This article explores how to enhance team appreciation and recognition by focusing on feedback, fostering belonging, ensuring security, encouraging curiosity, and promoting understanding.
The Importance of Recognition and Appreciation
Appreciation can be conveyed in various ways, including through direct interactions, kind words and gestures, mutual trust, and genuine interest and feedback shared with colleagues.
Appreciation and recognition not only create a more positive work environment where everyone feels valued and acknowledged but also enhance psychological safety. This sense of security allows individuals to express their true feelings, admit mistakes openly, and fosters trust. In many cases, this trust enables people to explore creative ideas and learn from failures, ultimately driving growth and innovation.
Constructive Insights
Feedback is a core aspect of recognition. Effective feedback shows that I have thoughtfully engaged with my colleague’s work and genuinely care about either acknowledging its strengths or collaborating to refine and enhance it.
When giving feedback, always ensure the other person is open to receiving it and willing to hear your suggestions. It’s equally important to separate the subject from the individual. Focus on specific processes, workflows, results, or actions rather than making personal attacks or offering vague evaluations of “good” or “bad.” The more specific and concrete your feedback, the higher the likelihood that it will be understood, accepted, and effectively implemented.
Actively seeking feedback is equally important, particularly as a manager. It demonstrates that you value your team’s opinions and appreciate their honesty. Moreover, it sets a positive example, encouraging others to both provide and request feedback, fostering a culture of open communication and mutual growth.
Finally, a vibrant feedback culture promotes continuous development for everyone involved, incorporates diverse perspectives, and enables ongoing improvement and optimization of work processes and behaviors.
Fostering Belonging and Security
Individuals who feel a sense of safety and belonging are more likely to share their ideas, actively engage in daily tasks, and demonstrate greater commitment to achieving shared goals.
A crucial factor is how differences, new ideas, as well as mistakes and failures, are addressed in the workplace. For instance, if I consistently respond negatively to ideas that differ from my perspective, my team is likely to withhold such ideas in the future.
The same applies to negative reactions to mistakes or failures. Instead of fostering open and honest discussions about lessons learned and effective ways to address the situation, mistakes may be concealed out of fear of punishment or criticism.
Collaboration and meaningful exchange occur when everyone involved feels safe to express themselves openly and honestly, including sharing their weaknesses. This environment is essential for collective learning and growth.
You can foster this environment by regularly asking open-ended questions, addressing mistakes constructively to learn from them, and encouraging your team to share their perspectives, even when they challenge the status quo.
Demonstrate Curiosity and Understanding Toward Your Team
Ultimately, appreciation and recognition involve acknowledging each team member as a whole person. This means understanding that they are not defined solely by their professional role but also navigate various aspects of life as parents, friends, neighbors, or in other capacities, all of which can influence their mood and productivity.