trib­ut­ing recog­ni­tion, rewards, and feed­back at sep­ar­ate ses­sions. 7Silfwer, J. (2023, December 30). Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​p​l​i​t​-​s​e​s​s​i​o​ns/
  • Speak (and write) plainly and com­bat cor­por­ate jar­gon, plat­it­udes, and banter. 8Silfwer, J. (2020, May 23). Corporate Cringe. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​r​p​o​r​a​t​e​-​c​r​i​n​ge/ 9Silfwer, J. (2015, October 9). The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Writing. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​l​a​t​i​t​u​d​e​-​s​i​c​k​n​e​ss/

Learn more: Principles for Communicative Discipline

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Annotations
Annotations
1 Silfwer, J. (2024, November 13). The Ritual of Giving Instructions | Communicative Leadership. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​g​i​v​i​n​g​-​i​n​s​t​r​u​c​t​i​o​ns/
2 Silfwer, J. (2023, December 30). Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​p​l​i​t​-​s​e​s​s​i​o​ns/
3 Vries, R., Bakker-Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2009). Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders’ Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership Outcomes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25, 367 — 380. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-009‑9140‑2
4 Shute, V. (2008). Focus on Formative Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 78, 153 – 189. https://​doi​.org/​1​0​.​3​1​0​2​/​0​0​3​4​6​5​4​3​0​7​3​1​3​795
5 Miller, J. V. (2018, October 9). Here’s why you need to sep­ar­ate praise from feed­back. SmartBrief. https://​corp​.smart​brief​.com/​o​r​i​g​i​n​a​l​/​2​0​1​8​/​1​0​/​h​e​r​e​s​-​w​h​y​-​y​o​u​-​n​e​e​d​-​s​e​p​a​r​a​t​e​-​p​r​a​i​s​e​-​f​e​e​d​b​ack
6 Silfwer, J. (2023, December 24). Parkinson’s Law & The Law of Triviality (Bike Shed Effect). Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​a​r​k​i​n​s​o​n​s​-​l​aw/
7 Silfwer, J. (2023, December 30). Split Sessions: Recognition, Rewards, and Feedback. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​s​p​l​i​t​-​s​e​s​s​i​o​ns/
8 Silfwer, J. (2020, May 23). Corporate Cringe. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​c​o​r​p​o​r​a​t​e​-​c​r​i​n​ge/
9 Silfwer, J. (2015, October 9). The Platitude Sickness: The Trash of Corporate Writing. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​l​a​t​i​t​u​d​e​-​s​i​c​k​n​e​ss/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Kaufmann, Whispr Group, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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