In this episode of the Just One Thing series, Rick White of 180 Biz explains why every employee wants to feel that they matter and why shop owners often mistake recognition for appreciation. He defines recognition as performance‑based, conditional feedback that motivates specific behaviors, and appreciation as value‑based, unconditional affirmation that reinforces a person’s identity and belonging. White warns that relying solely on recognition creates a conditional sense of worth that erodes when performance dips, while lacking appreciation leads staff to question their intrinsic value. He illustrates the difference with examples for technicians (hour production) and advisors (sales), showing how each role can feel reduced to numbers if only recognized for results. The core advice is to practice both: give precise, behavior‑focused recognition (e.g., “Your persistence on that DVI saved us time”) and pair it with a genuine, non‑performance‑linked appreciation (e.g., “I value your calm presence on the team”). He provides a step‑by‑step prompt for leaders to articulate specific recognition and then add an appreciation statement about character, integrity, or effort. The episode closes with a call to share the video, a reminder that leadership is about building better people, and an invitation to schedule a coaching call via Shannon’s calendar link.
Chapters
Good morning. My name is Rick White from 180 Biz, and this is my Just One Thing. You gotta be honest. You can see it in your team. You can see it in your clients. And if you're really honest, you can even see it in yourself. I want to talk about the fact that everyone wants to matter. The problem is that most shop owners try to help people feel like they matter by recognizing what they do. And I need you to understand something. Recognition is important. It's just not enough. See, there's a difference between recognizing someone's performance and appreciating their value. One changes behavior, the other changes people. And that's what we're really in the business of, isn't it? Think about this through. I want you to think about the last time you thanked an employee. What did you thank them for? Go ahead, think it through. Because here's what I'm willing to bet. It was probably something they accomplished, something they did. Great job. Nice sale. Thanks for staying late. Hey, great DVI. See, these are all recognition statements. Now imagine that same team member has the worst week of their career. Do they still know they matter? See, if your appreciation disappears when performance drops, what you've built is conditional value. See, people start believing they're only as valuable as their last performance. Recognition says, I value what you did. Appreciation says, listen to this, I value who you are. Recognition is earned. Appreciation is given. Recognition motivates performance. Appreciation creates belonging. And acceptance. You need both. Without recognition, people don't know what success looks like. But here's the flip side of this. Without appreciation, people eventually wonder if they're enough. I want you to think about this with your technician. If the only time they hear from you is when they produce a lot of hours, they're eventually gonna think production is the only thing you care about. But let's go to your advisor. If every conversation revolves around sales, then they're going to assume that the level of sales they create determine their worth. Now ask yourself this. Would your people describe you as someone someone who notices results or someone who notices people? That really can hit right at the core of this. See, you gotta start separating appreciation from recognition. Recognize behaviors, appreciate character. Recognize accomplishments, appreciate commitment. Recognize outcomes, Appreciate effort, integrity, growth attitude, and ownership. When they own what they're doing, when they own where they're going. Because here's the thing, recognize— recognition is conditional. It should be. See, you recognize specific behaviors and you recognize the results that they create. You want to tie the two together. That's what recognition does. Appreciation is constant. It isn't dependent on this week's numbers or today's mistakes. One tells people how they performed. The other reminds them of who they are. So this week, I want you to intentionally do both. When someone does something really well, then recognize it specifically. Don't say, hey, great job. Tell them exactly what they did that made it a great job. Tell them about what that does. You need to understand that recognition creates a focus. It creates a focus and a correlation between I do this, I get this, right? Just think about that. You burn your hand on a stove. You recognize the stove is hot and it hurts. You're not going to do it again, right? So you got to recognize it specifically, but then go one step further. Here's what I want you to be able to do. I want you to tell them something you appreciate about them that has absolutely nothing to do with today's result. Maybe it's their consistency, their persistence. Maybe it's their integrity. Maybe it's the calm that they bring to the whole team. Maybe it's the way clients trust them. I want you to help someone leave a conversation believing that they matter, not just believing that they performed. Okay. I don't have a lot more to say about this. I just want you to understand something. So I'm going to ask you real quick to please share this video. Okay. Please share this video. As a leader, your job isn't to build a better business. It's to build better people. How do you do that? Your expectations should be high. Your standards should be clear. Your accountability should be consistent, but your appreciation should be constant because people perform their best when they never have to question whether they matter. Recognition may inspire someone to work harder tomorrow, but appreciation is gonna give them the confidence to become someone they never thought they could be. Because at the end of the day, everyone wants to know they matter. And that's super important. And guess what? How do we show them we matter? How do we show them we appreciate them? We show them appreciation with respect. We don't call them names. We don't belittle someone and call it a joke. If you're going to belittle someone, belittle yourself, right? Be demeaning to yourself, demeaning. So I think it is, and this is important. It absolutely is because I got to tell you, I spent my entire life wanting to know that I mattered to my dad. We all have that. It is so important for we— us to be able to recognize performance but appreciate who they are, to know that they matter. That's everything here. Listen, if you're having issues with this at the shop and you'd like to talk to someone, Shannon will put my link to my calendar, my online calendar. You can grab a time and We'll just sit down and you'll talk to me and we'll just see what's going on. No pressure. No, nothing high pressure at all. Simply, what do you got going on? Can we help? And does it make sense? So everybody, thank you so much. And I want you to know that I appreciate you. I appreciate you for getting up every day and putting one foot forward. I appreciate your tenacity. I appreciate your resilience. And I appreciate your persistence. So thank you so much for being here. Please tell a friend about this. Let's get some more people in this Just One Thing every Monday morning. And again, please share the video. Everybody, thank you so much. God bless. Have a great week. Go make some money. We'll see y'all later. Bye-bye.
