The 5 Languages of Appreciation: A Marathon, Not a Sprint (with Dr. David Knapp)

How did you first learn about the Five Languages of Appreciation?

Well, you know, it's interesting.

I think like many people who have come to the Five Languages of Appreciation, it started with the Five Love Languages.

Uh, and I thought it was a great book.

I thought it was an interesting assessment.

And then when I heard that the love languages had been applied to appreciation languages in the workplace, I said, "Man, I gotta, I gotta get in on this." And so read the book, uh, took the assessment and said, "Yeah, I, I think I have a number of clients who are gonna be interested in this." And started rolling it out to the clients, and it was a big hit and, and I've been hooked ever since.

It's, it's probably been about five years or so, I guess, since I've been doing the Appreciation at Work, uh, trainings.

Did you have a moment when, as you were going through it, when it just kinda hit you, oh, my goodness, this explains a lot?

Yeah.

Um, you know, that's a, it, it's a great question.

I think actually going all the way back to reading the book for the first time and taking the assessment, and then thinking about my internal career and the individuals with whom I worked in those businesses.

And thinking back on it in terms of what my own appreciation language was, and then, like many people do, falling into the trap of just assuming that everybody wanted to be appreciated the same way.

And so I think that that's when it really hit me, when I was like, oh, okay, I, I understand now, um, that not everybody wants to be appreciated.

And so I think that was one of the reasons I was so excited to join the Appreciation family.

So personally, which appreciation language resonates most with you?

Yeah, it's, it's interesting.

It is words of affirmation, but it's very close to, um, quality time and acts of service.

They're, they're very compressed, but, um, a little bit different than the, the norms and the research of the general public, but still words of, uh, affirmation.

Hmm.

Is that how you typically try to show appre- or tried in the past to show-

Yes

... appreciation to your team members?

Yeah, absolutely.

And, and that's why I said that was such a great moment of a-ha, to go, oh, I've gotta really be careful here in terms of, uh, how I show appreciation.

And yet, you know, what's interesting, even something like tangible gifts, even with the relatively small percentage that that resonates with in terms of their appreciation language.