Categories for 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace

Do Employees Want to Be Appreciated Differently Than They Did Prior to COVID?

The COVID-19 pandemic, the dramatic increase in remote and hybrid employees, and the ongoing generational transition have reshaped the modern workforce—where employees work, how they work, and what they expect from their careers. The impact of these cultural shifts is significant on many levels compared to what we knew about employees before COVID-19. Some differences are obvious: today, a much greater number of employees work remotely full-time, and many more express a clear desire to continue doing so. The hybrid model—where employees work remotely at least part-time—has grown dramatically as well. The Ripple Effect of Remote and Hybrid Work Several... Continue reading...

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May 12, 2025 9:51 am
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How Do You Change Your Culture?

A healthy, positive culture is foundational to a healthy organization. But many companies are learning that their employees are unhappy and disengaged. It isn't that managers haven't been trying, but what they're doing hasn't been working.

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January 27, 2025 9:36 am
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Announcing a New MBAI Resource

Help Us Answer an Ongoing Question about Appreciation To date, more than 425,000 people have taken the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory (MBAI) to discover their language of appreciation! Our goal in creating the MBAI has always been to provide relevant, practical and easily applied resources to help team members communicate appreciation effectively to one another. But over time, some relevant questions have come up. What if my supervisor changes? Or team roles and responsibilities have changed? Or if I work for a different organization? How stable are our desired ways of being shown appreciation over life stages and other changes... Continue reading...

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January 13, 2025 11:06 am
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Quality Time: A 5 Languages Spotlight

Many people assume that appreciation is always communicated verbally. While using words is one way to show staff members that you value them, many employees prefer appreciation shown through the language of Quality Time. In fact, Quality Time is the preferred appreciation language for 26% of employees in the U.S. (or, one of every four of your colleagues). By Quality Time, we mean spending time with a colleague either by giving the person your focused attention, working collaboratively with them, or just hanging out and talking about non-work-related topics. You are showing that you value them by giving them your most... Continue reading...

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October 21, 2024 10:11 am
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Appreciation at Work: It Takes a System

Appreciation is a powerful intrinsic motivator without which few people can sustainably perform at top levels. Unfortunately, the concept often gets caught up in the long list of platitudes about employee motivation and confused with recognition.

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October 14, 2024 9:59 am
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Do You Have a Blind Spot? What You Need to Know about Your Least Valued Language of Appreciation

By nature, we all tend to speak our own language of appreciation. If Quality Time makes me feel appreciated, then I may go out of my way to stop by a teammate’s office and check in to see how they are doing. If Acts of Service make me feel appreciated, then I tend to pitch in and help my colleagues. If Words of Affirmation make me feel appreciated, then you can expect that I will give verbal praise to those with whom I work. But if I only do what comes naturally, the language of appreciation that is least valued... Continue reading...

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September 23, 2024 9:38 am
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Tips for Making Appreciation Part of Your Daily Life

Sometimes (maybe lots of times) we don’t actually do what we intend to do – even when we know the action would be good for us and for those around us. Despite our good intentions, communicating appreciation to others often falls into to this pattern: Let’s agree that behavior change is difficult. (Otherwise, we would all be in good shape and have no bad habits!) This premise is true at work, as well. Our lack of good habits is not usually due a lack of intent or desire, but rather, not fully understanding the power of habits and utilizing the... Continue reading...

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August 26, 2024 9:00 am
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5 Languages Spotlight: Why Do We Still Include Physical Touch As a Language of Appreciation?

The language of appreciation that usually raises the most questions (and, for some, the most controversy) is appropriate physical touch; the love language in personal relationships that is difficult to translate into a workplace setting. When we first started investigating how to best apply the love languages to work-based relationships, we utilized all five of the languages, even though we knew it would be a challenge to translate the language of touch. We found that the number and variety of these actions are fairly limited (high fives, fist bumps, congratulatory handshakes, or a pat on the shoulder), but are no... Continue reading...

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August 12, 2024 9:00 am
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Gifts: A 5 Languages Spotlight

When comparing the various Languages of Appreciation, it’s easy to see that employees overwhelmingly don’t choose tangible rewards as the primary way they want to be shown appreciation. Only 6% of employees identify tangible gifts as their primary language of appreciation. They also choose tangible gifts as their least valued language almost 70% of the time. This is important to consider because most employee recognition programs emphasize giving gifts. While there is obviously nothing inherently wrong with this, companies end up wasting millions of dollars giving employees gifts that aren’t wanted and do little to improve performance and make them feel appreciated.... Continue reading...

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August 5, 2024 9:16 am
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Making People Feel Good ISN’T the Goal of Appreciation: An Effective, Functional Organization Is the Goal

When some leaders hear the suggestion that it is good to show appreciation to their employees they respond, “I don’t care how they feel about their work. I’m not a cheerleader and it’s not my responsibility to make them happy — I’m here to make sure things get done.” Others are less direct, but the message is similar – why should I care how my team members feel (about work or themselves)? APPRECIATION IMPACTS THE FINANCIAL STATUS OF AN ORGANIZATION While communicating appreciation to team members does increase positive feelings across the workforce, ultimately, running a business, professional practice or... Continue reading...

