Did you receive cards this holiday season? Not those cards that came from a life insurance agent or from a local politician, but greetings you received from friends, neighbours or family?
They were seasonal messages in hand-addressed envelopes that you discovered among bills and flyers in your mailbox. Perhaps they bore a stamp issued by the post office to celebrate the season.
How did you feel when you received those greetings? Was that feeling enhanced when you discovered a handwritten message inside the envelope?
Related Article: Why a friend’s Christmas letter was so disappointing
You don’t have to wait until the holidays next year to replicate this positive experience for members of your staff. Birthday cards will do it and you can send thank-you cards anytime.
The next time you consider whether to send a thank-you card to acknowledge a staff member for their contribution, remember how it felt to receive holiday greetings. How might staff members feel when they receive your handwritten message?
I don’t know individual members of your staff but based on what I have heard from participants in my workshops and convention presentations, I can speculate a bit on how they might feel.
Many participants in my programs tell me that receiving a thank-you card “makes my day.”
Few will just glance at your message before discarding it. Many people save thank-you cards. They display them where they and others will see them. They reread them, particularly on days when things have not gone well.
I have had people email to thank me for sending them a thank-you note. One person sent me a photograph of my card sitting on her desk.
With holiday, birthday and thank-you cards, you are creating an emotional connection between staff members and the organization, their work and you.
Here are a few tips from my new book, Thanks, Again! More Simple, Inexpensive Ways Leaders Can Recognize Staff on making thank-you cards your number one staff recognition tool:
- Keep a supply of thank-you notes where you will notice them frequently. Whenever you see them, ask yourself, “Who deserves to be thanked?”
- Convert waiting time into recognition time. Carry a supply of thank-you notes in your briefcase. Whenever you have a few minutes, such as when waiting for an appointment, when you’re on an airplane, or when you are waiting for a meeting to begin, use the time to write notes to staff members who deserve to be recognized.
- Double the impact of the positive, face-to-face feedback you provide by following up with a brief, handwritten note.
- Any other colour of ink is better than black or red when writing thank-you notes. Why? Black makes your message look like one of hundreds that came from a photocopier. And we all remember what red meant when we were in school, don’t we?
- Mail thank-you notes to the recipients’ homes. In addition to staff members seeing your words of appreciation, their families will notice. Your hand-addressed envelope will stand out among all the bills and flyers. There will be questions when the staff member arrives home. “What’s this about? Why did your boss send you a thank-you note?” It becomes an opportunity for recipients to share stories of their on-the-job success with family members.
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Thanks, Again! Is available at Audreys Books, 10702 Jasper Ave., Edmonton (and on their website) and online from Amazon, Indigo, FriesenPress Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and from the Apple Books app.
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