Motivating people through the language of appreciation
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Agile leaders want to build projects around motivated people, give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. Understanding the power of appreciation languages and how the people react to the regular use (or lack of use) of these languages in the workplace can be a key component to creating a culture and environment filled with motivated individuals who feel valued and supported.
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Motivating people through the language of appreciation
- 1. Motivating People: Through the Language of Appreciation Image by Pictofigo Image by Pictofigo
- 2. Cherie Silas Strong desire to help people arrive at the place they define as success in both personal and professional life
- 3. Allison Pollard Firm believer in continuous improvement and the power of teams to affect change
- 4. It’s All About Perception • What makes you feel valued and appreciated? • How do you show others they are valued and appreciated? Images by Pictofigo
- 5. External Motivation • We perceive appreciation the way we expect it to be communicated • A failure to meet expectations is a failure to communicate appreciation and value Image by Pictofigo
- 6. Quality Time • Focused attention • Quality conversation • Genuine interest • Focuses on hearing • Shares portions of life together Images by Pictofigo
- 7. Quality Time In Action …
- 8. Words of Affirmation • Specific, public or private • Encouragement & praise • Recognizes accomplishment • Recognizes effort • Focuses on what is spoken Images by Pictofigo
- 9. Words of Affirmation In Action …
- 10. Giving / Receiving Gifts • Dollar Value isn’t significant • Emotional thought is impactful • Gift is tangible evidence of being valued • A constant reminder of appreciation Images by Pictofigo
- 11. Giving / Receiving Gifts In Action …
- 12. Acts of Service • Characterized by helping others • Be responsible • Ask first • Do it their way Images by Pictofigo
- 13. Acts of Service In Action …
- 14. Physical Contact • Understand what is acceptable • Adhere to guidelines • Let culture prevail • Don’t cross the line Images by Pictofigo
- 15. Physical Contact In Action …
- 16. How will YOU use this to Motivate? 1. Quality Time 2. Words of Affirmation 3. Giving / Receiving Gifts 4. Acts of Service 5. Physical Contact Image by Pictofigo
- 17. What did you learn? Other Questions? Image by Pictofigo
- 18. Resources
- 19. More Resources • Images from Pictofigo, www.pictofigo.com • http://www.appreciationatwork.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
- where you work your history why this topic ...is a Principal Consultant for Improving Enterprises and has worked with Agile teams as a project manager, as a Scrum Master, and in coaching roles. A firm advocate of continuous improvement and the power of teams to affect change, she believes the world needs more strong teams in order to be Agile and meet the demands of today; her goal is to help others create them, shape them, and support them. Allison also volunteers locally as one of the organizers of the DFW Scrum user group and serves on the Dallas Agile Leadership Network board.
- Get feedback from the audience regarding what kind of interactions make them feel like they are valued in the work place. What makes them feel like they are appreciated by: Coworkers Supervisors Team Members Others What are the things they personally do to make others that they work with feel valued and appreciated. What ways to they try to make their team members feel valued and appreciated?
- Did all of the ways that people mentioned on the previous slide speak to what makes you feel valued and appreciated? Each one of us has certain things that we look for that speaks to us. These are the things that tell us that other people value us. Because these are the things that tell us that we are valued, we tend to speak in these ways to tell others they are valuable. The problem? We speak different languages. We might have different reference points for what says, “I value and appreciate you.” When we speak to people in a language that is different than the language they are waiting to hear, they don’t perceive that we are telling them, “I value and appreciate you.” Therefore, when people speak to us in the way that speaks value and appreciation to them – and it is different than they way we say it – we don’t perceive the message. Why? Because we don’t recognize that they are saying it. It’s like we are listening in German and they are speaking in Chinese and we don’t understand Chinese. Understanding the different languages of appreciation helps to close this gap. If we can understand 1st the language we are expecting to hear and 2nd how others might possibly be expressing appreciation and value – we can both send and perceive the appropriate messages. We can learn to speak value and appreciation fluently in all 5 languages – all we have to do is understand them. Learning the language of appreciation puts a powerful tool in your hands to motivate people.
- Quality Time – Quality time includes focused attention and quality conversation. A person who speaks this language feels valued when they perceive that someone displays a genuine interest in them. This language focuses on hearing the person receiving the quality time and about participating in the conversation with them. Quality time also includes a sharing of life together. So, working side by side or going to lunch together also qualifies as quality time. In an agile environment, things like pair programming and working together collaboratively in team room are great examples of quality time
- I’ll start with me. My primary appreciation language is quality time. As a consultant, a trainer, and a coach this works in my favor and motivates me because my work revolves around helping people who want what I have to give. When I work with clients, classrooms, or teams they ask questions. They are interested in the answers I give. They trust my expertise. They believe in me. When they follow my advice and they benefit from that advice I know that they are truly listening when we work through problems together. This is an example of the language of quality time in action motivating me because I get to share my life with people and invest a portion of myself in them. They speak the language of quality time to me because see value in me and express appreciation for that value by drawing it out of me and utilizing what I have to give. I speak the language of quality time to them in return by actually investing time in them to give them whatever they need to learn and grow. If they need a teacher, I’m a teacher. If they need a coach, I’m a coach. If they need a consultant, I’m a consultant. If they need a friend, I’m a friend. I invest my life into them and they consume the value I give.
- Words of Affirmation – Words of affirmation include specific words of encouragement or praise for accomplishment and for effort. It includes saying, “Thank you.” Words of affirmation can be given one on one in front of someone the person views as important (such as a supervisor or the team), or publicly. This appreciation language focuses on the words being said to the person receiving the words of affirmation and it is about them and their contributions or character traits that are valuable and appreciated. Can be written, verbal, or in some other format including music, video, etc. The important thing is the message of praise and encouragement communicated.
