Appreciation: The lost art of Thank You
Thanks: an unspoken word that can make or break a team
As I reflect back on the past year, I’ve learned a lot about myself and the environment that I thrive.
It’s important to foster transparency, creativity and collaboration.
It’s important to bring mindfulness in everything that I do and be fully present. And not just go from one meeting or project to another but actually enjoy and appreciate that specific moment in time.
With everything that the world had to go through, it’s a blessing to pause. Take a deep breath and be grateful for what we have.
Appreciation in a vacuum
Appreciation in a corporate setting is not about the rewards or the recognition. It can be as simple as a genuine Thank You. You know, when you get a genuine thank you. But most times in big organizations, you even forget that a thank you can go a long way in building trust and relationships.
It’s amazing how we spend all our time and effort on trying to get to the next project and be productive and efficient. And we forget the purpose, the reason why we exist. When I was reading Simon Sinek’s Start with WHY, it’s a great reminder for me to remember my purpose. A true eye opener that gives visibility into the unknown. It gives hope and courage to go on to the next.
This is what appreciation is about. It’s about being grateful for your environment, and for your team. And taking the time to let them know.
Team as a collective
Say you’re working on projects and you’re not sure if you’re doing the right thing because you’re not getting any reciprocity from your management, that’s a hard place to be. If you’re only reminded or question when something goes wrong but never see the appreciation on the things that you’re doing well, that’s an even harder place to be.
I would always worry about what would others think. And now I realized that I have embraced who I am and who I want to be and the universe is conspiring to bring the same forces of good together. I’ve seen it for real in the past year where when I didn’t know if I was in the right place, my team opened up just as I shared who I am in a picture perfect introduction.
And we all came together to create the common purpose: a unified goal of what we want to be collectively as a team.
Rewards and recognition
There are HR tools in our work environment such as rewards and recognition, which is a starting point. How and when you use them is just as important. The first time I logged into the tool, I saw an alarming no. of days of how the team was not recognized. So, I took a step to thank the team for all of their efforts together. And then months went by, before I took the next step to thank the team and recognize promotions and cross functional initiatives.
So where did we go wrong?
What are we not doing to show our appreciation?
Our actions speak louder than words. I have seen rewards and recognition for people that are going above and beyond — working weekends, late nights, vacations and I don’t think that’s the kind of culture we want to build. We need to foster work life balance, now more than ever. Teams are reaching burnout and exhaustion. And we are not doing enough to bring the balance.
We won’t be effective and efficient or productive and collaborative at the expense of work life balance. That’s what makes me wonder. Did we get this all wrong? From the start our actions of what we recognize as a reward is for an individual not for the team as a collective, even though we all know there is a group behind each individual’s success.
And if it is for team, it is for one or two teams amongst the entire business group.
What is the culture that we want to build for team growth and collaboration?
Or do we strive for unhealthy competition, peer pressure and comparison?
It’s not a race to the finish line. It’s how many people can we bring together to get to the finish line. And the truth is: in any organization, there is no finish line because that line keeps shifting always once you achieve the goal. Then we are after the next goal and that’s the reality of organizations and teams today and in the near future.
Summary
It definitely makes me think and wonder:
What is the team culture that we are willing to accept in the world?
How can we show our appreciation, and showcase our genuine thank you?
Especially in these times when we are all remote, our celebrations are at an all time low. And we are not doing enough to raise team morale, boost motivation and cultivate team success.
It definitely brought a smile and a deep sense of gratitude, when I received a kudoboard from my team as a thank you for my contributions in the past year.
I will always cherish these kind words for a lifetime. I am forever grateful for getting to know each and every team member (25) in 10 countries around the world. I got a chance to experience the world through their lives.
How can we take the time today to make a difference in our team members’ lives and not wait for a quarterly rewards to only recognize just a handful?
If you have had any success, I would love to hear from you: in shaping appreciation and thank you into your day-to-day practice for the well-being of your team and to foster growth and collaboration.
“You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.” — Zig Ziglar