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Friday, May 21, 2010

Power of Acknowledgment

I appreciate acknowledgment every now and then, a good acknowledgement in fact makes my day as long as it is real, sincere and heartfelt.

Now if that makes me happy I am sure that makes others happy too, but how often do we acknowledge people, not very often, it is difficult, we are so verbose when things go wrong but the same enthusiasm is lacking when things go right.

If you acknowledge someone you inspire and motivate them, it is also very crucial for a healthy relationship. Delivering an acknowledgement is an art and if done correctly can be very powerful else it may have an entire opposite effect.

Below are some of the tips on delivering effective acknowledgment

Tip 1: Communicate only when you are happy, your message will be heartfelt and will appear genuine.

Tip 2: Differentiate between Acknowledgement and Compliment. Acknowledgement is about recognizing their accomplishment and to show that what they did has made a great difference. Compliment is just being nice, kind of good manners.

Tip 3: Use facts and examples to support your acknowledgement rather than generic thank you statements.

Tip 4: Be honest, do not acknowledge when you don’t believe in it, most people can see right through and you can actually come across insincere or every phony.

Here are some myths about acknowledgement

Myth 1: Only positive people should be acknowledged. There are always people in team who bring positive criticism; even they need to be acknowledged.

Myth 2: Rare acknowledgement is more precious. In fact the more generous you are with your acknowledgment the better it is.

Myth 3: People are just doing their job. Most people want to go a great job and everyone does a great job but every acknowledgment makes them work harder and feel treasured.

Myth 4: Individuals should not be acknowledged, it is bad for team morale. I some time think the team concept has gone too far, as must as the team delivers but the members within the team are the one who makes it happen. The best strategy is to compliment the team and acknowledge the individuals.

I would like to mention a very recent incident, I was on a flight to Melbourne for a user conference when the air hostess was serving food, she gave me two choice Ham salad or spinach roll. I ordered spinach roll, just before serving me she said ‘Sir I know you ordered spinach roll but I feel I should mention that it has beef in it, will that be ok with you?’. I think she guess that I am a Hindu and don’t eat beef but that comment was so sincere that it touched my heart, I told her ‘Thank you very much for asking, I don’t mind eating beef but thank you for caring”. In fact also wrote a letter to the airline to acknowledge the great service I experienced. I am sure that the air hostess felt happy to receive an acknowledgement but I was happier to give one, in fact giving acknowledgment is a win – win situation.

Practice this skill on daily basis, try to acknowledge at least one person every day, you will see that you create so much positive energy and enthusiasm.

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