How to Promote a Culture of Appreciation

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American retail business owners just ended their Black Friday sales, and friends and families enjoyed their Thanksgiving holiday; now the Christmas season is upon us. Many people around the world, especially in Christian cultures, use this period to strengthen and express their faith by attending Christmas church services and by exchanging gifts with their loved ones.

Some companies extend gifts to their team members during this time of the year. Unfortunately, showing appreciation is underappreciated and ought to be promoted for the well-being of both organizations and their team members.

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As you can imagine, when it comes to appreciating others, it is common for leaders to overlook acknowledging their workers for their loyalty and organizational commitment. However, organizations that show appreciation to their team members receive both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards.

In the retail business, floor associates are highly useful to customers because they are the face of their company. In other words, customers feel appreciated when a store associate smiles and attends to them in a very warm and friendly way. The spillover effect of an associate’s simple gesture to a customer can encourage the customer to become a repeat customer and even influence their friends and family members to shop at that store. Repeat customers who receive great customer service anticipate seeing the store associate each time they visit the store. A customer-associate bond is established and customer loyalty is enhanced as a result of great customer service rendered by a floor associate.

Similarly, organizations that understand the importance of taking good care of their team members, beyond offering them good health benefits and good pay, build strong bonds by constantly showing appreciation to their team members. The interesting thing about appreciation is, it comes in different forms; that is why organizational leaders should study their team members to understand their appreciation language. Here are three simple ways leaders in organizations can show appreciation to their team members.

1. Make showing appreciation a habit. Showing appreciation requires taking a focused action. With the number of distractions people confront on a daily basis, showing appreciation to people who deserve it can be a challenge. One way to overcome the issue of forgetting to show appreciation is to show appreciation as soon as a particular act is noticed. Verbalizing or penning an appreciation note immediately has a positive effect on the team member and also strengthens your behavior of showing appreciation. Over time the practice of showing appreciation becomes a habit. And once it becomes a habit, it is easier to share the secret sauce with other team members.

2. Share the secret with other team members. Lessons are learned to be shared; otherwise, they are not lessons. If everyone can share one positive thing they have learned with someone on a daily basis, the workplace would be less stressful as team members learn from each other how to manage their own stresses and identify possible solutions that could reduce stress within the organization. Just as engaging in quality customer service is a learned behavior that can be shared with other team members, showing appreciation can be learned and shared, especially if it can be promoted as part of an organizational culture.

3. Create a culture of appreciation. A simple way of incorporating the showing of appreciation into an organization’s culture is by displaying appreciation posters in strategic places like office hallways. Simple words like, “Thank you for what you do,” can be a great encourager to team members. Meeting a team member for the first time each day and using a polite phrase as a salutation, like, “It’s good to see you today,” can serve as an encourager in the workplace. In a way, using such phrases is a form of showing appreciation and recognizing the other person’s presence. These subtle yet profound ways of acknowledging others help cultivate an appreciative atmosphere. Using affirmative words to greet team members on a daily basis creates a culture of appreciation and presence. An attitude of appreciation is a culture worth sharing. It definitely doesn’t cost anything to smile and be cordial to colleagues, especially if you know what politeness and appreciation can do to your mental well-being.

Showing appreciation in the workplace is a healthy act. For one, it is good for your own and others’ mental well-being, letting team members feel valued and seen. Second, showing appreciation can be contagious. When a colleague witnesses appreciation being expressed to another member, the tendency of paying it forward increases. And lastly, creating a culture of showing appreciation helps create harmony amongst team members. Showing appreciation is a practice worth emulating. Wear it as you would clothing and it will look good on you, any day, anywhere, and any time. It’s kind of like the lyrics of the old song: “You’re never fully dressed without a smile.”