The Biggest Hunger: Appreciation

A fundamental quality of ‘The Leader as a Mensch’ is the appreciation of others – seeing others not as a problem to be fixed but as a reservoir of skills, talents and ideas to be nurtured and developed.

Practice seeing others, truly seeing them in their utmost potential and remind yourself, every day, of the power of appreciation. It will help you create a culture where people are willing to share their ideas and insights for the success of your organization.

Mother Teresa said, “There is more hunger in the world for love and appreciation than for bread.” This applies to everyone, at every level, in every corner of the world.

Praise has a limited “best before” date. Don’t delay its expression or wait until performance review time – when you see something that is worthy of praising, do so promptly after the event.

Make you genuine words memorable for your constituents by being specific about the achievement. Not many of us remember the perfunctory “job well done” but we all remember someone who tells us “This was pure genius!” or “I would have missed this if you hadn’t picked it up.” Praise does not have to be elaborate. It just needs to be genuine.

Encourage others to appreciate themselves. Be conscious about creating opportunities at work for others to appreciate themselves. You will be fulfilling one of the noble goals of leadership which is to help others become leaders themselves.

‘The Leader as Mensch’ is the epitome of authenticity. The hallmark of this person is candor – the avoidance of all deception. When we are in the presence of a Mensch, we cannot help but notice the absence of artificiality. We sense that we are confronted with a real person, one who doesn’t set out to make an impression. A Mensch just is.

Leadership is difficult work and it can be easy to stray from who we are at the core in order to satisfy the business imperatives. We cannot always trust that others are genuine with us. Even with the best of intentions, even when we strive to do our very best, others will sometimes betray us. Much happens in the course of our careers as we climb the achievement ladder and we can sometimes, slowly and imperceptibly, wander off from our authentic selves, the core of who we are.

Despite all of this, we need to make every effort to stay true to who we are. Find the way to yourself. Or, as Howard Thurman eloquently said, “Find the grain in your own wood.”

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