As an employer and team leader, how can you invest in the future of your workplace? At Karma, we believe that showing gratitude and appreciation towards your employees is a great place to start.
In this article, we are going to be exploring the importance of gratitude and appreciation in the workplace. Many people would regard gratitude and appreciation as being common courtesy, but it can be easy to overlook these positive behavioral traits. If you can shift the culture in your workplace to a place of positivity, you will unlock a stream of productivity and motivation among your workforce.
You do not need to be an expert in emotional intelligence to show gratitude and appreciation in the workplace. It’s often the little things, such as offering to make someone a coffee or asking how their weekend had been – that have the power to change the course of the entire day. When someone has been frantically typing away at their computer all day, recognizing their immense efforts can help you to engage with them.
There is no better feeling than when your boss notices and recognizes the amount of effort that you have put into a day’s work. Showing gratitude and appreciation for the determination they have can act as positive reinforcement - encouraging these behaviors for the long term.
Study From The Journal of Personality & Social Psychology
It’s all about feeling valued. Even the most introverted, shy individuals appreciate when their efforts are noticed. This is a perfectly natural human trait that often goes ignored. However, research has shown that expressing gratitude and appreciation for another person’s efforts can be motivating as it can lead to a stronger sense of social worth.
In the Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, a research study from Adam Grant and Francesca Gino explored the idea of how individual competence and feelings of worth from receiving appreciation motivated people to spread positivity. In other words, the researchers wanted to see whether acts of positivity ultimately led to more positivity, like a domino effect.
The pair of researchers conducted four experiments to see whether acts of appreciation have the ability to affect or influence a recipient’s subsequent behavior. The first experiment involved participants editing a cover letter for a student’s job application and then making a decision as to whether they would help the student to draft a further letter. The second experiment explored whether participants would willingly help a different person after they were thanked for helping the first student.
The subsequent experiment took a deep dive into how a charity director’s gratitude toward fundraisers resulted in more money raised to benefit a specific university. The final experiment went back to the cover letter writing task, but the message of appreciation was either given or withheld. The participants were then assessed based on how effective they felt they were at the task, as well as how valued they felt.
The Results Of These Experiments
It was found that there was a direct correlation between appreciation and motivation. For instance, with the cover letter writing, the participants that received gratitude were more likely to help another person with their letter. This showed the benefits of taking the time to show gratitude to a person. So, how does it apply to the workplace?
Gratitude & Appreciation In The Workplace
Simple acts of appreciation are one of the most cost-effective ways to motivate your team. If those in leadership positions at your workplace are not showing appreciation and gratitude to individual team members, they will start to become disconnected from the work, losing the motivation to perform in the process.
Use Karma To Create A High-Performing Team Culture
Using our intuitive workplace tool, built into either Slack or Microsoft Teams, you will be able to share micro-feedback instantly, creating a strong line of communication between team leaders and members. You will be able to boost performance through positive reinforcement, by setting real-life perks and rewards for high-performing employees, enabling and propagating your company values.