Power of positive feedback
Gratitude is the first sign of a thinking, rational creature — Solanus Casey
Many moons ago I used to work as a software developer for a large company. The company was split into two continents and two types of management — one side that was accepting, caring, mentoring friendly, young , communicative and effervescent; the other side old fashioned, overrun by processes and closed. Working in such a polarized environment was tough, when you’re doing well with one side you absolutely were not with the other.
One thing I am realizing now, is that there was never any positive feedback going around on either side of the shop. I could never understand why and because I was new, it seemed as if this was the norm around the world, since I saw it already on two continents/countries/cultures.
At that time I was deficient in many ways myself, however it was my next employer where I made more mistakes than I ever did, spoke out of turn, got humbled and humored and humiliated many times over.
Ten years ago at my current job I was asked to thank a fellow co-worker on behalf of a customer who sent props for answering some technical questions. At the time I thought this was unprofessional (it is their job to answer questions, what’s there to thank?) but I did it anyway. Slowly, I started seeing that it did two things
(1)Lowers the temperature of the relationship, we all have hot spots here and there in our teams/organisation
(2)It is the easiest way to get someone to go above and beyond in their job, specially someone who loves their job.
Through my own eye and ears I have seen the bonds grow between people and last until this day.
That is power.
Culture of expressing gratitude missing is now a red flag for me.
