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Appreciating your team

While interacting with a set of people recently, the discussion veered onto 'appreciation' of their teams. It is incredible how many people carry the thought in their head that too much appreciation will result in underperformance of the team. And most of my spot surveys have shown that 'appreciation' is a very very limited commodity in organisations.

Now appreciation does not mean random appreciation - it means appreciating something that has been done well - even if it is routine. It does not mean false appreciation. This led to the thought that well, the team does not do so many good things that it needs to be appreciated.

On the other hand, pointing out things to be done better  - seemed to echo rather well with everybody.

It is reasonably well proven that motivating, inspiring and getting people motivated to achieve a goal higher than themselves is a far more motivating factor than pointing out faults.

Now pointing out faults by itself is not a bad - and it can also be done in a much better manner - making it more solution focussed, getting people to do better and stretch themselves to more than they think they are capable of.

Somehow, when all this is added up, people still do not see appreciation as a tool for growth. By the end, people agreed that it can be done, but how much will be implemented, remains to be seen.

Developing thought!
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