It Only Takes A Moment

Appreciation is a leadership action. As leaders, we tend to focus on monetary signs of appreciation, e.g., gifts or bonuses. Yet, as humans, we most value specific appreciation directed just to us. And most of us find it challenging to do this. We celebrate or complement the team, but we rarely notice and communicate with simple appreciative words or a carefully selected card or a note to just one person.

Here’s an example:

Instead of, “You did a good job on this report,” why not say, “You did a good job creating the status report this week. I like that it was succinct and included the due dates. It helped me see what was pending and how much was due at the same time”.

The great thing about this simple appreciation is that it doesn’t take any planning and costs nothing. It only takes a moment and can be done in the moment.

To whom will you give specific appreciation today?