How about you? Do you just feel over-appreciated? Do you feel like you have just had a little too much thanks? I have seldom had a member of the audience raise his or her hand when I ask that question. And yet William James said the greatest need of every person is the need to be appreciated. If we are going to be great leaders, we must become great appreciators.

When I was a new Director of K-Life Inc. I was younger than many of my staff. I was a Yankee in Arkansas. On top of that I was asked by my board of Directors to fire two popular people that needed to be fired, but they were friends of mine. How would I build morale and help this organization grow significantly over the next four years? Well, there were certainly things beyond me. However, one little thing that I believe made a big difference was in the form of appreciation.

On Friday mornings I took a half an hour and wrote appreciation notes to people on our team, to board members, to volunteers, and to people that our organization impacted in the community. I looked for people that had done something significant that week and I wrote that person a personal hand-written not of appreciation. I did not write cheesy notes, "Nice smile" or "I like your sweater". I wrote notes of genuine appreciation for something specific that person had done that week.

Today I continue this habit of appreciating clients for hiring me, speaker bureaus for booking me, friends and mentors for helping me and more. The habit creates many wins. First it develops a heart of gratitude. Dennis Praeger said the most important trait a person can develop is that of gratefulness. He also found "gratitude" to be the only common trait among happy people. In other words, it wasn't that one was rich or poor, married or single, or of a certain ethnicity but happiness was found to be common only in those that have an attitude of gratitude.

Secondly, it recognizes great behaviors which tends to get more of that behavior--and you thought this just worked for dog training or kids. Finally, it builds morale and a sense of value. The truth of course is people are valuable. So let them know it.

Become an appreciator. Not someone who flatters. Not someone who is fake or disingenuous. Rather, be someone who simply values and appreciates people.

Labels: appreciation, leadership