Corporate Strategy
Corporate Strategy
Appreciation Series: Words of Affirmation
Understanding how people feel appreciated varies significantly between individuals, with five distinct appreciation languages determining what makes team members feel truly valued.
• Words of affirmation can be delivered through praise for accomplishments, character affirmations, or personality trait recognition
• Recognition delivery matters significantly – some prefer public praise while others find it mortifying
• Understanding if someone prefers one-on-one, small group, or large group recognition is crucial
• Written appreciation allows some people to save and reference positive feedback later
• Creating a "Working With Me" guide helps teams understand individual preferences and communication styles
• Generic praise becomes meaningless when overused or applied too broadly
• Workplace appreciation must be specific and personalized to remain effective
• The Discord has a poll about appreciation languages – join and share your preferences
Join our Discord to participate in the appreciation languages poll and continue the conversation! Click the link in our show notes to access the server with just one tap.
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So then I said get your hands off that squeegee. And they're like I'm not going to do it. And I'm like well then, I'm calling the police. So that's where that ended.
Speaker 2:So did the guy that was walking the alpaca ever make it across the street?
Speaker 1:No, and the wild thing was there was an Arby's Right behind him.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, I just can't believe. This all started With a sack of magic beans that you got from your neighbor.
Speaker 1:Even, even weirder than that, it was a Tuesday.
Speaker 2:Do you think it's because you accidentally used suntan lotion instead of toothpaste on your toothbrush?
Speaker 1:That could definitely be a part of it, and the water was coming out in reverse.
Speaker 2:And the water was coming out in reverse. See, you never think of those things when you're traveling to the East Coast and like your world is just flipped upside down, I know. And that's why it should have been an email. Welcome back to Corporate Strategy, the podcast. That could have been an email. I'm Clark and he's Bert.
Speaker 1:He doesn't get to talk. This is the Clark Show. I mean technically it is so go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, what a time. It's almost Independence Day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, our listeners have already passed Independence Day. This is a Monday. Yeah, they're're like, what are you talking?
Speaker 2:about it's not independence day. Yikes, you're right, and we're like we're ahead a little bit too. So this is like way past. This is, oh man, I just broke the whole like time sequence the continuum is just snapped for our listeners. I'm sorry, sorry. I'm sorry. I did that to you.
Speaker 1:Let's just start over. I'll cut out the beginning, don't worry, let's start over.
Speaker 2:Go ahead, do it again. No, no, no. I think you got to enter us to be correct this time?
Speaker 1:Absolutely not.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to another episode of CorporateStrategybiz, the podcast that could have been an email of CorporateStrategybiz, the podcast that could have been an email. I'm Clark.
Speaker 1:I'm.
Speaker 2:Bruce. Hey Bruce, Tell me about your quips today. What are you quipping?
Speaker 1:Oh, I've got the quips aplenty. They call me the quippinator. I ordered a sandwich to run on my quiptendo and it's just let me tell you it's Quipulating it comes with a bag of Quips. Oh, quips and Queso. Wow, I feel like we're ending. Let's roll it back, let's do it, let's start over again. I think we need to start over, yeah. Third time. It does the charm, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, me again. Howdy y'all. Welcome back to another episode of CorporateStrategybiz, the podcast. That could have been an email. How y'all doing out there? I'm Clark, I'm Clark, I'm Bruce. I feel like we're in a Rick and Morty episode. We're just going through every single dimension and we're just coming out of something different.
Speaker 1:One of these is good. Trust me, one of these will work. We'll get there. We'll get there. One of them will be a good one, I promise One day.
Speaker 2:I mean, what episode is this 171?
Speaker 1:170. 170. Wait, what episode is this? 171? 170. 1-7-0.
Speaker 2:Wait, no, no, this is 171, isn't it? No, no, because we ended it on.
Speaker 1:Oh, you're right, it is 171. Yeah, yep, you're right, man, you're right.
Speaker 2:The continuum is broken, Like we are time warping right now.
Speaker 1:It's scary. Well, 169 was the end of the show, so it's really hard to keep counting after the show ends. That was our last episode, so I don't really know how we do the numbers henceforth.
Speaker 2:I don't know where we are.
Speaker 1:Episode two you and me Starting over Episode two. Yeah, but we're not starting. This is the end. I mean it's the end, it's over, we're in the aftermath.
Speaker 2:We're in the afterlife. The post show, this is all post show. Oh yeah, yeah, that's what it is. This is just the post show.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the post show episode 169, part two. This is 169, well, technically it's 169, part three. Yep, Part of our series of episodes that we're doing per Clark's insistence on love languages.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, not love languages because it's the workplace, but appreciation languages for the workplace. That is the mini series we are on.
