We Can Change… employee appreciation

What’s better than a gift card?

Update: Due to a ton of upcoming work travel, I’ve had to push the launch of my new course Agents of Radiant Change (ARC) back to late April. And by popular demand, we’ll now be meeting on Fridays (not Mondays). There are still spots—come join us!

Friday was Employee Appreciation Day, which always reminds me of this. In honor of this dubious occasion, here’s why it’s wise to practice appreciation all year long:

🚀 Appreciative feedback is powerful and efficient in terms of neural integration. It's easier for our brains to build on what we are already doing well than to figure out how to do something new or different.

🪴 Appreciation of effort rewards a growth mindset, fostering an expectation of and comfort with continual learning and development, which also connects to...

😍 Appreciation of one another as people (rather than seeing people primarily as problems) creates psychological safety, one of the foundational elements of high-performing teams.

Does this mean you should stop setting clear expectations and sharing constructive feedback? Absolutely not. But these things can work together—not in the classic sh*t sandwich model of one-directional feedback, but in an ongoing conversation of what's working well and what we'll do differently next time.

Easy and effective ways to appreciate your employees, which also happen to be free:

• Say “thank you.”

• Celebrate their achievements.

• Recognize their progress toward a goal or standard of excellence.

• Acknowledge time, effort and/or care they invested in a project.

• Invite their perspectives.

• Ask for their help.

• Share information freely with them.

• Say “I like working with you.”

• Tell other people you like working with them.

• Ask about their dreams.

• Create learning and growth opportunities.

• Highlight their unique strengths and skills.

• Respect their different thinking and working styles.

• Honor their boundaries.

• Say “I appreciate you.”

What would you add? How do you like to be appreciated by your boss? How do you express your appreciation to your team and colleagues? Who in your career did this well? What impact did it have on you?