* Fourth, be pure in your appreciation. If you to show appreciation, don’t muddle it with other communication. In other words, don’t show appreciation for one action and then start discussing a potential corrective action for another action. This sends mixed signals that say to receiver of this communication, "I don’t want any appreciation because there is always something bad attached to it." Keep it pure!

4. Be Public, if Possible Appreciation is not something you hide. It works best when done publicly. Show you appreciation in a public way in meetings, in front of team members, and management. The funny thing is that once you get in habit of doing this many of your team members will increase activity they need to take to also earn this public appreciation.

5. Be Relational When I ask question, "Why do you come to work everyday?," in my workshops I usually get "to get paid" as first answer students give. Then as we discuss it further it always comes down to "I feel like I make a difference" as main answer. You see, in most cases reason why employees decide to climb out of bed in morning, their toes touch floor, and they decide to drive to work is that they feel that they make a difference where they work.

I remember an opportunity to emcee a large sales meeting for a Fortune 500 company. I introduced a Senior Vice President and he went to lectern to address over 500 employees. He announced that company achieved sales of $14 billion. Then he quickly announced that their goal for next year was $17 billion. As he was talking I was looking at audience. They were unusually quiet and attentive. However, as I looked at them they had a glassy eye look. I realized problem was that speaker was just talking numbers. He didn’t relate how those 500+ employees made a positive difference for company. All he needed to say was how their sacrifice everyone translated in success of company. Along with this, they will meet coming years challenges only with talents of our employees. So simple, but so rarely done.

Relate action done with how if affects team, department and organization. Let’s go back to our earlier examples to complete appreciate process:

Manager: "Mike you did a great job on report for new computer system earlier today. I can see you invested a lot of time to do research so that we have necessary information to request computer system. Mike, we appreciate your efforts because new computer system will make our team more productive so that department will achieve its goals and company will be profitable this year. Bottom line, bigger bonuses for everyone. I look forward to seeing your high level of work in future. Thank you."

Mike:"Thanks. I appreciate making a difference. Please let me know whatever I can do to help team."

As you can see, Mike has a clear sense of achievement and where he fits in company. Also, manager encouraged Mike to do same behavior soon by saying "I look forward to seeing your high level of work in future." And manager ended with a sincere "thank you."

These are five simple tips that will motivate your employees to achieve more with a minimum amount of efforts. Starting today, apply these techniques and you will see a world of difference in your team, department, and organization. Remember, "pay" yourself with rewards now or "pay" yourself with a low performing team later.

* Vision. This is ability not only to see what is present - anyone can do that - it’s ability to see future. Outstanding leaders can not only see their team for what they can do now, but what they can become, and paint picture for them. These leaders are consistently communicating and coaching their team members to that vision. One of best ways, and least used methods, to convey your vision is team meeting (Teambuilding and Coaching Skills for Outstanding Results). Every meeting should start out with team vision, mission, and goals; and rest of meeting should tie into vision. For example, motivation portion of meeting should tie into vision, information portion of meeting should tie into vision, training portion of meeting should tie into vision, etc. Also, invest time to develop your team members’ personal visions and show them how they can accomplish their personal goals by tying into overall vision. By consistently communicating vision, your team will move with purpose, feel they are personally making a difference, and achieve their goals sooner.

* Unselfishness Stephen Covey, in his successful book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, wrote that a true leader must be a servant to ones he or she leads. The leader must be able to “give of oneself for good of team.” In other words, be unselfish in words and action. Be unselfish in praise of others, in public, especially in front of management. Be unselfish in ability to take time to listen, really listen to your team’s concerns. A recent management survey said that average time management invests doing “pure listening” to employees during year is a mere two hours-just two hours! What was meant by “pure listening” time was listening with eye contact, acknowledgement, and not answering phone while listening, not speaking with another person while listening, etc. Be unselfish in ability to help your team. Whether it’s ability to readily assist with a difficult telephone call, jump in and remove road blocks for team members, or “be there” for a team member during challenging moments. Believe me, your team will remember those moments and excel for you. Now I challenge you to put into action just one of leadership techniques I mentioned above to achieve your vision, your mission, and your goals in future.