We should never get complacent about opportunities to give praise/be grateful/be engaged to all of our hardworking people & teams. Whether directly to those that deserve it, or publicly in front of a group setting, it means so much to our employees to hear from their leaders.
“Hey, that update that you sent was very clear and concise, and I really appreciate how you always communicate the challenges that are on your mind.”
“Thanks for being brave and offering to role play with us to create a better process for selling.”
It’s also good to ask follow-up questions to communications (shows great engagement) like, “Thanks so much for sending these 3 product updates, I noticed there wasn’t any mention of project X, are we still on track?”
I encourage every leader to be engaged, ask questions, give feedback, and sing praises more often.
Keeping cameras turned on during group zoom meetings helps too (even though it can be exhausting sometimes).
Reach out to someone on slack that you haven’t spoken to in a while, and just say, “Hey, how are you. It’s been too long. Just wanted to check in to say hello.”
Or if there is someone new on your team, message them saying, “Hi there, I wanted to check in now that you’ve been here for a couple weeks. How was the first few weeks for you? Is there anything that’s been hard or confusing?”
This doesn’t just apply to direct reports, but even newer junior people on our teams.
I realize this is tough when we have our own jobs as leaders. The more engaged we are, the more connected our team members will feel.
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