Empowering your team through appreciation and recognition

As someone who has spent years in the sales enablement field, I can tell you that one of the most powerful ways to enhance performance and connection within your team is through effective appreciation and recognition.?

Time and again, I've seen how acknowledging great work and making people feel truly valued can transform attitudes, boost engagement, and propel teams to new heights of success.?

In this article, I'm going to share a roadmap for empowering your sales teams through appreciation and recognition. We'll explore the significance of connecting people to purpose, unlocking their potential for great work, and mastering the art of meaningful recognition.?

By the end, you'll have a deeper understanding of why these elements matter, along with practical strategies you can implement right away, so let’s dive in!

Connecting your team to the "Why"

Let's begin our journey by revisiting the wise words of Henry David Thoreau, the 19th-century philosopher and author.?

As the story goes, Thoreau once told his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson that he wanted to live in a small cabin near Walden Pond for a few years to "study the human condition." His objective? To "live life deliberately" and confront only the "essential facts of life."

During his time at Walden, Thoreau made a profound observation about the people he encountered working in sawmills, shops, and stores.?

He noticed a distinct lack of excitement and buy-in – a sense that they weren't feeling truly connected to their work. This realization led Thoreau to pen one of his most famous lines:?

"The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation."?

What Thoreau was getting at is something that rings just as true today as it did nearly two centuries ago. People crave purpose; they want to feel that their efforts are meaningful and aligned with something greater than themselves.?

As Peter Drucker, the renowned business thinker, put it:?

"The purpose of business is to win a customer."?

Winning customers requires creating unique brand experiences they love, and to win in the marketplace, as former Campbell's CEO Doug Conant said, you must first "win the workplace" – engaging your people.

As leaders, it's our responsibility to help teams find and connect with that sense of purpose. One of the best ways is by identifying and articulating the "higher purpose" of what they do within the organization.?

Unfortunately, research shows only about 19% of employees feel capable of conveying their purpose emotionally, so take that as an opportunity to get your team to practice putting purpose into words with finesse and personality.??

By working with your team to explore and define their collective "why" – the impact they're striving to make and the principles that guide their work – you'll be planting the seeds for deeper engagement and inspiration.?

It takes practice, but getting comfortable talking about purpose authentically is a skill every leader should cultivate.

Enabling your team to make a difference?

With purpose established, the next step is empowering your sales team to engage in truly "great work" – work that makes a tangible difference in the lives of the people they serve.

Let me share a powerful story that illustrates this. It involves Doug Dietz, a brilliant engineer and MRI pioneer.?

After unveiling a new MRI technology, Doug witnessed a heartbreaking scene: a terrified 9-year-old girl having a meltdown before her first MRI, ultimately requiring sedation like 85% of children her age.

Disturbed, Doug started researching how to transform the experience, studying play areas, and talking to child psychologists and kids themselves.

The result? "Adventure Series" MRI machines that are designed to look like immersive environments that would captivate children's imaginations.

Now, instead of fearing the procedure, kids couldn't wait to "voyage" through these adventures.

This is great work in action. It's taking the time to understand the difference you could and should be making, then taking the initiative to thoughtfully enhance people's experiences.

So think about this:?

What's the difference you're meant to make? What problems can you solve or lives can you positively impact through your leadership and team's work??

Spend time meditating on these questions. The answers may surprise and inspire you.

Closing the loop

Now let's master the true art of appreciation and recognition.

First, understand the distinction between these two concepts. Appreciation is an internal feeling of gratitude for someone's efforts. Recognition is the outward action taken to celebrate great work and make others feel valued.

Too often, managers say they "appreciate" their team yet never actually recognize them meaningfully. Others try recognizing people, but do so inauthentically, missing the mark.?

The most effective approach melds genuine appreciation with personalized, thoughtful recognition.

What does that look like? Based on research and experience, follow these best practices:

• Be frequent: Aim to give, receive, or observe recognition moments weekly.
• Focus on timelines: Don't let too much time pass before acknowledging great work.?
• Stay inclusive: Make recognition a team-wide effort, not just for top performers. Everyone should feel valued for their unique contributions.
• Make it performance-based: Tie your recognition directly to specific achievements or behaviors you want to reinforce, preventing any perception of bias.

When you nail frequent, timely, inclusive, performance-based recognition, the impact is profound. Employees who feel adequately recognized are more engaged, productive, and likely to go above and beyond.

When we win the workplace by recognizing our colleagues, we pave the way for winning in the marketplace too.

A transformative example?

To illustrate just how powerful purpose, great work, and appreciation can be, let me share one final story from Jack Canfield's “Chicken Soup for the Soul” interviews. It's about entrepreneur Ken Behring.

When interviewed, Ken's net worth hovered around $500 million. However, he admitted going through four distinct "phases" in his pursuit of happiness:

Phase 1: Acquiring "stuff" like homes, cars, and boats – thinking success would make him happy.

Phase 2: Getting "more stuff" like private jets, realizing it still wasn't enough.??

Phase 3: Pursuing "better stuff" by buying the Seattle Seahawks football team, yet feeling unfulfilled.

It wasn't until Phase 4 that everything changed. A colleague invited Ken on a philanthropic trip providing wheelchairs to landmine-injured children in war-torn countries.?

Ken's main task was simply to help get each child settled in their new wheelchair.

As he did this, a 9-year-old boy grabbed Ken's leg. Through a translator, the boy said that he wanted Ken to stay so he could "memorize his face" – so that he could thank him again when he sees him in heaven.

In that moment, Ken experienced true purpose, great work, and humbling appreciation. The encounter was so transformative that he started his own wheelchair non-profit.

Ken's journey reminds us that success alone rings hollow without deeper meaning. It underscores why integrating purpose, great work, and appreciation is so vital for unlocking new levels of engagement, fulfillment, and impact as leaders.

Conclusion

The road less traveled can make all the difference. In the realm of empowering sales teams, that road is purposeful work appreciated and recognized in meaningful ways.

While more conventional leadership paths fixate on things like more training, higher pay, added perks, and promotions, the highest-performing teams crave something more human: feeling their work has significance, that their efforts truly matter, and that their contributions are genuinely valued.

By connecting your people to an uplifting "why", empowering them to make a positive difference, and closing the loop with frequent, timely, inclusive, and performance-based recognition, you'll be taking that road less traveled.?

Trust me, your team's engagement, productivity, and drive to go above and beyond will make all the difference in return!

So I'll leave you with this call to action:?

Reflect on how you can more consistently appreciate and recognize your sales team. Spend time reconnecting them to your organizational purpose. Explore the unique difference they can make through their roles, and get creative about personalizing your recognition efforts.