Is Your Organization Contributing to this Negative Trend?

January 20, 2025 9:54 am Published by

Whenever negative news is reported about a group to which we belong (men, women, Americans), a common response is to distance ourselves from the group and say (sometimes just to ourselves): “That may be true for others, but I’m not that way.” In psychological terms, this is known as denial – a defensive reaction refusing to accept that a negative characteristic applies to you, usually without any reflection or self-examination.

This appears to be the case with regards to leaders and employees of companies and organizations today. While Gallup continues to publish alarming research which emphasizes that “Employees’ attitudes about their workplaces are lower than they’ve been for over 10 years!” leaders, by their lack of response, seem to be saying: “Well, that may be true of others, but we are okay.”

Wrong. All kinds of warning signals continue to be reported: lower employee engagement, higher turnover rates, decreasing job satisfaction, increasing disconnectedness among team members, and more.

Yet, executives and organizational leaders continue to try to address the issue with responses we know don’t work. It’s like taking your car to a mechanic and telling them, “When I brake, they squeal or sometimes I hear a metal grinding noise” and they change the muffler. They are attempting to fix the problem by working on the wrong part.

We know:

  • Increasing wages and financial benefits only impact employees’ attitudes about work for 3-4 months, at the most
  • Employee recognition programs are ineffective (otherwise, why would these trends continue to occur?)
  • While employees will continue to take rewards given, less than 10% of employees choose tangible rewards as the way they want to be shown that they are valued
  • Platform based peer-to-peer recognition is reported by recipients as largely superficial and often meaningless

We also know what does improve workplace cultures:

  • Effective, respectful communication
  • Involvement in decision-making appropriate to your position
  • Being able to tie your work responsibilities to a greater purpose
  • Feeling valued and appreciated for who you are and not just for your performance

When organizational leaders talk to us about using our appreciation at work resources, the most common reason they cite is: “We have taken our annual employee engagement survey, and we’ve addressed all of the issues identified but we can’t improve the score related to employees feeling appreciated.”

The question arises: Why do leaders continue to use the ineffective interventions they’ve been utilizing for years? First, many are unaware of the alternatives. Very few college business programs and only a handful of M.B.A. programs teach their students (who are future organizational leaders) about appreciation. Second, most leaders continue to hold misconceptions about appreciation – that:

  1. appreciation is the same as employee recognition
  2. the goal of appreciation is to make people feel good
  3. appreciation is saying ‘thanks’ or giving a compliment
  4. supervisors and managers are the only ones responsible for communicating appreciation (and they already have enough to do)
  5. creating a program of appreciation will be expensive and not affect productivity or profitability

Research continues to show that a company who pays attention to and addresses the issue of team members feeling truly appreciated will be more profitable than a competitor who doesn’t take action to deal with the concern.

So, what can you do?

Start with yourself. Make sure you are practicing showing appreciation to your colleagues and leaders in ways meaningful to each individual. This involves having team members take the MBA Inventory  to find out how each person prefers to be appreciated.

Share this with your supervisor, manager, and organizational leaders so they can become aware that there is a solution to the challenges your organization is experiencing (and that it is low-cost and grounded in research). Get them a copy of our book  which will explain the concepts more fully and outline the research that is the foundation of our work.

Explore the resources available to help your organization take action to successfully implement a plan to learn how your team members want to be appreciated and then apply the concept of authentic appreciation in their daily work relationships. Help your organization avoid being unnecessarily part of this ongoing negative trend and assist them in learning about appreciation and the practical tools you can use to create a culture of appreciation in your workplace.

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January 20, 2025 9:54 am

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