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July 29, 2024 9:24 am
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Acts of Service: A 5 Languages Spotlight

“Don’t tell me you care; show me.” This is a phrase often said by those whose preferred language of appreciation is Acts of Service. For them, actions will always speak louder than words and they feel appreciated when others reach out to help. More than 1 in 5 employees (22%) have Acts of Service as their primary language of appreciation (with another 15% having it as their secondary language). So over one-third of your coworkers value appreciation shown through practical actions that will help them do their work more effectively. How you help out a colleague really is situation specific.... Continue reading...

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July 8, 2024 10:28 am
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The Complexity of Remote Work Relationships

A challenge in successfully managing relationships with remote team members is that there is not just one type of remote employee – although we tend to talk about them that way. We clump them all together, discussing how to deal with “remote employees” when, in reality, a wide variety of different relationships exist among remote workers, just as is the case with onsite team members. One obvious variable to consider is the type of employee and their job function. Who works remotely? Executives and administrators. Managers. Supervisors. Front-line workers. Accountants. Customer Service associates. Salespeople. Administrative Assistants. HR Directors. Just as... Continue reading...

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June 17, 2024 9:00 am
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How to Overcome Common Obstacles to Creating a Culture of Appreciation

While creating a workplace culture rooted in appreciation is fairly straightforward, a number of practical challenges also exist. Even though research has shown that teaching leaders and colleagues how to communicate authentic appreciation to one another can make their workplaces more positive, getting everyone on board can be difficult. After working with numerous organizations to implement the 5 languages of appreciation, we noticed some common challenges and patterns emerge. As a result, we wrote The Vibrant Workplace – Overcoming Common Challenges to Creating a Culture of Appreciation, where we identify and address ten common impediments. You Are Not Alone One... Continue reading...

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May 27, 2024 11:07 am
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Appreciation within a Production-Oriented Work Culture

Isn’t Focusing on Appreciation Counterproductive in a Production-Oriented Workplace? Absolutely not! Recently, I’ve had some interesting experiences on opposite ends of the spectrum regarding how production-focused workplaces can function. On the one hand, I visited a parks and wildlife center where three employees were “working.” But while I was there, they just sat, doing nothing, not talking to each other and only occasionally scrolling on their cell phones. On the other end of the continuum, I conducted training with an organization who clearly “produces.” They are viewed as one of the premier global institutions in their field of expertise, and... Continue reading...

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May 20, 2024 9:00 am
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Why We Create Versions of the MBA Inventory for Different Workplace Settings

When we first launched our online assessment tool, the Motivating By Appreciation Inventory, it was geared toward a general workplace setting. Since then, we have created an expanded version, translated it into 8 different languages and have created 11 different industry-specific versions for Remote/ Long Distance, Medical, Military, School, Non-Profit/ Ministry, Government, Senior Care, Trades, Veterinary, and Dentistry. We are frequently asked, “Why do we create industry-specific versions of our MBAI assessment?” Here are a few of the factors that lead to their creation: *Our goal is always to provide relevant, practical and easily applied resources to help team members... Continue reading...

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May 13, 2024 9:56 am
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Can My Language of Appreciation Ever Change? Either in Different Work Circumstances or Over Time?

A question I am asked fairly frequently is whether a person’s preferred language of appreciation changes over time. We don’t currently have a definitive answer for that but we are in the midst of researching it. However, there are some helpful data points which provide some direction. As we work with companies and organizations across the world, we have the privilege to discuss a variety of specific issues with our clients, hear their questions, and receive feedback from them. Let’s explore some factors we have observed that affect the primary ways individuals like to be appreciated. Life Circumstances First, one’s... Continue reading...

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April 29, 2024 8:49 am
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Want to Build a Strong Team Culture? Learn to Value and Appreciate Differences in the Workplace

To build a successful and sustainable business, you need a team of employees who bring their unique abilities, strengths and perspectives to the challenges you will face. But to draw and keep talented individuals who have a variety of skills and personality types, you need a key skill: You have to learn how to lead people who are different than you. Many books on leadership provide valuable insights into key skills and abilities needed to effectively lead others. But one concept that is not stressed enough is: to lead a successful team, you have to understand those who are not like... Continue reading...

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April 22, 2024 8:54 am
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Appreciation Preferences Across Cultures: What We’ve Learned from MBAI Results in 7 Languages

The importance of communicating appreciation in the workplace has become a common topic in the past few years – both in relation to combining personalized appreciation with traditional recognition activities, and sometimes as an alternative model of increasing employee engagement. As the world of work has become significantly more globalized, the question has been raised whether employees in various cultures desire appreciation differently. In our work over the past decade in applying the concepts of the five love languages to work-based relationships, we have primarily focused on English-speaking countries: the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. In prior... Continue reading...

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March 25, 2024 9:21 am
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