4 Ways to Thank Your Team

As leaders - especially of early stage startups - learning how to meaningfully express gratitude is an essential skill. We often remember to celebrate the big milestones with our team like a successful fundraise or great data - but it’s often when we express appreciation in the little moments when it is most valuable.

Gratitude is the same as appreciation, i.e positive feedback. One of the best ways to keep your team motivated and engaged is to notice great work and point it out. Not all positive feedback is equal, though. When you express gratitude, it shouldn’t be general like “great job!” or a fist bump.

Meaningful gratitude is specific and timely. It points out exactly what you liked so that the person feels seen and valued.

It also is hugely important signal to let the person know how to replicate their success. Who doesn’t love a gold star? I actually had a CEO client recently whose team of scientists started joking about getting gold stars and then she bought some and gave them out when they did great work and they absolutely loved it.

Perhaps, in your personal life, you’ve learned about the Five Love Languages. The idea here is that there are five basic ways people want to be shown love: physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, gifts, and quality time.

At work, we can call "love," “gratitude” or “appreciation.” Obviously, it’s not appropriate to have “touch” be a professional love language so we're going to take that option off the table. As a leader, can figure out which of the other four are most meaningful to each person on your team and do something that speaks to each individual. If you're not sure, you can pick multiple forms to express simultaneously. It's also totally okay for you, as a manager, to ask your direct reports for insights on which "language" speaks to them so you can get this right.

4 ways to show gratitude in a biotech startup:

Words of Affirmation:

To be most valuable, your words need to point out what, specifically, you value or appreciate. Such as: “I like the way you acknowledged your teammate’s contribution to your success.” Or “I love the way you minimized all of the noise on that slide so that the impact of your data is clear.” Or “Great work anticipating that problem; it was extraordinary how you were able to catch that so quickly and keep us on course.”

Your words could, potentially, be even more meaningful if they were written down. You might want to hand write a quick note and leave it on their desk that says: “Your presentation to the board yesterday was exceptional - clear, concise, and highly strategic. Great job!” You can use whatever medium - a Loom video, a Slack message, a text - whatever works.

Gifts:

When someone goes above and beyond, you could get them a personalized gift. Perhaps you overheard that they collect miniature poodle figurines and you buy them one to add to their collection. This teammate would so seen and valued to know that you remembered their unique hobby. You can always quietly give a spot bonus for being extraordinary. Who doesn't love some awesome swag? Get the team matching hoodies! Whatever you choose, make sure that you point out that the reason you are giving this present to express your gratitude for that specific thing that they did.

Quality time:

Maybe you want to take your star performer out to lunch if they’d value some 1:1 time. You could also take a whole team out for a bowling outing to demonstrate appreciation, or plan a hot cocoa and donuts party for everyone at the office. Again, if you choose to demonstrate gratitude with quality time, you will still need to make the connection for your team that we're having this special moment is in honor of that specific thing that they did.

Acts of service:

You could offer to clean the lab for your technician so they can go home early to be with their family. Or you could step in and do some task for someone that you know they don't enjoy. Just make sure they understand that you're doing this to express your appreciation for something specific they've done.

Give gratitude on Thanksgiving

It doesn’t take a herculean effort to make someone feel seen and valued - for you to demonstrate your gratitude for their hard work. Here’s the best part about expressing gratitude – in public: it’s a multiplier. When you provide a signal publicly about what sort of work you value, the rest of your team learns from that positive example as well. You’ve demystified how to get that gold star for everyone!

Thanksgiving is a great time to figure out each person’s “love language” on your team – and to show them in a way that is meaningful to them how much you appreciate all that they do to help your team achieve its shared goals. If you aren't American, you probably have a similar holiday at some point in the year that you can leverage. You can always create your own team holiday if there isn't an obvious cultural match like the first week in March is "Team Appreciation Week."

My gratitude this year

As for me, personally, I have a special dinner planned in a couple of weeks for the Founder to Leader team at my house. I’ve bought them all some killer Founder to Leader swag and I’ll be writing each of them a special personalized note to express my immense appreciation for each one of them.

I also have a tiny something planned for all of my clients over the next month! I am grateful for the trust that you put into me and the Founder to Leader team to help you learn and grow. We appreciate your vulnerability and passion for building thriving human-first organizations so very much.

Since the theme of the moment is gratitude I want to add a little note here about my personal journey with appreciation...

Going through a divorce this year has caused me to evaluate pretty much everything in my life. I am seeing the world with entirely fresh eyes, and my heart is bursting with more gratitude at this moment than I’ve ever experienced before.

This year I am so appreciative of my chosen family, my wolf pack, for checking in on me, for offering me laughter, for being angry and sad with me, and for loving me for being me. You are my people!

I’ve gained such deep appreciation for my eleven year old son who is one of the most resilient and optimistic people in the entire world. This year he started a new school, his parents got divorced, and he got diagnosed with two forms of ADHD (inattentive and hyperactive). Despite it all, he wakes up every day excited for just about everything, and believes that his neurodiversity is his super power. I appreciate his gritty, empathetic, and creative spirit more and more each day.

I am beyond grateful I was able to keep my house, that my sweet sweet dog primarily lives with me, and that I recently discovered that my spirit animal is a road bike.

Though I don’t want to sound too woo-woo here, I feel grateful that the universe has sent me some really interesting new people in unexpected places - like on the catwalk at the Cambridge Science Festival and in the self-help section of the Wellesley Bookstore. (True story. Who knew?)

Above all, I am grateful for myself. It sounds egotistical but I don’t mean it that way. After many years of therapy, I am proud to share that I have learned to love myself.

I am beyond grateful for it all this year - and especially to you for reading all of the way to the end of my blog articles :) I wish you all a most wonderful Thanksgiving - even if you are not American.