Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, since said, "There are two things people want more than sex and money...recognition and praise." Time and time again one motivating factor that is at top of most employee lists is appreciation for a job well done. It is more requested than green stuff, money.

Why don’t more managers, owners, and employees give appreciation? Some people state they don’t know how to give it. Others don’t know what to give appreciate for in work environment. Yet others say they are too busy to give appreciation.

I think is this is biggest sin of managers, being too busy to give appreciation for a good job well done. Remember what old transmission commercials used to say, "You can pay me now or you can pay me later." Well, that is what giving appreciation is about. You can invest in your employees now and "pay" them with sincere appreciation and achieve even better performance. Or you will "pay" later by seeing your team’s performance sink, corrective actions and coachings increase, and overall morale decrease.

The following are five tips to giving sincere appreciate that will motivate your team to soar to higher level and achieve more:

1. Be Specific In order to get same behavior or action again you need to let employee know exactly what action(s) you are appreciating. For example, typical attempt at appreciate sounds like this:

Manager: "Mike, you did a great job earlier today. Keep up good work!"

Mike:"Thanks" (Mike is thinking what is he complimenting me on?)

The correct way:

Manager: "Mike you did a great job on report earlier today. I can see you invested a lot of time on report by detail you put in it. I really appreciate you effort. Thank you."

Mike: "I appreciate you noticed time a put into report. Thanks!" (Mike is thinking that manager really did read it and appreciates his effort. I will be glad to do it again.)

As you can see employee has a clear understanding of what action manager is showing appreciated for and he is motivated to take on project again.

2. Be Timely Make sure you show appreciation as soon as possible to action you appreciate. The further distant in time between appreciation and action less impact it will have to motivate employee.

Manager: Mike, report you submitted six month ago was great. Keep up good work. Thanks!"

Mike: "Thanks, I think. What report are you taking about?"

Always find time to show appreciate in a timely manner. Even if you need to drop something else take time to appreciate your employees.

3. Be Fair One of key concerns of students in my workshops is that when appreciation is shown, it doesn’t seem fair. The biggest villain of this is dreaded "Employee of Month" board. Many times when you ask "Employee of Month" what did you do to earn it they say, "I don’t know." I have one action you must take when giving appreciation...be consistent!

* First, clearly state rules for appreciation so that everyone understands how appreciate is earned.

* Second, be consistent when showing appreciation. If one employee does a favorable action and you show appreciation and another employee does same or similar action and you don’t show appreciation you have just sewn seeds of bad morale and feelings of favoritism.

We consistently face new and ever growing challenges in workplace such as reorganizing, downsizing, and “left out sizing.” We are faced with question, “How do we lead in this storm of change?” It may seem difficult at times and decisions we make define our short-term and long-term outcomes. I will share with you five leadership techniques guaranteed to keep you on track during these difficult times.

* Integrity. I put this first because lack of integrity will make or break you as a professional, as a leader, as a person in long run. The lack of this will turn yesterday’s heroes in today’s villains. For example, “MCI was apple of business community’s eye. High revenues, high profits, and high growth; MCI was beating competition hands down. Then it was discovered that there were gross accounting irregularities that accounted for astounding profits. You see, management made a decision, “Do I continue to sustain good growth and be able to look at myself in mirror or do I cook accounting books and spend rest of my time covering up this integrity deficiency? The real shame of MCI situation was that AT&T, Sprint, and others in industry had to cut costs and lay off thousands of employees to compete with MCI’s false numbers. The lack of integrity at MCI not only affected company but also livelihood of thousands and industry as a whole. I was recently speaking with a recently retired City Council member who is well respected in community. I asked her what secret was to her success while on council? She mentioned that one of her political adversaries said to her, “While you were on council, I didn’t like way you voted, but I respected way you voted because you were consistent with your votes and had city’s best interest in mind.” Ask yourself what decisions that you make are right for long term? Be consistent in your actions, whether it is with management, your team, or your family.

* Knowledge. With change happening faster and faster every moment, it is extremely important that you gain knowledge to master these changes. You owe it not only to yourself, but to your team and management. As I always say, “It’s not having right answer, it’s that you have right answer faster than before.” Many times during my teambuilding programs a student will say, “I didn’t know where to find answer.” Then I will say, “That is an unacceptable answer.” Because part of being a leader is acquiring skills to find right answers. With Internet, classroom and online training, mentors, etc., knowledge is at your fingertips. Challenge your team members to use same resources to acquire knowledge to master their challenges. By acquiring this knowledge, you will be able to navigate your team through ocean of change and achieve your goals.