E761 | How To Show Appreciation To Your Staff

In service-based businesses, the people on your team are your greatest assets. Showing genuine appreciation for their hard work is essential for creating a positive work environment, boosting morale, and building loyalty. Here are some insights on how to thoughtfully recognize and reward your team members in a way that’s truly impactful.

Know What Motivates Your Team

Everyone is motivated a little differently. Some appreciate verbal praise, while others might prefer a thoughtful gift, time off, or even a simple "thank you" for going above and beyond. The key is to understand what resonates with each person and make your appreciation genuine and personalized.

Celebrating key moments in an employee’s journey with your company can have a big impact. It could be their work anniversary, achieving a major milestone, or handling an especially challenging project. Recognizing these moments publicly in front of the team not only makes them feel valued but also sets a positive example for others.

A Personal Example: Celebrating Five Years of Service

A great example of meaningful appreciation from our clinic was the five-year anniversary of our office manager, Claire. Claire had been with us for a significant period, and we wanted to do something truly special to celebrate her dedication and contributions.

The Barista Connection: Early on, we noticed that Claire had a knack for customer service and went out of her way to make clients feel at home. We had an espresso machine in the office, and Claire would often make coffee for our clients as part of the experience. We even sent her to barista training, which became a unique and memorable touchpoint for our clients.

The Gift: To celebrate her five-year milestone, we decided to gift Claire an espresso machine identical to the one she used in the clinic. It was a meaningful gift—a bit expensive, around $1,000—but it was something she loved and used every day. For Claire, this gift wasn’t just a high-end coffee maker. It was a daily reminder of her role in our team and the appreciation we had for her work. She shared how much she enjoyed making coffee for friends and family at home, and every time she uses it, she’s reminded of our clinic.

This example highlights a few key points about appreciation gifts: they should be personal, meaningful, and something that the recipient might not necessarily buy for themselves. A gift that aligns with someone’s interests and hobbies shows thoughtfulness, and that thought can be more meaningful than the gift itself.

Match the Gift to the Person

When selecting a gift, consider what the person genuinely enjoys. A mismatched gift can feel impersonal and fall flat. For example, giving Claire a video game console wouldn’t have been appropriate because gaming isn’t her interest. But the espresso machine was something she appreciated and enjoyed using regularly, making it a much more thoughtful choice.

Public Praise

If possible, always try to give recognition publicly. Celebrating someone’s efforts in front of the team boosts the morale of the entire group and reinforces a culture of appreciation. People want to feel seen and valued for their hard work, and public acknowledgment adds an extra level of respect and recognition.

Final Thoughts: Thoughtfulness Over Cost

Appreciation doesn’t have to be expensive. It’s the thought that matters most. When you invest time and effort into understanding what makes someone feel valued, you’ll be able to show appreciation in ways that are both meaningful and memorable.

Key Takeaways:

• Recognize and celebrate key milestones and achievements.
• Choose gifts that align with the person’s interests.
• Give praise publicly to reinforce a positive team culture.
• Thoughtful gestures go a long way in showing genuine appreciation.

When you make an effort to understand your team and show appreciation in ways that resonate with them, you create a work environment where people feel respected and motivated. A little thoughtfulness goes a long way in building strong, lasting relationships with your team.

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Podcast Transcript

She doesn't play video games, like she wouldn't know how to use it and she probably would just give it away or sell it. Hey, are you a physical therapist looking to leverage your skill set in a way that helps you create time and financial freedom for yourself and your family? If so, you're in the right spot.

My name is Danny Matta and over the last 15 years i've done pretty much everything you can in the profession. I've been a staff PT. I've been an active duty military officer physical therapist. I've started my own cash practice. I've sold that cash practice. And today my company, physical therapy business helped over a thousand clinicians start growing scale, their own cash practices.

So if this sounds like something you want to do, listen up, cause I'm here to help you.

What's going on? Dr. Danny here with the PTO podcast and it's question time. This is a question I actually got from Instagram. Someone messaged me and they asked me. How do you show your staff appreciation for the help that they provide in your business? Do you have any specific examples of how you have shown appreciation to staff that you have?

And this is a good question because everybody's motivated slightly differently, right? But everybody loves positive reinforcements. And that could be with a gift, that could be verbal, that could be with time off, that could be with many things, right? But that literally could be. Just validating somebody for work that they've done or something that you thought was important or they went above and beyond and did that you can do in front of your staff if you have one.

But I do think that there's key times that you can celebrate somebody and really make them feel special. One example of this that I'll share just from our clinic was with our office manager. So we had a fantastic office manager. Her name's Claire. She's actually still at our practice after we've we've sold it and we we celebrate her five.

Year anniversary with us in a specific way, right? So backstory for Claire and and my wife, Ashley, we sent them to barista school. This was before the the gift that we got Claire, but we sent them to barista school because we bought an espresso machine that we put in our office and.

Claire would get make people coffee could be, just a Americano kind of black coffee. She'll make a latte. She'll make all kinds of stuff. And it was just a part of our customer experience where if our office manager, if someone comes in and they're sitting down to, a little bit early to wait for their visit or something.

And she says, Hey you want some water? You want any coffee, anything like that? And they're like, I'd love a coffee. And they respond with no problem. What do you want? Do you want an Americano? You want a latte? You want a cappuccino? What would you like? And and to actually have like legitimate barista training is.

Is a huge win from a customer experience standpoint, right? So she was familiar with that type of machine and could do all that. And at her five year anniversary, when she was had a at our staff meeting, which we have every Monday, we bought her an espresso machine. That was exact same one that we have in our office.

And this wasn't like a small gift at all. This was like close to a thousand dollars and we gave it to her and, just we thanked her for, working with us for as long as she had and all her great work with us. And. We gave her, this thing that was something that she really couldn't afford to buy herself.

Like it was pretty expensive. We bought one for the office, but we bought one for her to have at home. And what's interesting about that is she told me, like a, it's something she uses all the time when she has friends come over, when she has family come over, she's always making them coffee, right?

It's also something, if you think about a gift and the power of a gift it's something that we know that she likes. We know it's something that. She's going to use a lot, right? So it sits in her kitchen. She gets, she looks at it, she uses, she remembers where it came from. And it's just a, it's a a sign of the appreciation we have for her and the work that, that she did.

And it's just a cool gift that we give to somebody that probably would never have bought that for themselves. But it has to match up with the person, right? So let's say we. I don't know. We bought her a thousand dollar video game system or something like that. Like the coolest X Box on the planet, whatever exists, that's thousand bucks.

And we gave that to her. It would be a complete mismatch. We, she doesn't play video games. She wouldn't know how to use it, and she probably would just give it away or sell it. And it would have no impact to her whatsoever. When you give somebody a gift, A, validate them in front of everybody else.

Always praise them in public, if possible. And and try to think of something that is going to be a meaningful thing to them. And and it doesn't have to be anything nearly as expensive what I'm talking about, but just put thought into it and try to get something that they're going to find a lot of value in.

I think the more thought you put into it, the more specific you can make it and the more it resonates with them, the better off you're going to be. So I'm a big fan of trying to match up the right gift for the right person. Because it does take effort and time to really think through that.

And people appreciate that if, they value gifts and things like that. Most people do if there's some thought behind it, but some people do more than others. You've got to know your folks. So that's it. That's what I would say. Pick a gift that's appropriate to them, validate them in public and yeah, spoil your people.

Get them stuff that They probably would never buy for themselves because man, they're awesome and they deserve

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