Appreciating Others Day

You, me and nearly everyone we work with is a criticism machine. We criticize – the boss, the agency, the suppliers, the quality of a presentation etc. When asked for feedback we are quick to jump to “areas of improvement” or “what didn’t go well”. When replying to proposals sent over email we are keen to “feedback” over what the sender could have improved.

Open your sent items folder or your whats app or your messages and search for “ great”, “congrats”, “well done”, “you did a great job”, “what a fantastic presentation”, “you are amazing”. Chances are you may find 1-3 of these if you are lucky. Most likely last few weeks have had virtually no appreciation sent out.

The average executive criticizes 3-5X more than they appreciate. This highly imbalanced ratio leads to negative relationships at work, makes the receiver defensive and generally poisons the atmosphere.

So what do we do ? how do we turn the critical devil inside all of us into the appreciative angel ?

It’s hard, sometimes impossible. So one easy way is – don’t change anything major.

Just do it for a day.

Put down at a future date in the calender the following – from 9am to 6pm it’s the “Appreciating Others Day”.

·      The moment you open your email send out 5 notes of appreciation to your co workers. They can be short or long based on your genuine appreciation for something good

“Mr A thanks so much for your insightful presentation at XX event which helped us nail the proposal with the customer”.

“Ms Y you have been a tireless worker this year and have contributed enormously to the new project ABC”

·      The moment you open your phone find 5 positive messages of gratitude to send to your colleagues.

·      Wish your wife, son, daughter, mother – with a message, a card or even flowers

·      Find the person who you least like in the office and give them a small card appreciating anything you think they do well

·      Wish your office cleaner or building garbage collector by giving them a big thanks, a small card, flowers or even a small amount of cash

·      If you feel shy make a list of all of these, put them into anonymous notes and find a way to leave it on people’s desks before they come to work.

·      If possible appreciate others publicly over email / whats app groups – send them a good note and copy their boss

If you cant do it for everyone, do it for someone. If you cant do it for everyday, do it one day.

Now open your calender and add “Appreciating Others Day” to the calender.

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