How to Appreciate More

Written by Max | Edited by Rory Hart
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    © Copyright Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

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    How Well Do You Appreciate, Show Gratitude?

    Take this online self-assessment:

    Gratitude

    How much would you like to improve your ability to appreciate? Consider the guidelines in the following section.

    How to Appreciate Even More

    Why Is the Ability to Appreciate Accomplishments So Important?

    Particularly with personnel in small- to medium-size organizations, it is rare that there is not a large amount of work to do. Because time is such a precious commodity in these organizations, it is common that their people cannot provide sustained effort to priorities and projects. Many times, they get put on “hold” for a few weeks as people attend to other sudden demands for their time, for example, developing a major proposal for a new customer, the Chief Executive Officer’s leaving for vacation, preparing for their annual meeting, or finishing a large product evaluation. For you and your employees, it can seem that activities have stalled out completely.

    For many of us, it can seem like we are stuck in a merry-go-round that never goes anywhere and we cannot seem to get off. By ignoring our accomplishments, we are ignoring vast portions of our lives and our work – our perspective can become skewed and incomplete. That perspective can be a major obstacle to the success of leaders.

    How Can You Maintain Appreciation for Appreciation?

    As a leader, you can make a big difference in your effectiveness and that of your peoples’ accomplishments if all of you have the ability to recognize and appreciate your accomplishments regularly. Consider the following guidelines.

    1. Convey the importance of appreciation when you start working with others.

    Explain how important it is to recognize accomplishments as well as the tasks yet to be done. Mention it is really important in small- to medium-sized organizations.

    2. Ask employees for ideas about how to regularly recognize completion of tasks.

    Different cultures have different practices. Some might prefer a simple “Thank you,” while others might prefer a ritual of some sort. Therefore, it is important early in your leadership role to get ideas from your people.

    3. When planning, build in acknowledgement of completion in plans.

    Planning always results in a list of things to do. Too often, the design of the plans does not include means to recognize accomplishments. Planning is one of the best opportunities to regularly build in means to recognize accomplishments.

    4. Design project tasks so it is clear whether they were finished or not.

    This is often one of the biggest challenges in developing a sense of appreciation. Ideally, goals, objectives and other tasks are designed to be SMART, an acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely.

    5. Regularly acknowledge the completion of the tasks or progress on tasks.

    Always seek to find opportunities to appreciate the work of your people. That practice can be a powerful means to model behaviors that they learn from in their lives and work.

    Additional Aspects of Personal Wellness

    Learn More in the Library’s Blogs Related to Appreciation

    In addition to the articles on this current page, see the following blogs which have posts related to Appreciation. Scan down the blog’s page to see various posts. Also see the section “Recent Blog Posts” in the sidebar of the blog or click on “next” near the bottom of a post in the blog.

    For the Category of Personal Wellness:

    To round out your knowledge of this Library topic, you may want to review some related topics, available from the link below. Each of the related topics includes free, online resources.

    Also, scan the Recommended Books listed below. They have been selected for their relevance and highly practical nature.


    Max