Team member recognition is absolutely essential. Look for every opportunity you can to reward and recognize excellent results, "above and beyond" effort and value added.

Listed below are seven relatively easy, but highly effective, ways for you to recognize your team members' effort, time and results:

• It's all up to YOU. Financial rewards, your company's "brand" or the quality of your executive team will not, by themselves, make your team successful. It is actually up to YOU to make it happen. Recognition in one thing that is COMPLETELY under your control -- regardless of budget and resources available.

• Recognition is KEY. Noticing and recognizing the RIGHT behaviors is the key to strengthening team member relationships. During these tight economic times, you will be called upon to do more with less resources. Keeping and motivating high-performing employees becomes even more critical during these times. As a leader/manager, it is YOUR JOB to recognize and bond your most valued people to your team and your company.

• Pick your "rewards" wisely. Don't wait until you can offer a raise to recognize great performance; heart-felt and sincerely-delivered "thanks" is its own reward. In numerous surveys of work satisfaction, "feeling appreciated" is almost always on the very top of the list. When employees and team members feel recognized and involved, they are much less likely to keep asking about money. Examples of things you can do include (a) remembering your team members' birthdays and anniversaries, (b) finding out what inexpensive rewards THEY value (dinner for two, an extra day off), etc. Walk around your department on a daily basis and look for opportunities to say thanks and give verbal recognition of effort.

• It's all in the presentation. Praise and recognition must be specific to have an impact. General praise like "You do great work" can actually have the opposite effect -- leaving your team members wondering "Does he/she really have any idea what I do around here?" In private and public recognition moments, specific praise links individual accomplishments to company/department goals: "Lisa, I noticed you completed your budget analysis three days ahead of schedule. Great work!"

• Keep your eye on the harvest. Focus recognition on the kinds of behavior that make your team and your company better. With this type of focus, your employees will understand that recognition is not a popularity contest but an important tool to move people toward specific goals, make team members more efficient and make work groups more productive.

• Make formal milestones worth remembering. Make the most of your company's formal corporate awards -- quality service, tenure and others -- with a powerful group presentation. Presenting a formal award doesn't have to be a burden, it can be an opportunity to bond an employee to you and your team and to reinforce your goals and vision. All it takes is a little preparation, sincerity and specificity.

• Keep on growing! Recognition means most to an employee when it's sincere and spontaneous. Some form of recognition should occur several times each month. Once or twice is year is waiting much too long to recognize your team members. You really can NOT offer too much recognition.