Appreciation: More Than a Once-a-Year Job!

How often do you show appreciation or give positive feedback to your employees? Like many leaders, you might only give positive feedback at certain points, like after an employee gives a great presentation or finishes up work on a big project. With some team members, you might even only share your appreciation during an annual review.

However, showing employee appreciation shouldn’t be a once-a-year job! In a recent episode of my Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast, I was joined by author and HR professional Lisa Johnson to talk about why appreciation should be an everyday occurrence on the manufacturing floor—and what busy leaders can do to weave positivity and appreciation into their daily schedule.

Appreciation: The Difference Between Average and Above-and-Beyond

Appreciation plays a huge role in the health of teams and organizations. In organizations where leaders give positive feedback, employees have higher morale, which leads to increased productivity, better results, and a happier environment where everyone has the potential to learn, collaborate, and grow. In a positive environment, employees don’t just show up and go through the motions of their job. Instead, they show up every day feeling energized, motivated, and ready to go above-and-beyond.

How Leaders Can Show More Appreciation

While appreciation is important, it can be difficult to leaders to find time in their crowded schedule to show positive feedback. To help leaders incorporate simple appreciation into their everyday, Lisa offered some great tips:

1. Find a method that works for you

To find the best ways to show appreciation, spend some time thinking about your schedule, your leadership style, and how and when you want to show appreciation. Then, find a method that works for you. For example, maybe you often find yourself noticing good behavior but then forgetting to praise the employee later. Create a system to keeping voice notes on your phone, so you can go through it later and remember exactly what you wanted to say.

2. Practice discipline

Getting better at showing appreciation takes discipline! Know that it can take time and commitment to find the best methods for you. Stay curious and don’t be afraid to look at new solutions, even if they challenge your routine and mindset.

3. Be Transparent and Specific

When giving feedback, try to be transparent and give specifics. Rather than saying “you did a good job today,” consider saying something like “great job on that safety check today.” This lets your team know that you’re really showing up and paying attention.

Learn More on the Podcast

In her episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, Lisa Johnson shares more great tips on how leaders can weave appreciation into the everyday. To learn more, check it out here.

At Manufacturing Greatness, Trevor Blondeel works with manufacturers to connect the top to the shop floor. If you’re ready to improve your own organization, contact Trevor to learn how Manufacturing Greatness can help you build stronger leaders and develop a dynamic, high-performing workplace.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website