Faking A Happy Workplace Won't Work

“A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected.”

You may have seen this quote floating around the Internet against a mountainous landscape or a bunch of flowers. What this quote means (or if you even care) depends on where you are coming from.  

If you work for someone else, you may be thinking, “Heck yeah! Why doesn’t my boss appreciate me more?” If you are a business owner you might think, “Oh, I should appreciate my team more so they will work harder!”

If you are a boss and saying to yourself, “I’ll fake appreciation to get more work hours out of my team” I’m here to tell you, that ain’t gonna work.

This quote might speak to business owners and managers who are already genuine in their appreciation, and remind them how important it is to express it to their team when they might think it doesn’t matter as much or that it’s too soft an approach to motivate someone.

I think quotes like this are a reflection of the evolving expectations about what the workplace is supposed to be, whether you’re a boss, manager, or an employee.

But you can’t reverse engineer a happy workplace.

It’s not “I’m going to appreciate my team so they work harder.” It’s “My team cares about their work BECAUSE they feel appreciated.”

You can’t fake sincerity. Your team will smell it from a mile away if you are faking it.

If you say nice things for the sake of it, don’t bother. People are able to spot false compliments.

Even a ping pong table in the office or free Friday lunches won’t work if the rest of the week your team’s efforts are being ignored. Fun without substance won’t get you far.

I think this quote resonates with so many people because they don’t feel appreciated at work, and appreciation is something that is becoming more important to people in the work force, especially younger generations.

If your team doesn’t feel genuinely appreciated, that’s usually not the problem. It’s a SYMPTOM of a combination of things (communication issues, failed onboarding processes, lack of employee engagement) that can result in talented team members leaving your company, instead of feeling connected to their work and helping your business grow.

If you are reading this, you probably already have a sense of caring for your team, but maybe weren’t aware how important the quality of your work culture is to the level of work your talented employees will produce. Or maybe you DO make the correlation, but you don’t know what to do or where to start to make a real change in your business.

Or, maybe you are becoming awakened to new ways of thinking and want to create a work culture that is authentic to you, your values, and the mission of your business.

Are you ready to reject the outdated version of the work place where the boss is automatically an ogre, people are miserable, and the only motivating factor to stay at a job is money, fear or stuck-ness? Then you’re ready to design a workplace that the next generation of talent will want to work for.

THERE IS A BETTER WAY and I can help you get there!

Creating your dream workplace will take time and effort, but in the long run it is SO WORTH IT! Not just for the well-being of your business, but for the well-being of you and your entire team.

Ready to dive in?