When was the last time you expressed your appreciation to someone? Expressing appreciation from the heart is one of most rewarding gifts. Yet, words of appreciation seem to be hard for people to say.

I have always wondered why it is hard for bosses to tell people within an organization they are appreciated. When people do not hear appreciation, they begin to wonder about their worth.

I am fortunate to work with folks continually sharing their appreciation. This attitude of appreciation starts at the top of an organization. It is amazing how much is accomplished when people feel and demonstrate appreciation.

A simple act of kindness can make all the difference in another persons life. However, society many times, view words of kindness as sissy or fake. It takes a bigger person to say thank you, express genuine appreciation, than it does to speak negative.

The Bible teaches us that it is better to give than to receive. Giving gifts and saying thank you, expresses appreciation. The joy is in giving, although I have viewed a couple bosses giving gifts, writing notes and saying kind words only because they wanted to receive something in return.

These kind of people are found out over time and have difficulty developing a cohesive team of comrades. Zig Ziglar in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People talks about the fake boss. Employees can usually tell if the gesture of kindness is genuine or not.

Appreciation can also be shown by helping others. Sincere appreciation comes from the heart. Sacrificing time to help someone when they are in need demonstrates sincerity.

When people continually help comrades even when the task is not their assignment is a genuine act of appreciation. This is action demonstrating appreciation. Again, this starts at the top and true appreciation is continually demonstrated in the workplace.

This reminds me of a story of a begging blind boy and a kind man that was passing by. The blind boy was sitting on a street corner with a sign, saying he was blind and needed help. As a man was passing by, he stopped and donated some coins in the boys almost empty bucket.

He also took the boys sign and wrote some words on the backside. He put the sign in front of the boy so everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up with lots of money. A lot more people were now giving money to the blind boy.

That afternoon the man who had changed the wording on the sign came to see how things were going for the boy. The boy recognized his footsteps and inquired if he was the person who wrote something on his sign. The man confessed he changed the wording but left the same meaning.

He explained his sign explained the boy was blind but in a much different way. The new words said the day was beautiful, but the boy could not see it. Both signs told people the boy was blind.

However, the second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Isnt it a blessing to have people help you in life? I encourage each of us to tell people around us how much we appreciate them.

Thought for the week:

Be thankful for what you have; youll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you dont have, you will never, ever have enough.

Oprah Winfrey

Dr. Jack Welch has been a college and high school coach for 38 years. He can be reached at jackwelch1975@gmail.com.

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FROM THE BLEACHERS: Expressing appreciation most rewarding gift - Herald-Banner