6 Ways To Take The Lead and Give Thanks All Year

Towards the end of every calendar year many people will take a minute to be thankful for various things and people in their lives, especially in the workplace.  I have always wondered why so many people wait until the end of the year to show gratitude, reflect, and review targets.  If you do it all year long, you reap the rewards continuously. 

Here are 6 simple ways to take the lead and give thanks all year long:

Say “Thank You” to at least one person every day.

A simple genuine thank you goes a long way.  Think about how you feel when someone actually takes the time to walk up or call you to say “thank you”.  I know we live in a fast paced texting, tweeting world, but hearing someone’s voice just makes it more personal and genuine.  It also maximizes the appreciation someone feels when you actually make the effort to verbalize it.

Take a team member to lunch.

A simple gesture of treating someone or a team to lunch for working late a few nights last week or over the weekend to make a deadline shows that you have taken notice.  Plus, you get to know team members a little better.  I used to do this periodically with my team and they loved it.  You have a remote team?  Get creative.  I would agree for the team member to take their wife/husband/partner out for a very nice dinner and expense up to $75 off the meal.  If I were meeting with a client fairly close by the remote team member’s location, I would take the extra half-day or day to meet the team member to take them to lunch. 

Have team members choose a peer to recognize.

As a corporate leader, I initiated an employee of the quarter for my department.  The requirement was that only peers could vote.  Each team member would send an email with their top two team members and provide a detailed reason why they are nominating each person.  I would look at all the nominations and tally the votes.  The announcement would be made during the quarterly meeting and the reasons that were submitted would be read for all to hear.  This was very popular and a variety of people were recognized throughout the year for things the leadership team would probably miss.

Give a gift card to team members that do something special.

The leadership team has a stack of $20 Starbucks gift cards in their desk or near them at all times.  When you want to recognize someone for something, hand it or send it to him or her.  The key is to make this genuine and do it periodically.  It was a judgment call and it worked great.

Meet with your team members to define and monitor targets

Taking the time to meet with each person one-on-one to assist with establishing clear targets to monitor will separate you from the pack.  I scheduled a one hour meeting with my direct reports every month to understand career (and other if they wanted) ambitions, establish new targets, monitor progress on existing targets, and receive feedback.  If we needed more time, I would schedule another meeting.  The key is to understand what your team members want and how to assist them moving forward.  We would discuss how their targets align with the department and company targets, so adjustments could be made accordingly.  Sometimes the adjustments meant the team member moving to another team, department, or company.  I didn’t mind at all because I wanted what was best for each team member.

Educate Yourself.

Continuously learning benefits yourself and the team.  Team members will want to share ideas and be mentored if you are up to date on industry trends, social media, learning techniques, technology, etc.  The more you have to offer, the more valuable you are to others.  Share, share, and then share some more.