SEAHO Report - Winter 2022 - 13

FEATURE ARTICLES
Award nominations are about the award, not the person.
Amazing people get nominated for awards all the time. A member of your staff may have saved a baby kitten
from a burning building in the middle of a blizzard while barefoot and also balancing a teacup on their nose.
That's amazing! Good for them! But, we don't need to know that when determining whether or not to give
them the Outstanding Mentor Award. Unless the kitten was their mentee, that insight into their personal
prowess as a human is irrelevant. Many potential nominators get hung up on not knowing " enough " about
a nominee. If you know the details listed in the award criteria, even if you know absolutely nothing else, you
know enough. The rest doesn't matter and adds no real value to the nomination letter.
Award-winning nominations often write themselves.
The easiest nominations we have ever written were the ones that won. They were the ones that deserved
the accolades and made the work easy. If data is required for a nomination (the Academic Collaboration
and Outstanding Contributions to Research awards come to mind), the ones that are most deserving of the
honor are the ones that you are already bragging about on your campus. You already collected the data
and saw the impact. You are aware of the success because you saw it or heard it from the staff and students
who participated. Don't create extra work. Use what you already have and are already proud of to take that
recognition to the regional level.
Award nominations are inherently collaborative efforts.
Almost every award SEAHO offers requires more than one letter of nomination. Find like-minded people
and use your collective brains and experiences to nominate together. This keeps the pressure off of you
specifically, and allows you to brainstorm content and even proofread writing as a team. We promise you
that if a person or program is award-worthy, there will be no hardship in finding other people willing to help
recognize that amazingness.
Award nominations come in all different shapes and sizes.
Did you know that some of our SEAHO awards don't even require a letter of nomination at all? The SEAHO
Service Award, for example, is automatically given to one person from each institution. All you need to do
is collectively agree on one name from your department, and then submit that name. That's it! No time,
writing, or effort required, but the recipient receives a SEAHO certificate and has their name shared at the
annual conference as the most deserving on your campus. That's pretty fantastic - and easy! Check out our
awards page to see how simple it is to nominate for many of our SEAHO awards.
Award nominations are worth it.
Submitting an award nomination does take a bit of time. Not a lot, but a bit. It does ask you to do something
extra. But, it is one of the extra things on your list that will pay out in dividends. Individualized and specific
recognition and appreciation are proven to increase workplace morale and job performance. People work
harder and better for supervisors and departments that care about them and show gratitude for their efforts.
Even if your nominee does not win the award, the nomination is still shared with them by the SEAHO Awards
and Recognition Committee, so they are still aware that their department thought them as deserving of
regional recognition.
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https://www.seaho.org/page/awards

SEAHO Report - Winter 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of SEAHO Report - Winter 2022