Simple Ways to Show Appreciation at Work and Why it Matters
Do you appreciate your employees for their hard work enough?
Would saying thank you—deliberately, descriptively, intimately, publicly—conjure a different ontological universe? That is something that every one of us can find out by trying it.
Multiple studies show that when we give and receive thanks, our brains respond in positive and lasting ways. A 2014 study observed participants in an MRI while they thanked a close friend for something. They saw subjects’ brain images light up with activity in those areas associated with personal satisfaction and well-being.
Plus, the effect is mainly bidirectional. Multiple studies have shown that expressing and receiving gratitude creates various positive emotional experiences and can even launch a virtuous cycle of helpfulness.
Don’t Just Think, Speak!
And these effects are all stronger when they are attached to communication. Letter writing, verbal thank you’s, public email acknowledgments—they all make us happier for longer than simply reflecting on what we are thankful for.
My own experience bears this out. Most of the moments in my life where I felt something like an ethereal sense of peace and well-being have occurred as I expressed deep appreciation and gratitude.
It didn’t matter whether it was spoken to a friend, in a thank you note, to a group who had just generously allowed me to coach or train them, to an audience who listened to me, or to my neighbor who helped me with a task. When I express my deep appreciation, I experience a kind of grace, and I hope that the recipients of my appreciation do so to an even greater extent.
Radical Appreciation
The act of thanking—out loud or in writing—is profoundly human. You can move yourself—and inspire your deepest emotional core—by saying thank you.
On holidys, many people do the exercise of having everyone say what they are grateful for before eating.
I am going to suggest something more deliberate. Take time over the next week to truly thank people and work for what they provide and who they are. And thank them boldly —with real intentionality.
Express radical appreciation!
The thank you I mean is one in which you describe to that person how they contribute to you.
Tell them how they make you laugh, smile, or aspire to be better, stronger, smarter, or kinder.
Describe the unique attribute that distinguishes them in your experience.
And share the nature of the hole that would exist in your life, organization, or family without them.
You can do this with anyone in your life: Your gym buddy, mailman, house cleaner, boss, mom, the neighbor who pulls your trash can up from the curb, the cashier at the grocery store who always remembers you, the foam artist barista, or your most disagreeable team member who pushes everyone to be better.
Tell them what their contribution means to you. Please describe how they affect you and the value you get from knowing them. And then, say Thank You.
Give Yourself A Gift
Please take this opportunity to let your people know how much you appreciate them—the people who are, ultimately, the source of your moment-by-moment experience of life.
In big and small ways, our lives are nothing more than a series of collisions with other people that coalesce into stories and memories. And so, it is through those other people that we create meaning, purpose, challenges, victories, family, and community.
Could anything be more worthy of our gratitude?
Happy New Year!