5 Steps to Make Your Team Feel Appreciated | Brian Tracy

Hello, I'm Brian Tracy, and today I want to talk to you about how you can make others on your team feel appreciated. Feeling appreciated fuels motivation and the ability to make others feel as if their efforts and contributions are are truly appreciated is a big part of what makes a good leader. I was just watching the life stories of five of the greatest military leaders in history, and every single one of them had the quality to make their men feel valuable and appreciated. And as a result, they won incredible battles, often against overwhelming odds. And it's the same application in business. Making others feel appreciated may seem easy enough, but the truth is that it's often easier said than done. The general consensus among employees tends to be that their bosses don't truly appreciate them. And you'll have to overcome that general consensus to prove otherwise. To help you hone your leadership qualities so that your team will feel more appreciated and in turn, be more motivated and committed, consider implementing these five steps. First, learn to genuinely care about the people on your team. One of my favorite leadership quotes says the best leaders have a high consideration factor. It's number one, by the way, in all the research. They really care about their people. You see, it's not enough to compliment your employees when they do good. If it's not genuine, they will see straight through it. Before you can get to the point where your team feels appreciated, you have to get to the point where you really do appreciate them. If you can learn to truly care for and appreciate your team members, even if it takes time and practice, they will take notice. They will take it home. They will tell the members of their family, and every time they think about you, they will smile. Next, take a look at your leadership style. There are a number of leadership styles that you may choose to employ, each one with its own set of advantages and disadvantages, and each one appropriate at a different time. However, some leadership styles lend themselves more to making your team feel appreciated than others. One of my favorites is a leadership style called Golden Rule Management, which simply states that you should treat your employees the way you would want to be treated if you were in their position and they were in yours. Many years ago, I was made the head of a $265 million company with operations in three countries. The company had been run by incompetent people and I fired them all and replaced them all with brand new people after six months. That was one of the most positive and motivated groups of people. And years later, people said it was the best job they ever had in their lives because they felt so good about themselves working in this company. And you can achieve the same result now in showing people appreciation. This will include giving genuine appreciation where appreciation is due. Third, engage in everyday conversations. One of the most important things for leaders to keep in mind is the fact that the people under them are ordinary everyday people. They're not robots built to perform a task. And each one of them has aspirations and passions and struggles and more that exist outside of their day job. It follows then that one of the easiest ways to show you truly appreciate your employees is to engage with with them in conversations about these topics. Basically, the question, how are you doing? How's everything working at home? How's your life? Very, very powerful ways to show interest and appreciation. Really, all you have to do is spend a little bit of time talking to your employees the same way you talk to a neighbor or any other acquaintance. If you do this, you will show that you see your employees as more than people who are just there to perform a task. By the way, many people think, well, they don't have time to chit chat with their employees. The fact of the matter is, if your employees are highly motivated, they'll accomplish five times as much as they would if they weren't and they didn't feel appreciated. So it's an incredibly good investment. Fourth, communicate your goals. Employees like to know that they are playing an important role in moving the company forward. However, it's hard for an employee to see how they are playing an important role in the bigger picture if they have no idea what that bigger picture is. This makes it important to clearly communicate your goals to your employees and let them know how what they are doing is helping the company reach those goals. By the way, I told you about great commanders. One of them was Horatio Nelson, who is considered the greatest commander in British history. And he used to bring all of his captains together for long lunches and dinners where he would share with them everything that was going on and he would talk to them and ask them questions and he would share with them his goals and what the goals were for the fleet. So every single captain, every single officer, knew what everyone else was thinking, knew what the goals were, and they were able to accomplish victories that even today are extraordinary. Wiping out entire fleets of the enemy and making Britain the most powerful Sikh power in the history of the world because of the constant talking about the goals and sharing the goals and inviting input on the goals. So this not only applies to the short term goals that you set for individual employees, but also long term goals that they may only play a part in helping to reach the better your employees understand how their efforts are making a difference and how they tie into the bigger goals, the more appreciated they will feel. Finally, challenge your employees. Some leaders feel that intentionally challenging their employees will have a negative effect on their morale. The reality is, though, that nothing could be further from the truth. Few people enjoy doing mundane, mindless tasks, and the chances are that the people who work well under you have worked for years in their career, further their education and learn secondary skills, all so that they are better equipped to tackle more and more complex challenges. For those who have put in the work to better themselves, nothing is more rewarding than getting a chance to flex their capabilities by tackling a challenge. And you can guarantee that if they are able to overcome the challenge you give them, they'll come out of it feeling more appreciated than ever before. The Great Success Writer Orison Swett Marden wrote a book on this some years ago and it was all about self discipline. And what he said is that nothing will help a person to grow faster in ability and confidence than responsibility. Make them responsible for disciplining themselves to achieve an important task and then stand back and stay out of it. And those people will complete the task. They will amaze you, and they will grow to a new, higher level and be far more capable of achieving even greater tasks in the future. Before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with you, your friends and followers. Practice being a mentor to your staff. Give them guidance to advance their careers. Now I'd love to hear from you. So my question today is are you setting the right example for your team? Here's a great question which I ask in my management seminars. Successful leaders ask the question, what kind of a team would my team be if everybody in it was just like me? What kind of a company would my company be if everybody in it was just like me? And then they just keep adjusting and adjusting their behavior so that the answer is always this would be a much better place to live and work if everybody in it practiced the same things that I do every day. Please leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action. And take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel like it was valuable and teaching you about employee appreciation, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends. Don't forget to click the button on the screen for a free gift. Thanks again for watching.