My Favorite Things Tool

Our My Favorite Things tool is so simple, yet it has a tremendously positive impact on the morale of your top performing employees.

This free tool allows you to connect to your employees in a fun and unique way and will improve the overall engagement of your entire team.

Download Free: My Favorite Things

Great leaders understand the energizing power of positive reinforcement, and they know it's in everyone's best interest to support and nurture a healthy work environment where everyone feels valued for the work they do. 

Business owners and team leaders that "get it" are taking time to connect with their team members, and one important way of doing that is by customizing how they reward and recognize top performers.

Being more strategic when you reward and recognize team members does not mean it has to cost more money, and it doesn't require a huge investment of time.  

Our free My Favorite Things tool takes the guesswork out of gift giving for employee recognition. Reward and recognition opportunities will no longer consist of a quick and thoughtless Visa gift card...  unless, that is the thing the recipients says they value the most!

The bottom line? Simply by taking the time upfront to ask employees how they prefer to be recognized is a quick and effective way to ensure that your recognition efforts are always well received. 

Our free My Favorite Things tool takes the guesswork out of gift giving for customized employee recognition. 

You know that warm feeling you get when a friend compliments you; a customer writes a thank you note, or when your boss praises your efforts?Well, your team members also like to enjoy that special feeling from time to time. We all like to be rewarded and recognized with something that is unique and memorable, something that is meaningful specifically to us.

Positive reinforcement makes people feel highly valued and appreciated. Simple praise elevates an employee's sense of self-worth and helps give them a stronger sense of purpose.

In today’s fast-paced, highly competitive society, awards and recognition are especially important. However, what works best in one situation is not guaranteed to have the same impact in another.  

Not everyone on your team is hoping and praying to receive yet another company logo'd pen, mug or t-shirt.  Most people place a higher value on rewards when they know you've made an effort to give them something you know they will really enjoy. 

Free My Favorite Things Tool

Use the My Favorite Things leadership tool with each of your top performing employees and they will always remember that you took the time to find out a little bit more about them, and that you remembered the details when it counted.

Your employees will appreciate the thoughtful gesture, and you'll feel great about it also.

Introducing this new tool to your entire staff can provide a fun exercise for your next team meeting to staff retreat.  Start of by letting your team know that you value and appreciate all their hard work, and that it's important to you that when you recognize or reward them for a job well done that you do so in a manner that is meaningful to them.

Ask each member of the team to take a few minutes and complete the My Favorite Things worksheet. Tell them to provide as many details as they can so that it's very clear what type of rewards they value the most.

The tool lists several categories from a variety of small and larger type rewards. Examples of smaller rewards include things like your favorite coffee drink, dessert, candy bar, soda, or car wash location. Food and drink is always a great small way to say thank you, but give me a free car wash coupon and I'll think "that's different".

Medium types of rewards can be used for meeting key milestones of a project or perhaps to recognize an associate for saving an important client from going to the competition. Examples might include: Dinner out to a local restaurant, a fine bottle of wine, paid parking for the month, movie tickets for the family, etc.

Additional reward and recognition ideas for top performers might include tickets to their favorite music festival or concert, an annual subscription to their favorite magazine, or it could be something that only they would think of - and yes, we have a place for them to tell you what the "special favorite thing" is so you can wow them when the time is right. 

We encourage you to use the My Favorite Things tool with each member of your team. Have team members update the tool at least yearly to ensure you always have a hot list of valued items to choose from when preparing to recognize top performers. 

As a reminder, don't forget that you can also use our free Leadership Ecard system for quick and easy employee recognition. 

Why CASH Is Not Always The Best Reward

Cash has always been a nice incentive, but it’s not always the best choice when making smaller "on-the-spot" type of rewards. Why not? Because it's too quick and easy. The employee knows that it takes very little effort or forethought on your part to write a check for cash.

Oh, they'll accept the cash, no question about it. But leaders should consider the overall impact and what happens after the money is spent. The cash usually goes to pay bills or spent on some other consumable item.

Shortly thereafter, the employee has nothing in front of them to remind them daily of their achievement. 

On the other hand, if you utilize our My Favorite Things tool, you will be able to provide the employee with a gift that is guaranteed to be highly valued by each individual employee.

The employee will always remember that you cared enough to take the time to reward them with something that means something special to only them.

Being recognized by your boss in front of your co-workers has the potential of being one of the most important times in your career. Too often these opportunities are missed because the leader doesn't take the time to fully leverage the occasion.

Leaders who do take the time to learn what kind of gifts are valued by each of their employees quickly become leaders who are valued and appreciated by their team. Leaders who are respected are leaders that others aspire to emulate. 

Don't you want to become THAT kind of leader?

Download My Favorite Things Tool

To download our free My Favorite Things tool, simply subscribe to our free newsletter. You will immediately receive a password that grants access to our entire leadership tools library.

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