“Andrea, tell me, at work, do you think you receive too much appreciation?” We had been talking about motivation and her team. This question cracked her up.
“What, are you nuts? Nobody even notices me unless something is going wrong. My boss thanked me for something almost a year ago at the holiday dinner thing we have.”
“Andrea, one of the most powerful things you can do with your team is to give them honest and sincere appreciation, and do it frequently. When your boss thanked you last year, how did it make you feel?”
“It felt nice, nice to be noticed. But it wore off pretty quick. By the next Monday, it was business as usual,” Andrea replied.
“Your job, as a manager, is to create that environment constantly, so your team understands their contribution is important. This is something that you have to consciously think about. It does not happen automatically. You have to focus on it. Sincere appreciation is one of the most powerful things you can do to bring your team to higher levels of performance.” -TF
Could not agree more with your comments. I have been involved in building a number of managed care networks with limited staff. A team can be highly motivated, productive and effective with on-going sincere praise and recognition of their efforts.
Praise and recognition is important, and I would fire a manager who never appreciated their staff. It can help when your people know how to get appreciation for themselves.
I am continually astonished at the response of operators and technicians when I thank them. 95% say they were just doing their jobs and really should not be thanked for that. The other 5% look embarassed. Goodness.