Employee Appreciation

Do you have a culture of appreciation?

This week I’ve been starting off my client meetings with a question. “Who in your life are you appreciating right now?”

I’ve loved hearing the answers.

I’ve also asked how they think their company is at showing appreciation. Seems like the consensus is… there’s room for improvement!

Why is it important to show appreciation? I’ve thought a lot about this, and I think the simple answer is, it feeds the soul.

Think about how you feel when someone appreciates you. Do you feel seen? Do you feel like what you did made a difference in someone’s life? And then what? Does it make you want to keep doing whatever it was that preceded that appreciation? And how do you feel about the person who gave you this gift of appreciation?

I encourage all business leaders to really consider these questions.

The next step is to create a strategy around incorporating employee appreciation in the workplace. Here are a few ideas.

• Start meetings with words of appreciation
• Have an Appreciation Jar, provide a way for employees to appreciate each other
• Host employee appreciation events
• Write a thank you note
• Take someone out to lunch and tell them what you appreciate about them

It’s important to remember that people are all different and like to be appreciated in different ways. A great book on this subject is The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace.