Appreciation - The key

Let’s accept one basic fact – not one of us is impervious to appreciation. Right from the moment we learned to walk and talk, it is appreciation that has oiled our wheels and kept us going. Why then do we forget this basic lesson in handling other human beings ? Who does not love appreciation ?
If attitude is described as a locked door to which only the attitude – holder holds the key, the surest way to open that lock is to use the ‘key’ of appreciation. Appreciation has an effect akin to one the sun has on a field of sunflowers, imagine this – you appreciate someone and watch as that person opens out like a sunflower under the sun!
In fact the one way to inculcate desired behaviors is to appreciate the behavior and preferably in public. Conversely, being critical of undesired behavior is the surest way to enforce and get it repeated. An old saying goes : ‘What you focus on grows!’
Canny managements and managers are sure to first develop ‘Reward and Recognition’ programs on priority. Even in the absence of an effective ‘R & R’ policy smart individual managers can develop their own ‘appreciation’ policies. The happy part is that it does not require much financial outlay, since appreciation can be by way of a letter, a bar of chocolate, a very public assignment, a delegated task, a handshake – even just a pat on the back. An old quote from the days when the milder forms of corporal punishment were still considered effective goes : ‘A pat on the back, administered hard enough and low enough builds character !’ In modern times one can safely leave out the ‘low enough’ bit ! It might be a good idea for a good manager to actually work out an ‘Appreciation Plan’ for his team along with his beginning of the month sales plans, recovery plans and other business plans.
If this is such an easily understood philosophy why is it not utilized more often ? One principal reason could be a general reluctance to appreciate or honor other human beings – many of us actually imagine that by appreciating another we are actually weakening our own position! Nothing could be further from the truth – remember ‘only human beings can help human beings to succeed.’ The more happy and satisfied human beings we have around us, the more we are likely to succeed. The other reason could very well be that we are still reliving our ‘school’ experience of having our work marked through with a red pencil ! We could be suffering from the backlash of a ‘red pencil’ mentality !
Appreciation can as well be a self – transformational tool; when one constantly strives to look at the positive side of people, one can only gain by steadily developing powerful human insights and consequent empathy.
‘Catch people doing the right things’ is the way of the great leader; signifying not just the quality of the leadership but also the quality of the followership - and no prizes for guessing why.
Appreciation can be a powerful transformational tool, if used wisely and well ! Appreciation can make the world go round !!