Leadership Practices: Encourage the Heart: Seminar

The leadership practice “Encourage the Heart” stressed the leader’s mandate to provide encouragement, recognition, and belonging. The first principle to “Encourage the Heart” is to recognize contributions by members of a team. The recognition creates a forum to remind the team that the team expects the best from all members. People respond to compliments and criticism. Compliments and recognition can signal that a leader believes in a team member with this praise becoming a motivating factor the recipient. Characterized as the “Pygmalion Effect” team members will generally rise to the occasion when they are recognized, working to meet goals and directing their actions to the organizational values that are expressed in the praise. Impactful praise must be personal and that can only result when a leader knows the members of their team. Politeness and gratitude are important factors in a work environment. Team members lose motivation in a work environment where they are not resected. Conversely, a work environment that displays high levels of gratitude leads to increased levels of health, optimism, and positivity as well as with better ability to cope with stress. These effects are experienced by both the leader and the members of the team.

Celebrating values and victories is the second principle of “Encouraging the Heart.” Accomplishments should be celebrated in public to remind people of the organization’s values and vision. The celebrations build community and connect colleagues in an organization, thereby creating connections that can help resolve future problems and increase problem-solving among teams. By participating in celebrations, leaders show they care about the individual members of their team. The also show that they are more genuine, more approachable, and more human. Story telling should be a key component of community-based celebrations. A well-told story can be an effective method to articulate the organization’s values and missions in a compelling and memorable way. A good story will be remembered, along with its embedded message. Certain celebrations should be scheduled on the calendar to ensure they occur. Other celebrations can be spontaneous or associated with specific accomplishments. Whether spontaneous or scheduled, celebrations build community.

Leaders who “Encourage the Heart” recognize contributions by showing appreciation for individual excellence. Leaders also celebrate values and victories by creating a community of spirit.