Kudos To You

You've probably heard these words floating around various celebrations, but do you know the difference? Kudos is a noun that means “praise, honor, or acclaim. You’ve contributed to building this amazing brand (kudos to you! 👏), and had some success turning the vision into a reality; however you are struggling to scale your brand. Now that you are trying to grow the business and reach the next level, you are at a standstill, and it seems that everything that you.

Kudos to You! is the sixth and final studio album by The presidents of the United States of America. It was released on February 14, 2014.^[1]

The album was announced on November 22, 2013. It started as a project through the direct-to-fan platform PledgeMusic, where fans would be able to pledge money on the future album and other rarities such as lyric sheets and other items. The project reached its goal in nine days.

According to their PledgeMusic campaign, The presidents of the United States of America more or less actively considered These Are the Good Times People to be their final album. Despite this, studio time was booked for October 2013, with nothing really planned. No songs had been written, but apparently the music kept coming. More studio time was thus booked for November.

Also announced as part of this project is a live album, which was released simultaneously. The live album is called Thanks for the Feedback, and features 20 songs from one of the band's performances at their own PUSAFEST '11.^[2]

Pledgers were able to pledge money on a limited edition colored vinyl of the album, where the color of the vinyl version was voted on by the pledgers. The winning color combination ended up being a burgundy and yellow swirl. This vinyl was exclusive to pledgers, limited to 200 copies^[3] and will reportedly not be reprinted once the project is over.

Track listing[edit]

All songs written by Chris Ballew, unless otherwise noted.^[4]

Song origins[edit]

Many of the songs have been previously recorded by Ballew's various projects. These include:

• 'Finger Monster' is a presidents song that began life in 1996.^[5]
• 'Flea Versus Mite' is a reworking of the presidents song 'This Is a Blitz', a free-to-download ode to the Seattle Seahawks mascot, with all new lyrics.
• 'Electric Spider' previously appeared on The Feelings Hijackers' 2005 album T.F.H.,^[6] although it dates previous to that. However, this version has completely different lyrics.
• 'Good Morning Tycoon' and 'Stay with Me' were recorded for The Giraffes' Zero Friction album. 'Slow Slow Fly' was also previously recorded for a Giraffes album, in this case 13 Other Dimensions.^[7]
• 'Poor Little Me' is a song that dates back to the Smell Me Fist cassette, released by Ballew's earlier band EGG in 1988.^[8]
• 'Rooftops in Spain' and 'Truckstop on the Moon' have both been available as bonus tracks on the album These Are the Good Times People.

Personnel[edit]

• Chris Ballew – vocals, bass guitar
• Andrew McKeag – guitar
• Jason Finn – drums
• John Roderick – backing vocals on 'Crown Victoria'^[9]
• Martin Feveyear – producing, additional vocals on 'Poor Little Me'
• Produced by Martin Feveyear and the presidents of the United States of America at Jupiter Studios, Seattle, WA.
• Mixed & mastered by Martin Feveyear at Jupiter Studios.
• Recorded by Martin Feveyear, assisted by Jonas G. at Jupiter Studios.
• Tracks 3, 5, 13 and 14 recorded by Kurt Bloch at Chroma Sound, Seattle, WA.
• Art direction and layout by Derek Vander Griend and Evan Bross.

References[edit]

1. ^The Presidents of the USA: New Studio Album on PledgeMusic
2. ^PledgeMusic – Updates
3. ^'New Studio Album: Basitar and Guitbass Prep + Signing today'. PledgeMusic. February 3, 2014. Retrieved May 22, 2014.
4. ^Amazon.com: Kudos to You!: The Presidents of the United States of America: MP3 Downloads
5. ^Hodge, Will (April 9, 2013). 'Interview with Chris Ballew of The Presidents of the United States of America'. NOISETRADE.
6. ^From Rocker To Raffi: Chris Ballew Of 'PUSA' And Caspar Babypants
7. ^Songography – The Giraffes (Chris Ballew from the Presidents Of The USA / PUSA) Hurley) – Is It Christmas Yet?
8. ^Presidents of the United States of America #1 Fansite
9. ^Here's a peachy keen new track from The Presidents Of The United States Of America

Recognition matters.By Declan NooneRecently, the asked a simple question to a number of leaders across North America: How do you spend your time?Having analysed the data they identified that these influential and successful leaders encounter, on average, 12 interruptions per day. While a 2018 study, the findings of which were published in the, stated that CEOs ‘spend 72% of their total work time in meetings’.Now, let’s look at you. How much of your work week do you spend in meetings? Tied up in daily operational issues? Dealing with crises?

