CANADIAN THANKSGIVING is right around the corner and it got us at TALTEK thinking – “How do we express our gratitude and appreciation in the workplace, and do we express it well?”
Be it your co-workers, superiors or subordinates, peers, or even the CEO, everyone needs to feel valued and appreciated.
Studies show that “cultivating a culture of gratitude won’t just boost employees’ well-being and performance”, it’ll also build and maintain positive relationships at work, reduce or even eliminate workplace mistreatment1 – resulting in a markedly more positive organizational culture.
Hence, it was with great interest reading in How to Give and Receive Compliments at Work on Harvard Business Review (HBR), that “nearly 70% of people associated recognition with embarrassment or discomfort”.
It’s not unsurprising however, and we’re willing to bet that how the compliments were delivered in the first place, if at all, is a significant reason for recipients to experience “Complimentary Awkwardness”.
Think back to a time where you poured blood, sweat and tears on a work project and you were bursting with relief and pride when it was completed: Did you receive appreciation and acknowledgment for your contribution, if at all? How was the appreciation delivered? More importantly, how did the acknowledgment make you feel? Did it leave you feeling elated, valued, motivated and all that good stuff to climb even greater heights for yourself, your team and your employer? OR
Did it leave you feeling confused at best, and at worse, discouraged and demotivated? Maybe even bad enough for you to consider leaving the organisation? (Then the problem may not be how this person “thanked” you but I digress.)
By investigating our feelings after receiving a compliment, and thinking about why we liked or didn’t like it – we can discover better ways of delivering our appreciation for others leaving the both of you feeling, well, great!
No matter how busy you are, make the time and effort to sincerely thank a co-worker – take them out to a nice lunch; gift something nice; write a nice email; or simply spend 5 minutes at their desk telling them how much you appreciate their work. Sincere gestures won’t go amiss.
Thank them for something they specifically did that was above the call of duty. For instance, “Joe, thanks for working over that three-day weekend to make our presentation deck perfect. Because of it, we won the client.”
Acknowledge the effort that they made “I realize how important your family is to you, and that working on this cost you the time you’d planned to spend with your daughters. And yet you did it without griping or complaining. Your dedication motivated everyone else on the team to make the presentation excellent.”
Tell them what it personally meant to you. “You know that, rightly or wrongly, we are very much judged on our results and you were largely responsible for helping me achieve one that will cause my next performance review to be ‘over the moon,’ just like yours is going to be. You’re the best!”
Armed with a Power Thank You, showing appreciation just leveled-up! Now, hopefully you’ll able to show appreciation well to a coworker who deserves it.
From Everyone on the TALTEK team
REFERENCES
Goulston, Mark. (2013 February 20). How to Give a Meaningful “Thank You”. HBR
Carucci, Ron. (2018 July 16). What Not to Do When You’re Trying to Motivate Your Team. HBR
Littlefield, Christopher. (2019 October 12). How to Give and Receive Compliments at Work. HBR
Locklear, Lauren R; Taylor, Shannon G; Ambrose, Maureen L. (2019 October 12). Building a Better Workplace Starts with Saying “Thanks”. HBR
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TALTEK is an information technology (IT) placement and consulting firm. We find the TALENTS you need when you need them. Our expertise, technology, and human approach result in better hiring decisions, better retention, and successful teams.
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