How to Genuinely Appreciate Your Team

I was barefooted in China surrounded by kids at the park. They didn’t speak English. I didn’t speak Mandarin. They wanted to learn soccer. I had a soccer ball. I began a coaching session - without words. Your feedback, recognition, appreciation, and applause doesn’t have to be elaborate or even in the same language, it just has to be genuine. 

Treat your employees like they make a difference and they will because people are not just looking for a paycheck, people are looking for purpose. Employee recognition and appreciation are one of the easiest and oftentimes free forms of employee engagement, retention, and value...and it is oftentimes overlooked in importance. 

And this really brings me to an important HR guideline you should be considering for your organization. You need to Genuinely Recognize and Appreciate Your Employees.

Showing employee recognition can be as informal and simple as a card, statement in the hallway, or recognition in a meeting. Sometimes it is more formal such as employee of the month, value awards, work anniversaries, and celebrating milestones within the company. Formal or informal, it is important that the recognition be genuine. 

A general recognition without personality can be seen as disingenuous and not held in high regard. 

Genuine recognition is personal. There is a reason why the "Happy birthday song" is exciting for us. It's the only celebratory song that personally says our name. The song without our name is nice, but we don't have a personal connection to the congratulations. Take the time and make it personal. With my kids in China, I motioned specifically to the player that I wanted to praise for good soccer moves and gave them a high-five or thumbs up. 

Genuine recognition is specific. If you want to reinforce good behavior, make sure the employee knows what behavior should be reinforced. My players in China saw me duplicate the move that I appreciated before I gave them a high five. They knew specifically what I was praising and what behavior I wanted to be repeated. Don't leave the employee more confused knowing they did something well but unsure of what. 

Genuine recognition is timely. Delayed gratification isn't nearly as effective as it could be. If you see something good then address it then! Time moves fast and you want to express appreciation before it is forgotten. Appreciate the awesome people around you. 

Genuine recognition seems easy enough, so easy that it is often forgotten. When in China, all the players knew was to follow my action, try their best, and feel my appreciation and positive reinforcement. If I had ignored their effort then eventually they would have left and I would have stood in the park alone with my soccer ball. Unappreciated and unrecognized success of your team breeds recognized failure of your leadership.

So, here's what I want you to do: Identify the spectacular aspects of your awesome team and recent team successes that they have had and then genuinely show them your appreciation.