When was the last time you entered one of your team members office just to say "Well done!"? In these times of high expectations and growing pressure for results we often forget to most simple thing in life - to give positive feedback.
As a manager two of the most important things I regularly do are:
- Check in on everybody every morning to say hello
- To congratulate good performance
I am a very challenging boss, asking a lot of my teams and therefore it is even more important to give positive feedback whenever possible. It's clear that there should be a reason to it, but if there is, don't fail to do it, because it can be very demotivating for people only getting negative feedback.
Now ask yourself: "When was the last time my boss congratulated me for my results?"
If it has been a while, don't you feel bad about it? Doesn't it drive you to even better performance when somebody is acknowledging the effort you make? I think we all agree that it does.
So go out and let your teams know when they do good work!
Maybe you're asking yourself now what about saying hello every morning, that's just regular courtesy, isn't it?
Well apparently not - I have experienced myself that for the past 15 years none of my superiors came in every day to say hello. So why do it? In my opinion there are three major effects:
- It shows your team members that you have arrived and are there
- It also shows them that you acknowledge their presence and it gives yourself a good feel about the working hours of your team.
- As simple as it may seem - it shows them that you are human and before even thinking about business just care to say hello
