Sending a thank-you note is so classy, so professional, so right, especially if you’re a leader.

After all, someone on your team has gone above and beyond, or they have done an exemplary job on something you expressly asked them to do. That deserves a thank-you note, don’t you think?

Here’s where I would like to challenge your thinking.

What if you took the assumption that they didn’t do it for you. That they are simply a great professional, will go beyond or above gladly and so you send a different kind of note.

A note that focuses on THEM – without a thank you from YOU, as if they did it for you.

Caveat – they may indeed have done it for you when asked,  however this idea of making any note about THEM will reap way better results.

Making your note about them (a gift of recognition) rather than about you, (an obligation to recognize something they did) is a higher level of leadership.

So here is how you begin, (there is more to it than this however this will give you a great start)

Start with the word, YOU. After their name of course. Something like this:

Dear John,

You do an excellent job of (fill in the blank)

Rather than this:

Dear John,

Thank you for doing an excellent job on (blank).

The first is recognizing and acknowledging THEIR work – The second is loosely inferring that YOU feel the need to thank them for what they did, as if it was for you, rather than their job.

When you do this, you will see an even better result. You are already doing the work, why not make it even better?

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