OK…I admit it…I’m sort of a type A personality. In fact, it’s true of most of the great Marketeers I know. We tend to be high-powered types who live on adrenaline and deadlines. From the outside, Marketing seems like a glamour job but, for those of us on the inside, we know its elbow grease and a ton of hard work with a small amount of magic and glitter at the very end to make it all sparkle. So what makes marketers – and most people – run even harder than they naturally do? Appreciation. Take a look at this post on Harvard Business Review.
According to a worldwide study conducted by Towers Watson, the single highest driver of engagement is whether or not workers feel their managers are genuinely interested in their wellbeing. Less than 40 percent of workers felt so engaged. A little love goes a very long way…so why is it so hard to institutionalize? As managers, most of us are comfortable having “course correction” conversations – those tough love kind of meetings where we tell people to straighten up and fly right. But when’s the last time you saw a management training course on how to love and appreciate your workforce?
We recently instituted appreciations at our weekly Marketing staff meeting and I firmly believe that it is changing the way our team runs. We are recognizing each other’s contributions – not in an overblown schmaltzy way, but short, to the point and heartfelt kind of communications like – “you made my life easier by…”. The more we do it, the more we know how to do it and the more motivated we all become as a team. And let’s face it, when you are driving the car at 120 miles an hour while putting on the wheels, like most dynamic businesses, you need all the motivation you can get.
So on this Valentine’s Day, take a moment to appreciate a member of your team – and watch them pass it forward to someone else. You could start a chain reaction of love in your workplace, and end up with a more engaged and productive workforce.
And to the NICE CXone Marketing team – you amaze me every day with your passion, creativity and drive. I am the luckiest CMO in the world!