Speaker 1:And love languages with extra steps.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, love languages with extra steps, but don yeah, love languages with extra steps, but don't kiss your coworkers, don't touch, no touching, no, touchy, no touchy. So in the last episode should we just jump right into it? Absolutely All right, let's do it. Let's do it.
Speaker 1:Maybe we should start over one more time.
Speaker 2:Should we? It might get weird. I'm a little scared, to be honest.
Speaker 1:I don't know where the next one's going to go Maybe just keep going, just in case. All right, I'll keep going, okay.
Speaker 2:You ready? Yeah, you're not ready. I'm looking at you right now. You're not ready. I can see it in your beady little eyes.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to do anything. Go talk about your love language. Come on, let's hear it. What language of love do we need to learn?
Speaker 2:No, touching Appreciation languages, thank you. So in the last episode we introed the topic appreciation languages in the workplace. How important appreciation is for the people around you, but sadly not everybody feels appreciated in the same way. People feel appreciated differently, and that's why this book was written. The five appreciation languages basically coming off the whole entire, to your point, the love languages, which is relationship, how do you express and how does your partner express love? This is very similar, but in the workplace no love, no touch, no love. And this is how you feel appreciated in the workplace. And so in the initial one we gave an overview of all five of the appreciation languages.
Speaker 2:There may be more, we'll talk about that. They have outlined in this book. So words of affirmation, quality time talk about that. That they have outlined in this book. So words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service. The last one is gifts. I guess is how we say it, so tangible gifts is what they specifically call it. And then the last one is appropriate, I'm going to say that out loud so everybody hears it again Appropriate, physical touch, very important. No touching, no touching, just don't. And if you do, just don't.
Speaker 1:How about that? Just don't Best advice I can give you. Just don't, Just don't do it. So today in our mini-series, we're going into the and we also have the poll live on the Discord. I've got to cut in. Thank you, there's a poll. That's live on the discord right now. Go fill it out, because we want to use data from your participation to help inform upcoming episodes. So do that. Please continue clark yeah, I'll be.
Speaker 2:I'll be really curious to those poll results of what you think your your appreciation language is. And then there's a quiz quiz that both Bruce and I took to determine what is our primary and what is our secondary appreciation place in the workplace. And so we will probably publish that quiz at some point, because I'd be curious. You think it's this. Now take the quiz, let's see what it actually might be, and maybe it's a bad quiz. We will be the judge of that once we get there.
Speaker 1:Can I ask a question before we move on? Did what you think you were matched up with what you were? No, okay, interesting, what about you? We'll save that then. I didn't know what this was when you gave me the quiz, so I was like I don't know, I don't know what. I'm doing, I'm just answering. I'm answering questions that are being asked of me, so answering.
Speaker 2:I'm answering questions that are being asked of me, so I'm just doing the best I can. Fair enough, all right. So let's go into the very first one Today we are talking about words, words of affirmation.
Speaker 2:That is the first language of appreciation that we're going to be talking about, and I thought it'd be good for us to talk about just in general what this thing is and why it matters. And then I have kind of five different vectors, that there's a whole entire book around this that I'm reading that gives different perspectives on what this is and what the different types of words of affirmation are and how people appreciate them, because, as you think, like words of affirmation, like what, for you, comes to mind in the workplace. Thank you, thank you, yes.
Speaker 1:You did great Good job. Okay, wow, I liked it. You really turned in that report.
Speaker 2:Yowza, you sent an email, that's really all I can think of yeah, that's all I got, fair enough.
Speaker 1:I've never heard anything other than those four specific examples.
Speaker 2:Do you get applause every time that you send an email? Now I'm really concerned about your day to day.
Speaker 1:There's actual clapping happens behind me, but when I turn around it's gone.
Speaker 2:So wow, and this this time warp is really throwing things off, but I think I see who's doing that in your background right now. See who's doing that in your background right now. Oh good, because I can't, maybe I can help you out. So the book gives a couple of things that really fit into the words of affirmation. The first one is praise for accomplishments.
Speaker 2:It's similar to what you're saying it's like okay, you accomplished something, you completed a big project you did really well, kind of pulling the team forward and getting the right collaboration, and we should give you praise for that because it's a job well done, which is, I think, what you were alluding to and I think is probably the most common words of affirmation. It's just praise for accomplishments.
