Not only is gratitude beneficial for your personal health and well-being, in business it is effective in reducing turnover, boosting team morale, and increasing productivity.
In our “10 Minutes from the Top” podcast, YPO members share simple, sincere ways to show appreciation to employees any time of year. Here are some of their favorite strategies:
Simple, sincere ways to show appreciation to employees any time of year
- “Sit with them, be with them. Don’t sit in the ivory tower.” — Wayne Naidoo, Founder and CEO of DUKE.
- “Being specific and talking to them about what you appreciate. If they understand what impact they have had, I think they really do feel valued.” — Sneha Shah, Managing Director of Thompson Reuters, Africa
- “When you do something for them, don’t let it be generic. Take enough interest in them so that you can do something for them that’s meaningful.”— Aaron McArdle, Founder and CEO of RoomReady
- “Let people grow; let them learn. Celebrate their successes with them; celebrate their failures with them.” — Peter Jessiman, President of Wescan Capital and Co-owner of Bison Transport
- “Openly talk to them about positives as well as improvables. Open communication is critical.” — Adrian Vycital, Founding Partner of SynCo Group
- “Create a good career path for them, especially personal development.” — Shiyin Cai, Founder & CEO of Dialogue in the Dark (China)
- “A combination of recognition and monetary compensation.” — Don Duval, CEO of NORCAT
- “Giving consistent feedback and patting them on the back every chance you get.” — Wesley Palmisano, President and CEO of Palmisano
- “Being spontaneous and just doing something nice. Just the spontaneous engagement, spontaneous actions, that send the message of how important they are.” — Katie LeGardeur, Managing Director, Market Manager of JPMorgan
- “A genuine thank you and helping people always connect what they’re doing to the greater mission.” — David H. McKinley, President and Managing Director of McKinley-Carter Wealth Services
- “Saying thank you is important but I think actually even more important is, in your quiet space, to recognize what a gift the people that you work with every day are giving to you.” — Dan Price, Founder and CEO of Gravity Payments
- “Never miss an opportunity to give feedback.” — Giovanna D’Esposito, founder of PaddyPower and Sky Bet in Italy
- “It boils down to attention. It’s really understanding who that person is as a human being and showing that you care and have enough information about them to demonstrate that care.” — Anthony Farr, Founder and CEO of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation
- “Look in their eye, listen and be fully present when you are with them.” — Enrique Quemada, Chairman of ONEtoONE Corporate Finance Group
- “Spending time listening to them. I find that if you have a great conversation with somebody and you express that appreciation through conversation and listening to them, that’s effective.” — Laura Van Til, President and COO of The Kessler Collection
- “Listening to them and being authentic and vulnerable. Showing them that respect that you’re human as well.” — Elikem Tamaklo, Managing Director of Nyaho Medical Centre
“Recognize what a gift the people that you work with every day are giving to you.” — Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments
