It’s award season again, and as an assessor on several recent awards boards, I'm again reminded of the differences between a good nomination and a winning nomination. Back in 2017, I posted a blog entitled “Tips for Writing a Winning Award Nomination Package” in which I shared how I’d come to realize there are some common attributes that excellent packages, whether for team or individual awards, often have in common. As a public service, encourage you to pull it up and read through it. You’re more than welcome to bookmark it, download it, or copy and paste it for future reference. A few additional thoughts:

• Submitting a teammate or a subordinate for a major award (or decoration) is a powerful means of conveying the significance of their performance.
• Submitting a winning package for them is an even more powerful means of signaling just how much you and your organization value the individual (or the team members) and their performance.
• If a nomination is worth submitting, it’s worth taking the time to do it right.
• The results of a winning package will almost certainly be career enhancing for the nominee, and in some cases, potentially be career changing. Authoring a winning nomination is worth the extra effort.
• Remember when writing the nomination that the awards board members will have to read it and draw conclusions based on the criteria. Get to the point, and make every word count.
• As I’d shared in the earlier post, put yourself in the shoes of the reviewer/assessment team, and keep in mind:
  • More is not always better.
  • Be concise. Get to the point. Brevity can often be more force multiplier.
  • Avoid long, flowery, overly detailed text
  • Avoid unsubstantiated superlatives.

And perhaps most importantly: Remember the 3Rs: Results, results, results!