Speaker 1:So, and I'm ignorant to all of this, this is very much like a Clark-led thing. So I have questions and I'm sorry for our listeners if I seem exceptionally stupid in this regard. But praise for accomplishments, Like, we're literally just saying like as far as appreciation language goes, this is its own category, separate and apart from the others. So when I say like hey, Craig, great job recording that podcast, that's me asserting an appreciation language to Craig and this actually motivates Craig, according to the book.
Speaker 2:Yes, If Craig is motivated by this. Yes, if this is a love or appreciate. I know you got it stuck in my head, you dirty dog. If this is my appreciation language, this could be one of the vectors. But everybody, even if your words of affirmation praise might not actually be that thing that you care about, but for some people there are other things, that kind of categories. Yes, subcategories, if you will so, yes, praise this one's really basic. I think everyone understands it. The book.
Speaker 1:not everyone's affected by it. Right Like and that's what we're saying here is there are different personality types that are impacted in different ways. Praise and affirmation. You might think that Craig likes me telling him he did a good job recording the podcast, but Craig doesn't actually care, like that's literally water off, correct back Cause he's a beaver and beavers don't have the ability to retain water yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly yeah, that oil, definitely yeah, as natural as skin keeps the water, just yeah, we got it.
Speaker 1:I'm just keeping a level. I'm making sure I understand this as you go through, so continue. Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 2:So, yes, so some people like are all about the praise, like, anytime you do anything, give them claps, whatever, like in general, that is what a lot of people think of is when they think of words of affirmation. But, to your point, some people like Craig, even though that might be happening, some people just might not appreciate that. Okay, whatever, like good job, that doesn't mean anything to me. So the study basically says that, just in general, keeping praise top of your mind when things happen and praising others is a good thing to do. People will be more motivated and you can kind of blanket everybody pretty much appreciates everybody getting accomplishments and praise for those accomplishments when they happen. However, there are ways to maximize this, to make it even more effective for the person that you are giving praise to, and that goes into two different categories. Some people appreciate when you talk about their character, you give them an affirmation of character.
Speaker 1:Like hey.
Speaker 2:Bruce, your integrity and reporting that potentially security vulnerability that people have been exploiting was really great and it helped us protect our company from bad actors. Thank you for being such a great part of our team.
Speaker 1:I feel great I don't know why. Feel motivated. I feel really motivated to just do more work. I love it.
Speaker 2:I feel really motivated to just do more work. I love it, but basically some people look for that as like take it beyond just the great job to tell them about something that's deep and core to them and basically add that in to the praise. So honesty, integrity, compassion, things like that basically affirms their character and goes deeper than just one level, and so calling those things out and even thinking about those things allows you to be more effective to people who may be feeling or may need this appreciation language in the workplace.
Speaker 1:So, level one, tier one, thank you, you did a great job, hey. Team good work today. Team good work today. Tier two hey Clark, I really appreciated the way that you handled that delicate situation with the foreigners. They get a little uppity, you know, because they're not from the United States, and you really brought that foreign class to them.
Speaker 2:You feel motivated. I think you got to go one level deeper, like saying, hey, I really appreciated how, when everyone was down in the dumps about missing the project deadline, you were there for them. You showed empathy and you were able to rally the team around and encourage them that they could continue on.
Speaker 1:So it's almost like you're singling out while making everyone else look bad.
Speaker 2:Well, this, this could be not in front of everybody, it could be individual, yeah yeah, this is definitely a private thing to consider yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So you can take that private and affirm the character. When Bruce really fumbled that podcast example earlier, you kind of held the whole thing together. People were going to unsubscribe and if it wasn't for your correction, God knows what happened. Thanks for that.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's going one level deeper. It's not just saying hey, thanks for saving the podcast, you're going one level deeper.
Speaker 1:Yeah, reaching down to the bus yeah, exactly, you really gotta like slide over them, but you gotta call out a new character trait along the way.
Speaker 2:So I think you're getting there. We'll see at the end of this if you figure this out, I'm learning.
Speaker 1:yeah, all right, I going to use these on my team. No touching, though, yeah no touching.
Speaker 2:Please don't use that on your team. They would not appreciate that. A next level to that, which also can make this more effective, is the praise for personality. So we kind of mentioned it before. I think there's differences between things that are character-based honesty, integrity, compassion versus things that are personality-based. Hey, you are always so organized when you do your work and I always feel disorganized when I'm doing mine, but you really help me understand what's going on in your space and it's really easy for me to understand. So thank you for being so organized within your work, because I think it makes our whole organization better.