- As an enterprise coach working with 40 teams, it is almost impossible to spend quality time with each one of them consistently. So, I have had to rely heavily on the use of words of affirmation to motivate and encourage people. Thankfully, this is the easiest language of appreciation to communicate and also the one that many people respond to well. One example of how I have used words of affirmation verbally is by simply walking around and talking to people. When I ask them about how their teams are doing I listen and praise their specific efforts. They don’t have to have great accomplishments. Effort counts! I get excited when they get excited. I get excited for them even when they don’t. I point out things that they should be encouraged about so they will know when to get excited. I tell them things like, “Do you realize how big of an accomplishment that small step is? This one little thing is pointing you in the direction of …” I help them see the future by giving them words of affirmation either one on one or in front of their team members or supervisors. Another way I use words of affirmation is in writing. Every month I send out a newsletter called “Celebrate the Win!” In the newsletter I include an encouraging narrative about the state of the organization and where we are headed because of what we are accomplishing daily. Then, I include as many pictures as I can gather with captions celebrating “wins” both large and small that teams have accomplished throughout the month. Everyone has something to celebrate. We just have to look for it through the eyes of appreciation to see value in everyday things. This is a way of showing appreciation for the value of people more publicly.
- Receiving Gifts – Receiving gifts is the vehicle for some individuals that sends the message that says, “You are valuable to me and I thought about you when you weren’t with me because I appreciate you.” The dollar value of the gift is not what is significant but the emotional thought about the person that drove the gift to be given. For people who speak this language, the gift becomes tangible evidence that they are valued. It is a constant reminder that they are appreciated.
- The appreciation language of receiving gifts has been a very fun one to implement in organizations. The size of the gift really isn’t the issue. In fact, the cornier the gift, in my experience – the better! It’s about the fun and the energy and the point of contact that says, “I am valued and I have this token to prove it!” In the organization where I’m currently working as an enterprise agile coach I use the language of receiving gifts in our quarterly “Agile Celebrations” where we bring everyone together to celebrate the people and what they are doing on their path towards agility. Some of the “gifts” we give at these celebrations are paper certificates for teams that reach a certain maturity level (This organization uses the ShuHaRi maturity model.), certificates for coming to training classes, plastic medals for people who are mentoring others, plastic trophies for people who are using metrics properly, “flip flop” key chains for people who are showing progress and doing cool things towards maturity, and the coveted “flip flop trophy” for a team that is voted by management as doing the most towards agility even though they aren’t quite there. (The flip flop is a word play on Shu and the flip flop trophy is real a “custom made” trophy with a rubber flip flop proudly displayed on top.) These gifts are super-corny and really cheap (Oriental Trading Company is a great resource.) but the teams love them. There isn’t a day that goes by that I can’t walk past a desk and see a plastic “thumbs up” trophy sitting proudly displayed. I know people love them because if they miss the celebration they come to me looking for their trophy – or their teams ask if they can bring extra trophies to people who missed the celebration. They actually mail the certificates to the offshore teams to make sure they get color copies and are included in the recognition. We make sure to take lots of pictures of the celebration and send them to everyone – including the CIO so everyone gets that public recognition they deserve. One month I invited a scrum master from another organization to attend the celebration because I wanted to give her a medal for mentoring one of our scrum masters. She emailed me after and said, “That was genius! If our organization did this we would be rock stars!”
- Acts of Service – Acts of service is characterized by helping with tasks that need to be completed. Some might call this teamwork. Some key things to remember with acts of service are: 1) Get your own work finished before offering to help someone with theirs, 2) Ask before helping, 3) Make sure to do it their way if you are going to help, 4) Finish what you commit to do and make it clear what you can commit to finish.
- I speak the language of acts of service to my teams by serving them in practical ways that encourage. The word encourage means to inspire courage so it is my job to motivate people in ways that will give them the courage to do things that they were not sure they could do before our encounter. Many of them are just starting out so facilitating planning sessions and retrospectives for the first time is scary and they are unsure of themselves. One way I can serve them is to step in and facilitate the first session so they can experience being in a session before having to jump into the deep end. Then, for the next session I step aside and let someone else facilitate and help when needed so the team can learn to be independent. Having me serve them in this practical way lets them know that they are valuable to me and they feel appreciated and have the courage to move forward on their own.
- Physical Contact – Physical contact in the workplace is a touchy subject. (Pardon the pun) But, the truth is that for some people this is the language that speaks the loudest to them that they are truly valued and appreciated. The key is to understand what is appropriate and acceptable and to adhere to those guidelines. Depending on the culture of the organization there will be different guidelines but for most handshakes, knuckle bumps, high-fives, or even a pat on the shoulder are acceptable.
- When using the appreciation language of physical touch in the workplace it is important to always consider the culture and professional appropriateness of the physical touch. Physical touch, when used properly can be a powerful motivator. Earlier this week in a sprint planning session with a team whenever a breakthrough was made in figuring out the solution to a problem we did a “high five”. This was enough to keep the team motivated and moving along. Every high five was like a milestone that told them they were going to make it to the top of the mountain. It wasn’t much, but it fit in perfectly with the culture of the team and it worked for their more competitive nature.
- Group activity at the table – Come up with at least 3 ideas for each language of appreciation that you could possibly use when you return to your workplace. Discuss the ideas among the table. Your get 1 point for each idea that includes one language of appreciation. You get 3 points for each idea that includes two languages You get 5 points for each idea that includes three or more languages The table that racks up the most points wins! 15 minute timebox – Go! Notes to Allison and Cherie – Bring the Thumbs Up Trophies to distribute to the table(s) that are the winners.