The daily firefighting routine? And how much do you spend face to face with direct reports? Look at your calendar, map your daily routine from the minute you wake up, to the minute your head hits the pillow.Well, during that face to face time when you are providing direction and guidance, do you give any time to saying ‘Kudos’ to your direct reports?

To thank them for their work and to acknowledge their and the teams’ successes, not just the big wins but also the small wins.Why is recognition important?The challenges of recruitment and retention of strategically important personnel continues in today’s job market. In a highly competitive space organisations are having to adapt to the change needs of the modern workforce. Human centred organisations are adopting human centred approaches to the workplace. The finds that “a majority of organizations say theycurrently have initiatives around positive relationships and teamwork (75%), acompassionate, caring culture (75%), employee appreciation (73%), learning andgrowth opportunities (70%), and creating an inclusive culture (72%)”, in order to maintain competitiveness.If we examine Martin Seligman’s PERMA model for Human Flourishing, we recognise that Achievement, a sense of Accomplishment (the ‘A’ in PERMA) is a key enabler of happiness.

Having a sense of achievement is an important motivator in encouraging us to push ourselves to greater things, to flourish. Acknowledging individual and collective achievements in the workplace, generates a greater frequency of positive emotions.

These in turn create a sense of belonging, trust, and connectedness. Consequently, they fuel inclusive, compassionate and caring cultures.Giving Kudos, or recognition of another’s effort and achievements can be done in a number of ways. You can target either the extrinsic or intrinsic motivational factors that apply to each of us. On an extrinsic level you, as both a leader and organisation, can reflect your appreciation through remuneration and promotion.

Additionally, there are a multitude of employee recognition and rewards platforms available. Each of those platforms offer numerous mechanisms and opportunities to both recognise achievement and rewards accordingly.On a more intrinsic level, leaders and organisations can:. Create cultures where wins are celebrated and acknowledged at the lowest levels. This can be achieved in team meetings, internal notice boards, internal publications, awards ceremonies, social events, etc.

Introduce certification for learning and development programmes conducted both within the company, and external to it. Use the organisations social media platforms to celebrate achievements of individuals and teams.On a more personal level, enhance the emotional intelligence levels within your leaders. Encourage them to say ‘Thank you’, ‘well done’, ‘good job’, and ‘you are a valued member of this team’, more frequently.An important feature of giving ‘Kudos’ to anyone is to socialise it. Share it within the workplace, publicly acknowledge the efforts and achievements of an individual or team. Doing so generates a sense of pride in oneself and the team, a greater sense of connectedness and belonging, and it builds trust levels. Generating an emotional connection between the individual, the leader, the team and the organisation further enhances a positive workplace culture. It encourages greater discretionary effort, improved organisational citizenship behaviour, and just as importantly positively impacts retention.For you, as a leader, don’t forget to say ‘Kudos to me!’.

Every evening, acknowledge your own achievements, reflect and express gratitude for what you have. As positive leaders we invest a significant amount of ourselves in building positive and inclusive cultures in order to empower others, that we forget to ‘self-care’. You need periods of renewal and recovery. So be kind to yourself, acknowledge your own achievements and express gratitude for those achievements.In, our passion is helping to build positive and inclusive organisations.

Working with leaders to enhance their knowledge and understanding of positive psychology and behavioural science, in order to adopt more human centre approaches to leadership.‘How Leaders spend their time’,‘How CEOs manage time’.

The pajamas that I was, at that point, wearing basically around the clock?You can imagine how horrified I was to discover that some experts recommend washing your pajamas every three to four. About one week into self-quarantining, I asked myself a disturbing question: How often should I be washing my pajamas? And that’s just when you’re wearing them to bed, not when they’re your new work uniform.I placed a panic order for additional pajamas, and also started looking around for new loungewear that would allow me to work comfortably from my couch without looking like a total slob in Zoom meetings.