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December 14th, 2007
The power of saying "thank you"
"Thank you" – probably two of the most powerful words no matter what your language. My grandson is two years old and the other day I watched the smile that came to a waiter’s eyes when he said, "thank you" after the waiter brought his food. I then watched as the waiter went back and shared the story with a co-worker. The magic that occurred in that moment was quite striking for me.
When we're young, most of our parents insist that we say "please" and "thank you" on a regular basis. It's interesting that as we grow to be adults and achieve success in our careers, we sometimes forget the power of those words.
"Feeling valued and appreciated" has been a driver of employee engagement on just about every engagement survey I've seen – yet few companies receive high scores in this area. On a past occasion while discussing low employee scores in the "feeling valued and appreciated" category with an executive team, one of them looked at me and said, "What does that look like?" and I simply said, "Thank you.” It doesn’t necessarily take cars, trips and monetary gifts to make people feel valued. It can be accomplished with simple words that let people know you appreciate them and the work they do.
Here's a simple three-step recognition process:
- This is what I saw
- This is the impact it had
- Thank you
Try using this once or twice a day with colleagues. You'll find it only takes seconds and probably has a greater return on investment than anything else you can do in such a short time.
Some other fun and easy methods that companies use to recognize employees include:
- Writing a thank you note on the back of their business cards
- Giving people an "I got caught" (doing something good) award that's good for admission to a pizza lunch with an executive
- Giving out magnets that can be attached to a picture frame that the company gives as a gift
Happy holidays and thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter each month. We appreciate your readership and welcome your feedback!
Chris Gay
Partner, Bridge Consulting
engagement@melcrum.com
You know engagement's important...but how do you actually do it? Melcrum’s latest practitioner’s guide, Essential techniques for employee engagement, tells you how to implement proven programs to build a committed workforce. It guides you through the 4 most important techniques for engaging employees and shows you how to successfully introduce your own initiatives. |
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About
Melcrum
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