Appreciating

Karel is an ambitious manager who works with the greatest integrity.  He is leading a ‘care-institution’ of 3000 employees. He is a good strategist, but at the same time as a manager and as man deeply involved with the patients. Furthermore, he is passionately leading his management team, a team that exists of excellent professional man and woman.

Recently I have spent a day with Karel and his management team. We took our time to get to know each other (better). Something that I really noticed was that they all showed the need of appreciation…

 

One needs to regularly get feedback on the quality of his work. Another needs to hear that he, as a person, is respected, yet another really gets energy when he is able to express himself freely, and when other are truly listening.

After Karel got to hear from all of his team-members how appreciation influences their intrinsic motivation, he responded: ‘Well, all of you obviously know how much I respect and appreciate every single one of you!’ ‘Do you?!’:was the spontaneous answer of the others. ‘It’s great that you have said so, we were not too sure about it.’ Very surprised Karel first just stood there, but then he realized that his fantastic team apparently wasn’t too sure about his vision regarding them.

So: appreciating, is something you actually have to do! It has to be done in an active form, in order to be effective.

Appreciation start with observing people well, in order to be at the spot whenever they deliver excellent work or strongly show the companies mentality.

Furthermore, it is very worthwhile to:

1.    write some of the positive note regarding your observation down (which will create an evident picture concerning your team and their good work);

2.    actively show/ or speak out your appreciation

3.    make ‘appreciation’ something you do naturally, by doing it actively and with regularity.

A good tip: start with your employees, but also practice appreciation in your private-spheres. Literature-tip: the 1-Minute manager, by Kenneth Blanchard

All the best,

Paul Donders