Recognise This! – The power of “thank you” can dramatically change your workplace, too.
John Kralik certainly thinks so. After watching everything in his life, personally and professionally go from bad to worse (and complaining about it all the way), John tried the opposite approach – looking for something to be grateful and writing a thank you note every day of the year. After 365 notes, John took stock, finding:
"When you appreciate something, it comes again. If I was thankful for clients paying their bills, they seemed to pay faster. If I was thankful for cases, they seemed to come more."
There is power in positivity in the workplace, too. Scientists have run the studies for us, proving that receiving a simple thank you increased the likelihood of a person’s willingness to help again in the future by 100%. A different study by McKinsey reported 67% say praise or recognition from a direct manager is an effective or extremely effective workplace motivator.
How do you implement this idea of saying “thank you” in the workplace? It’s easier than you think if you just give people the mechanism (employee recognition) to do so, the guidance on why, and the example (from the highest levels on down) of others doing the same.
Jonathon Hogg of PA Consulting discussed this in a Financial Times article earlier this year:
“Companies can also explore ways of developing systems to recognise the efforts of individual employees. These are mechanisms that show people how their work contributes to the organisation’s achievements, and to encourage them to appreciate the efforts of colleagues. Nine months after security software provider Symantec [watch Symantec tell their own story] launched its global programme, called Applause, employee engagement scores rose by 16 per cent.”
Do you believe in the power of positivity – that saying “thank you” can change your life? Tell me a story of a time when hearing or saying “thanks” really impacted you.
