Employee Appreciation Day was a couple of days ago. If you didn’t know that, hopefully you are appreciated 365 days of the year. Yeah that includes the weekends.

When I talk to my team about feedback, I hardly ever talk about their work. I’m very much appreciative of who they are. Characteristics of responsibility, dependability, and ambition comes across in their work. It makes me not really have to worry about it because I know who they are as people. The highest form of engagement comes from knowing that others are genuinely interested in our wellbeing.

When we show appreciation, it lifts us up and frees us to do our best work. I hope my team is energized to bring their best foot forward. Without any fear of judgement or expectation. The opposite puts us in survival mode. We are more interested in getting things done than getting things done well.

How Did We Get Here?

The problem we have with showing appreciation is that it has made to seem awkward in the workplace. Some people see it as disingenuous. In most settings, it is. We aren’t used to positive emotions within the workplace. Work started out as people performing functions within a factory. A robot can do these standardized tasks . I guess, overtime, we became those robots. We are not accustomed to showing our emotions in the office.

The opposite is actually true. The office is ran by negative emotion. More times than none, coworkers are reactive or act defensively to a situation or what’s been said. This without being conscious to the impact it has on the people we correspond with the most. This negative behavior creates a toxic work environment.

Acknowledge Value

The first thing to do to correct this issue is to acknowledge that everyone has value. The action to take here is to make sure that this value doesn’t get devalued. This includes times where they’ve fallen short, and our goal is to change their behavior for the better.

Appreciate Yourself

The way you treat others is a reflection of how you treat yourself. At the end of your day try thinking of things you can be proud of. If you need to improve, offer up ways in which you can do so. This will make it easy for you to do the same towards others.

Notice What Others Are Doing Right

When tend to only notice when people mess up. It’s as if the good stuff that they’ve done is meaningless. Look at the qualities that your teammates bring to the table and see how those pieces fit in the overall goal.

Be Appreciative

This is it. This is the heading. The more specific you can be, the more meaningful your appreciation will be.