Share Appreciation
As managers, as leaders, and as people… there is a responsibility to share our appreciation of the work of others. Without our sincere and honest appreciation of the work and accomplishments of others, a gap is formed. This gap is filled with doubt and a feeling that you may be undervalued. The doubt is that of an individual feeling that their work is not good enough or noticed. The undervaluation stems from an individual being unsure if their work is being compensated as it should be - both in terms of money and affirmation. But how do we close this gap? How do we avoid a negative mental shift with those we work with? How do we ensure everyone feels they and their work are noticed?
The answer is being honest, sincere, and open. As a manager or leader, being honest means telling the whole truth. Being sincere means not adding meaningless fluff to your words. And being open means sharing freely and frequently. I have found that those in a leadership role tend to struggle with one or all three of those skills. If a leader is not honest, they are misleading the person they are talking to. If they are not sincere, they are not providing necessary details that make the sharing more impactful. And if they are not open, they are almost certainly depriving those under them of necessary feedback and appreciation for their work. Let’s close the gaps. Below are three simple ways to ensure we are honest, sincere, and open to those around us.
Be Honest
The truth behind the “why” of the appreciation means more than you think. Think about it… If your supervisor pulls you into their office to give you praise for work you have done, wouldn’t you want to know the specifics about what you did that earned that praise? Of course you would! Sure… getting the praise in the first place is great, but without context it is not as valuable as it could or should be. Being honest means telling the person point blank why you are praising them, and what specifically they did to earn that praise (no making stuff up).
Be Sincere
If your heart is not in it, they will feel it. Faking it till you make it is not helpful when it comes to giving appreciation. People notice when you are just saying random stuff without much sincerity behind it. If you want to share your appreciation of someone’s work, you need to want to share in the first place. There is no phoning it in with this one. Don’t have anything they have done that you appreciate? The issue is either they need feedback to learn and grow, or you are not looking hard enough and are out of touch with what they are doing.
Be Open
You most likely aren’t sharing too often. It is true that if you say the same thing to the same person again and again, the value of that thing may begin to decrease, either for you (the person saying it) or for them (the person hearing it). I promise you that you are rarely going to run into this issue with your team at work. You are probably like most other leaders and are being too stingy on the spreading of personal appreciation. Be more open and share more. If you want to avoid saying the same thing over and over again, understand the variety of work they are doing.
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Till next time,
