3 Ways to Help Your Team Feel Valued and Appreciated at Work
As you develop your strategic priorities for the next fiscal year, consider the important role that employee recognition and appreciation plays in achieving your goals. Research shows when employees feel valued, it leads to increased motivation, performance, and retention. Ultimately, when advancement leaders invest in their teams, their fundraising outcomes increase, too. Finding ways to recognize your team doesn’t require extraordinary expense or effort—but it does require intentionality. Here are three meaningful strategies to help your team feel valued and appreciated at work:
Say Thank You
Advancement organizations excel in helping donors feel valued and recognized. Apply these same principles to how you express gratitude to your team members to build confidence, community, and culture. Though it goes without saying, I’ll repeat it anyway: Gratitude belongs at work. In one of my favorite research studies, Professors Francesca Gino and Adam Grant, of Harvard Business School and the Wharton School, respectively, found that fundraisers who received personal thanks from their manager for their efforts and contributions increased their outreach metrics by 50 percent. (Fifty percent, y’all!)
Here are five ways to put this into practice with your team:
1. Send a handwritten thank you note to your team member.
2. Acknowledge your team member’s accomplishments at an all-staff meeting.
3. Don’t miss the moment, such as after a meeting or presentation, by recognizing what the team member did well and how it helps the organization.
4. Ask a senior academic leader (President, Dean, Provost, etc.) to call the team member to thank them for their efforts.
5. Start a team meeting by asking team members to acknowledge someone else on the team who helped them recently.
Invest in Team Members’ Professional and Career Growth
Leaders have a responsibility to invest in their team members’ learning, growth, and development. The effort you make in supporting your team has positive outcomes for the individual and the organization. According to a 2019 LinkedIn Workplace Report, 94% of employees would be willing to stay longer at an organization that invests in their learning and development. Sometimes advancement leaders express concern that training a team member may motivate them to leave for a new role. While it’s a reality that team members may leave, it’s better to be known as a leader who invests in their team’s growth. In case you need additional motivation: Research shows that managers who help their team members secure internal promotions attract an increased number of better and more diverse applicants to their open positions.
Here are 5 ways to put this into practice with your team:
1. Invite a team member to attend a strategy meeting or board meeting—a seat at the table they might not otherwise have access to.
2. Select your team member to lead or participate in a cross-functional committee that advances an important initiative for the organization.
3. Connect the team member to a trusted mentor within your organization or network.
4. Hire a leadership coach to help your team member fulfill their potential in your organization.
5. Create career development plans for your team member’s growth in your organization.
Celebrate the Big and Little Moments Together
Celebrating at work brings your team together and builds your team culture. It creates a feeling of connectedness and belonging to a cause bigger than yourself. Plus, celebrating can develop motivation for continued excellence.
Here are five ways to put this into practice with your team:
1. Recognize team members’ work anniversaries. You can decorate their cubicle, bring in a balloon with the number of years employed, let them choose something special from the swag closet, or announce the milestones at your monthly all-staff. (Or all of the above!)
2. Create a ritual for when a team member closes an aspirational gift, such as a high-five line up in the hallway or bringing in lunch for everyone on the team (because it takes a village to raise a gift!).
3. Surprise a team member by sending a $5 Venmo for coffee to cheer them on when they’re en route to an early morning donor meeting or speaking at a conference.
4. Set up a thread (text/email/Slack) to celebrate your team’s Win of the Day (WOTD) where they can chime in with their progress and work wins.
5. Before you move on to the new fiscal year where the efforts start all over again, celebrate your team’s progress and accomplishments for the year. One of my favorite work memories was dreaming up and implementing a New Year’s Eve party (with party hats and confetti) in June to honor all of the work that went into a successful fundraising year. You can adapt this for your company’s founder’s day or another significant date.
In celebrating who your team members are and what they do, you’ll help your team thrive at work, increase employee engagement, and strengthen your workplace culture.