Speaker 1:So calling out the specific personality trait.
Speaker 2:No, you can't do that. Don't do that. Hr is not liking that. It's not a physical characteristic, oh okay, it's a personality characteristic. You're getting there, try again.
Speaker 1:Okay, try again. Come on, all right. I really like the way you take the time to explain things to people, even though they're absolutely incapable of learning. You have this energy that you exude and a willingness to put up with really frustrating situations and persevering through.
Speaker 2:That was great, very good. I feel so motivated. I feel like I'm ready to run through a wall.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, I'm learning. Okay, all right, so we got tier one, tier two, tier three. Does it go?
Speaker 2:deeper. So now it kind of goes into that's how you can be effective in giving praise. However, now it comes down to the how and where. To your point earlier. Like not everybody wants to be given these words of affirmation in front of everybody, like some people just don't want that they're like, I don't like to be called out in front of crowds. Maybe I'm a little more?
Speaker 2:This is what I was wondering, this one is really important because, even though you think, as a good boss like I, always give praise, I call them up to the stage and from everybody, I rally them on Little did you know? Some people hate that. That is. Their worst fear is getting publicly acknowledged, even though they want to be acknowledged for their work. They want to be told they're doing a good job. They don't want it to be in front of everybody. Hmm, I actually this one's interesting. I have a person on my team. We give out like a you know MVP award, if you will, and we have our own buzz on it or whatever every year to like one person as part of our large organization. And they got it.
Speaker 2:And their worst fear came true. They were brought up on stage in front of everybody and afterwards they told me I didn't know this. They were like hey, just so you know. That was an absolute nightmare for me. I was sweating through my clothes. I hated every second of having to go up there. Wow, please, if you can do not let that happen again. And I had no idea and I'm like. I felt so bad because I'm like why wouldn't you want to Like? Because I'm OK with that, that's OK for me from like a words of affirmation perspective. I'm fine being in front of people I didn't even think about.
Speaker 1:How do they want to be recognized and interesting and for me I'm I'm always reluctant to praise my team in a public space, so like we even have a shout outs channel on our Slack and if my coworkers listening they're probably laughing when I said that out loud because it's kind of it's kind of turned into like a back padding ceremonial place where it's like congratulations for checking your email, you did your job today. Hey, love you. So I don't give my team any kind of public shout out, but I always try to make sure that I recognize and give words of specifically affirmation and praise and call out specifically what they did. Well, privately, because I feel like you can't ever muck that up right. Like I don't know if the book has anything right, like yeah, I don't know if the book has anything to say about this, but like I don't think anyone specifically doesn't like their manager saying hey, you did really good, thanks for doing that. You know, like privately, publicly, I can see that being a problem, so I just don't do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah, and there's there's one more vector to that. But I want to finish this conversation because I actually think there is a case where what you just said is not good. But I'm going to bring that controversial thing up. Sure, let's go together. Or if I'm working with someone, that's great. Some people like it in front of others and maybe it's not others, as in large groups it could be like just their team, people they know, people they're comfortable with, they're like yeah, this is like I would love to be recognized in front of the peers that I work with every day, that I trust and I know do good work. I don't care about everybody else, I just want to be recognized in front of them so they know that I'm doing good work as well, and then I'm getting this praise in front of them. It would make me feel proud. So some people like small group kind of words of affirmation outside of one-on-ones and not in the larger setting which I never really thought of.
Speaker 1:That too, I can see that I didn't know there'd be a difference, but I guess it makes sense yeah, I, I do do that, I do give shout outs and like the team calls, but never in the big calls, I leave that to the big wigs. Yeah for sure. And I think it means more right. Like if you get, if you get the affirmation from like CEO, cmo, and they're like yeah, you rock Craig, then it's like well, I mean, Bruce always told me I rocked and I quit believing him after a while. But like when CEO says it, wow, that really makes my heart sparkle.
Speaker 2:It was meaningful, right Because? You have less interaction. So when it happens it's kind of rare. It's not like this continual thing. Okay, whatever Bruce thinks I'm cool, we talk every day. Ceo that never talked to my life has recognized me for work that they know I did.
