Compliments are nice. But there’s nothing like getting in the trenches with me and spending some quality time — loading some mortars and showing me your bullet wounds. The biggest thing that gets an employee motivated is knowing that you are not alone and bonding with leadership and hearing that they too have, and are suffering, and how they cope with it. Something as simple as a lunch, workout, trail walk, or bar hop. Those sorts of things break the tension and build great rapport. If someone knew you were in debt they could have been more effective sooner and those personal details only come out when you bond. Here’s my personal order of ways to show appreciation as an employer: 1)Money 2)verbal acknowledgement 3)bonding. I also want verbal acknowledgement from an employer when they see something they don't like. That’s why retrospectives are so important. I can go to my metaphorical drawing board and adjust when I am off course. So the big summary here is: communicate. Talk to me. Get me to talk to you.