Appreciate Your Team

This week's blog is dedicated to Jason Marchi.  Jason was a wonderful family man, team player and always went the extra mile.  Everyone loved Jason and we will miss you dearly.

ALWAYS APPRECIATE YOUR TEAM

There are many ways you can appreciate your team and I would like to share some of them with you.  As a leader, how are you appreciating your team?  When things get tough or something tragic happens, your team needs you to be there for them.

SAY THANK YOU MORE OFTEN

This may seem obvious and yet many employees have shared with their employers and others they wished their employers would thank them more.  As employers, you can argue employees get paid for doing their job and that is not going to cut it.  Saying a genuine thank you and recognizing an employee for doing their job shows your appreciation as an employer.

I have always felt I was saying thank you more often and realized a while back I was actually not doing this.  Being aware and making changes to say thank you more often has made a difference.

Here is an example of how to say thank you during a project or event.  Everyone on the team stepped up and did a lot of work.  The day after the event, the first thing I did when I walked in was to personally thank each employee.  Was this necessary?   No. Why did I do this?  It was my way of showing appreciation from the Partners for everyone’s efforts and for making it such a great event.

LISTEN & RECOGNIZE YOUR EMPLOYEES

Your employees see the business and daily tasks differently than the employer.  Ask your employees what they think.  Ask them what they recommend to improve and make things better.

Listen to them.  Acknowledge their ideas and input.  Employers may not always agree, however, seeing the employees’ perspectives and blending them with the employer’s perspective creates very positive results.

At our weekly Team discussions, we say thank you to employees for specific things accomplished from the previous week such as certifications, targets reached and providing clients with wow experiences. We also recognize milestones with awards for 5 years, 10 years, 20 years and 25+ years of dedication and commitment as an AlphaKORian!

PROVIDE A FUN AND CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT

We spend a significant amount of time focused on our work at the office or working remotely.  The weekly Team discussion includes a trivia game some weeks to have some competitive fun before we head into the weekend.  We are adding a "two truths and a lie" guessing game along with guessing the team's baby pictures.   What can you do to create a fun environment?

For those of us in the office, we have created areas of very open space.  There is a ping pong table for some leisure time when taking a break.  We have a quiet room and the “Unplugged Lounge” for interactive and creative discussions.  There is a lot of outdoor green space for playing catch, throwing a football around and kicking a soccer ball once the weather warms up!

FINDING THE RIGHT BALANCE

As long as there is balance with work, leisure and creativity, this type of environment works very well.   Our employees have embraced and supported this environment and enjoy the “java” stations for many types of coffee or tea.  Making the team working from home feel connected has been the biggest challenge during this pandemic.   They are always there when we reach out to them.  Thank you!

What are you doing to appreciate your team?

(Originally published on 02.17.21)