Speaker 1:That's a big deal, but I's it is important to understand if that person wants it publicly or privately. Yeah, uh, I I, I can see that I can even see that for me a little bit. I definitely like the more private praise than public.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah it's so difficult, like as I was thinking about this, because, like, as you're giving out a big award, it's usually a surprise for the person getting it. You know what I mean. Like most of the time it's like it's supposed to be now. The winner of our MVP of the quarter award for the best sales numbers come up on stage and then they announced the name Like they don't really know ahead of time. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So like that was a tough one, cause, like how do you get ahead of that to be like yeah, especially if you put like your employees in for it, you know it's like oh yeah, I put craig in for this, like I think, I think craig can win it yeah, oh, craig hates absolutely yeah like this is their literal worst nightmare to have to go on stage.
Speaker 2:This one's tough because it's like big things like that it's sometimes hard to avoid because you don't want to like bring them into one-on-one, be like hey, bruce, I know you don't want to go up on stage. You're in for a big award if you do win. Would you be okay with them calling you out on stage, or would you rather not let that happen? It just feels awkward I don't know.
Speaker 1:I feel like we've kind of missed the mark on behavior in general with people because we're so focused on like, hey, what? What's your t-shirt size and do you like chocolate or vanilla ice cream on your cake? But like it really should be, hey, is it okay if I like give you a shout out to the whole company on our slack like, would you like that, versus like me just telling you you did a great job? Like I feel like we should be having those kind of conversations to really understand what the person likes and what that would motivate them and make them feel good. And even I feel like even having that conversation I don't know what the book says about this, but like asking people about their specific preference in words for affirmation like that in itself shows a care and attention and a respect for the employee that I feel like you don't really ever get right. It's like, oh, they actually care about what I want, not just doing something because they don't want me to quit my job. Like that that seems really nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it makes it more human because it's like it's less about the corporatism of it and it's more about how do you want to feel appreciated, which that's what I really like about this. Like to your point, I think there's strategies of you can probably figure out what someone is without letting them feel awkward about it or making them feel awkward as you're talking through it, feel awkward as you're talking through it, but, like in that situation.
Speaker 2:It's just. It is tough because, like usually, those things happen in a public setting, in front of everybody.
Speaker 2:And we're just assuming that everybody is okay with that and that literally might be their worst nightmare to have that happen and they might leave. And you're like why would they leave? Like I just gave them the best award that everybody gets all year. Like what happened? And they basically come back and say, hey, you didn't ask me my preferences about how I felt and wanted to be recognized and I just don't feel comfortable like having that happen to me again.
Speaker 1:And it's. You know, I'm not. This might sound like a generalization, but in tech specifically, there's a lot of very different types of personalities and preferences when it comes to communication and recognition and public speaking it's. I think it's crucial if you are in a space where folks are not all the same a type personality, you get to the bottom of, like what do they want, what do they like, before you put them in for something.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and it's you know, something that you and I may have talked about I don't know that we've talked about it on this podcast, but is something I I've seen that has controversial reviews is, in a workplace, having a working with Bruce guide that every new employee basically has to fill out, and so they fill out for themselves. This is how I operate best. This is how working with me will go well, interesting, yeah, and so like, fill out for themselves. This is how I operate best. This is how working with me will go well, interesting, yeah, and so like they define, hey, working with me. Just so you know I'm a morning person.
Speaker 2:I love to have my focus time in the morning to accomplish my tasks, and when you're reading my working with Clark book, you would learn all this about me to be like, okay, I'll avoid scheduling meetings in the morning because that's when they like to do all their work, and I'll save it for the afternoon. Or, hey, during lunch, like I like to just put my headphones on and kind of stay to myself. But I also love playing ping pong. Like I would love to play ping pong in the afternoons with, you know, some of some of the coworkers, if I can and so, like I've seen mixed reviews on, is that pretentious, like if you need a guide just to be a human and work with people. Like is that pretentious or is that actually a good thing, because everybody's just so different?
Speaker 1:See, I know what I'm about to say will probably make some people go hippy, dippy, woo, woo, like oh, there goes the participation trophy group again. But I truly think that's a great idea and it's not because I want it for myself, but because I deeply care about the well-being and happiness of everyone I work with. Like work sucks, it really sucks. And I think if everyone filled out that little book or if they had a little bio about them in their Slack profile or whatever and it's the first time you're working with someone, maybe it's the first time you're going to a meeting, you check that and you're like oh, they actually said they don't like high energy. So I'm not going to come into this being bombastic and trying to make the sale. Instead, I'm going to focus on, like having a meaningful conversation, listening to what they have to say. Like I feel like that can really set you up for good relationship, success with people, good first impressions. You know, knowing how to work with people like that could be huge. But I think there's a.
Speaker 1:Unfortunately there is a group of people out there and it's a pretty big group that sees any kind of new age recognition of mental health and, you know, psychology and personal well-being as weakness and they're like, oh, we didn't have this and we did the copier work in the 1980s, we don't need it today. And it's like, well, yeah, you didn't know about it back then, but, like we understand now, you know. Like this is a. This is a much better way for us to work. I mean, we saw this transitioning to agile literally just you and me moving into like agile based methodology, which was a much better way for us to work. There are people who are so resistant to it, but it made our lives better. It made everyone's life better. So I think this is a great idea. I love it personally. Yeah, I'd love to do it.
Speaker 2:Like, what you're saying is like every nobody's you can never make a decision that everyone's gonna be happy with. Someone will always have a problem, no matter what you do and everything can turn yeah, exactly Like everything can turn to a slippery slope, but set up the guide rails, say here's the things we put into it.
Speaker 2:We don't put things like, like it's okay. If you say, hey, I have a peanut allergy, so if you could not eat peanuts around me so I don't die, like that'd be great, like that's totally fine. But if you're starting to add in all these optional preferences to be like, hey, on tuesdays I really don't like the smell of fish, then I think it's getting pretentious. Where it's like okay, now nobody can eat fish in the office on tuesdays because larry doesn't like fish on tuesdays and like that's taking it too far you've got to like guideline it the.
Speaker 1:The line in the sand for me is really the how do you interact, or how do you like to be interacted with? What is your interaction preference? Slack, email, call what's the best way to work with you? Just knowing that can be super beneficial. And then, I think, on top of that, just understanding the personality a little bit, I don't see that as a bad thing at all. I think that could really help.
Speaker 1:And having this, you know, maybe having them take like a thing like this, like hey, what's your, what's your, you know, appreciation, love, language, and they're like yeah, I actually really like quality time, believe it or not, and I'm like ah, I guess that for you, but I'll make sure that we have like you know, one-on-ones where we talk to each other and actually like get to know each other, kind of thing, like because that could be meaningful. That could be the difference between them being motivated and continuing to work and want to stay here, versus here's a $20 gift card. You did great. And they're like cool, this is going in the trash, I didn't need this, yep.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you know what I think could take that, even like one step further having the option to share, like something personal, like hey, a little bit about me. You know I have two kids, four dogs and one goldfish named larry the goldfish, and larry is my best friend and like having the option super weird.
Speaker 1:Just hold on, hold on. I gotta stop you right there. Like we cannot prove you have two kids, four dogs and a goldfish and you name the goldfish and the goldfish is your best friend. Like I am now worried you are a serial killer listen I'm not here to judge. We've gone too far. Now I need to know less. I need to know less about you because I'm afraid that you're going to cut me into little bitty pieces and feed me to Larry.
Speaker 2:It's happened before.
Speaker 1:It'll happen again, man, that is a human-sized amount of fish food you have on your wall back there, Like it's just a human-sized amount, Like 160 pounds Weird.
Speaker 2:You also have a dehydrator back there. Is that what you're making? Are you homemade?
Speaker 1:fish food Weird. You could fit at least half a body in that thing, right?
Speaker 2:So, like I, mean half a body. How big is that dehydrator? How big is that dehydrator, leonard? Yeah, I think you could fit probably like two arms and a head in there. What do you think?
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's definitely a two arm and a head in there. What do you think? Oh yeah, that's definitely a two-arm and a head dehydrator for sure. I noticed you wear rubber gloves all the time. That's interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's your appreciation language?
Speaker 1:Physical touch?
Speaker 2:Great, no touching but this is, I think, like a cool addition to if you have a workplace guide is like, if you want, you can put a personal thing in there. Cause how awesome would it be if, like, someone's joining new and you're like, oh, before I set up a meeting, I'll check out their notes of how to work best with them. Like okay, cool, like I just learned a little bit about them and then I can make a more personal connection than just a work connection. And some people might say, yeah, I like to keep working life separate, so no person no personal notes, which is totally cool, I guess that's totally cool, yeah, so anyways, I think that could be a really cool addition in the workplace.
Speaker 2:That, agree, some people think is pretentious, but I think people are so different and like having something like this with the right guidelines, could help your workplace be basically build a much better culture, because you're treating each other like humans I mean without harping on these people anymore, but like the, the very people who'd be like I don't want this guide.
Speaker 1:This is some hippy dippy nonsense. It's like you should absolutely have the guide and put that in there. It's like, yes, I hate this stuff because I'm gonna go into that meeting and talk to you completely differently than I'm going to talk to anyone else and you're going to appreciate the fact that I'm talking to you differently. Like they don't even realize that the benefit that could come to this for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I a hundred percent agree with you. So, going all the way back to how and where, yeah, one-on-ones and final others. Some people this book claims like written appreciation so they can file away the logs, logs. Archive it and have it all written down so that they can reference it in the future that's weird.
Speaker 2:That's I mean, like you know, for me that's weird I can kind of see it because, like even for me, like when you get appreciate, when you're a type, a person who's been successful in the workplace, you've gotten a lot of praise. Yeah, you're not gonna be able to recall all that praise, right like it's just like sometimes one in one ear, the other whatever.
Speaker 2:Well, what's sometimes nice is like when you get a note from the ceo or big boss and they send you something personal. It's like that's kind of nice to file away, to be like that was cool. Will I ever look at it again, I I don't know, but it was kind of cool Huh.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I've never, I've never thought of that before, so I'm I'm glad you brought it up and it's something I'm going to have to ask about, because I wouldn't assume someone actually wanted it in writing, versus, you know, hearing the CEO tell you you're great, we love you yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting, so I can. I can see it, so I could agree, like that could be, that would be something that I would have appreciated in former roles.
Speaker 2:Last one is, as we talked about, public affirmation, like telling everybody in front of everybody. Some people love to be on the stage, the rah, rah, the exciting stuff. That is what some people want and what they strive for. So I think that covers the how you can say more than just praising for accomplishments and take it out of just a base level thing, you know, lean into the affirmation of the character, praise for personality traits. That always takes it a couple steps deeper.
Speaker 2:The one thing that I think is still controversial is praise can go too far, and I think your Slack channel of shout outs has taken it too far and praise has become shallow. They talk about this a lot as you have to avoid shallow praise and by doing what you said and just saying great job. You sent an email like just want to give you some kudos, like that makes all the praise just noise. It's like who cares? Like on to the next thing that doesn't really matter. I don't care how many times johnny has been called out in this channel. Everybody gets called out in this channel, everybody gets called out in this channel.
Speaker 1:I don't look at it anymore for that reason. It's just noise to me.
Speaker 2:I think that's the controversial thing. It's like if you're always saying great job to everybody, then everybody looks at it like in one ear, out the other who cares? He tells everybody good job, I don't care what Bruce says.
Speaker 1:That's my question. I don't care what Bruce says, so that's kind of my. That's my question. Right, like this is I think about this when I have one-on-ones of people is you know I have a good team, and when my team does a good job, I always tell them like I always try and tell them like hey, really appreciate what you did with that Turned out great. Like thank you. Like am I? Am I over burning the appreciation to the team by always doing that Like, should I not say anything? Should I be quiet? Should I sit there, stare at them during the one-on-one say nothing?
Speaker 2:Usually tell them about your dehydrator. That helps.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I'll show them Leonard the goldfish and we'll we'll have that conversation. It was Larry.
Speaker 2:Leonard is the fish food maker. For oh, leonard, yeah, yeah, leonard is the fish food maker for larry.
Speaker 1:That's the did leonard name larry. Is that what happened? He definitely named larry, okay, I want to know. I mean, he has two kids, but you didn't mention a wife, so we know what happened there.
Speaker 2:Yes, fish food fish food he didn't. If you didn't put that together, no, I, I did some.
Speaker 1:Some filmmakers show, others tell I think you just went right into the tell yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think what you didn't realize about this working with leonard guide is you got to read between the lines a little bit on what's actually happening in their lives.
Speaker 1:When you read that, yeah, no, I, I picked it up. I picked it up, I think I'm next, I think I'm next, I think I'm next to be fish food, 100%. Well, this is a lot to take in. So when you took the test, I took the test when did words of affirmation rank with you?
Speaker 2:Surprisingly, it was my top, which I did not expect Really Big reveal. I was not expecting that to be my top. I thought and we'll get into this later my top would be acts of service, because I always appreciate when my team and others do a good job and they help accomplish a shared task. But I guess words of affirmation is pretty big for me.
Speaker 1:So, based on your test that I took, which I'm, I'm not I'm not blaming you for this, but I did find frustrating. Sometimes there was like an option of like, do you want a gift card, or do you want them to say thank you, and I'm like I want them do their damn jobs. Uh, so my option was not there, but, uh, words of affirmation was number two for me, because, uh, it was the better choice of the choices I could pick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's why I think we might need to find a better quiz to prove out the one to validate us, but before we send it to our discord, okay, we should probably find something that we like and feels right before this series ends, we'll take another quiz and see exactly where we lie on on the scale.
Speaker 1:But yeah, for me words of affirmation was number two, not number one. That's interesting yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:so I think the one thing and maybe we'll get to this at the end of the series it's like, well, how do you find or how do you ask, like, what is their appreciation language like? To be honest with you, even reading this, there's so many things like I never even thought of that. I'm like, oh yeah, I like I like this aspect of that or I don't like this aspect of that, and I've never even like put that together of, oh yeah, situations in my career that I haven't liked things. I'm like that was the reason why, and so that's why I kind of like going through these, you know, as we're talking about the different types of praise, how and where, avoiding shallow praise, like all that is super relevant to how I feel appreciated and why sometimes it's effective and sometimes it's not.
Speaker 1:I couldn't agree more, and you know I just have to say I went into this super skeptical and this whole thing sounded real hippy dippy to me. It was very woo woo you know what I'm saying so like I was not on board. But this, this first breakdown you've done here, I feel educated. I feel like I was not on board, but this first breakdown you've done here, I feel educated. I feel like I've learned a thing. So, thank you, that's what we're here for Learning a thing Breaking down my barriers and boundaries and lifting me and building me back up. You know that's not easy to do, clark. Not many people can do that, especially the people I work with those trash bags. You, however, you have the skills that kill when it comes to making me feel like I can really do the things you talked about on this episode and put a series together. Wow, award worthy.
Speaker 2:Thanks, clark I feel so appreciated right now I'll tell you what I will do another episode of this podcast with you. Retention, that's what you were hoping for.
Speaker 1:Technically it's not an episode, it's a post show, but yes, I do hope that you will. Hey, you know, if our listeners maybe haven't gotten involved in the Discord before, you can do so right now, right this very moment. There's a sale actually where you can join our Discord for the lowest of prices A tap, all it takes, one tap. I know you got a lot of taps in you. This isn't like I'm asking for you know a billion taps. I'm asking for one tap and then maybe like two or three taps to kind of get set up. But open your show notes, use that powerful digit of yours, or maybe, if you don't have hands we're not judging whatever you need to do to make that link blue, click on all the things. Join our, our Discord. Okay, all right, spin that tap wisely, get in our Discord and join the conversation. We will have a survey up all about this very topic, this very series that Clark has so eloquently put together for us. Join in, join us, won't you Please? For one tap.
Speaker 1:That's it Great job For one tap, that's it. Great job. No you. What else do we want them to do?
Speaker 2:I think you nailed it. I mean share, please Share us. That's the biggest way. Yeah, you can get more of people listening to this. We can create a better corporate world for all of us who are stuck working for the corporate evil or overlords. That's the only way. Share with people you like, share with people you don't like, especially if you don't like them. Tell them to listen to this, because maybe they'll turn their whole life around, they'll have a real transformation moment and then they'll be better to work with. Who?
Speaker 1:knows, we don't grow as a species by dividing. We don't. We grow by making a large human pyramid where we tie our hands to the feet of the people below us. And when every single person makes this shape together, we will ascend.
Speaker 2:We grow, yeah, yeah, I think that's all we've got this week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, join us, we grow. Yeah, yeah I think that's all we've got this week. Yeah, no, join us. Join us, tie your hands to my feet. Please, I will gladly tie your feet to my hands if you join us and we will make this human pyramid with all 10 billion people, we will ascend to the heavens. They won't be able to stop us. If we're one giant pyramid, nobody can, nobody, can, nobody, can.
Speaker 2:I mean, the pyramid is the most powerful shape, so everything is made from the pyramid.
Speaker 1:That's why the aliens gave us the shape. They came down, they told the Pharaoh. They said look, you're powerful, but you're not all powerful. What you need to do? Go out, get some dirt, spit in that dirt, turn that dirt into clay, take that clay, roll it up a hill, put more clay on top of that clay. Look what you got? Triangle. But it's not a triangle, it's a four-sided triangle with a square on the bottom. We must make the shape with bodies. We must tie ourselves together. Corporate Strategy the podcast. That could have been an email. I'm Bruce and I'm Clark. I think we need to go back and just do it over again. You know like I think we should start over.
Speaker 2:Start from the top. I felt like it was a little rocky. It was our first one of the series.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Give us a little break.
Speaker 2:Let. I felt like it was a little rocky.
Speaker 1:It was our first one of the series yeah, I gave us a little break. Let's run it back. I'm still not feeling it. I think we should roll back the tape, but until then, you're on mute. We'll see you next week.
