Before Thanksgiving gets here, grab a notepad. Write down the names of the people who held your company together this year. If you've ever wondered how to show appreciation to employees, start with this list. Don't rank anyone. Just write.
You'll fill a page faster than you expect. The person who answers when something breaks at the worst possible hour. The one who stayed late and never mentioned it.
Now go back to the top. Next to each name, answer one plain question. When did you last thank this person out loud, to their face?
If the answer comes slowly, you're in good company. You've been grateful all year, and the words just never got said. The people who hold your business up usually don't know they do.
The People You Stop Seeing
The names that come easiest belong to the people you talk to most. The ones that take longer belong to the people who never ask for anything.
That's how it happens. When someone does a job well for years, their work becomes the floor you stand on. You quit seeing the floor. You only look down when it creaks.
I've done this. I've seen someone who'd quietly kept things running, thought I should tell them, and then my phone rang. I told myself they knew. Of course they knew. I pay them, and I give a bonus at the end of the year. A bonus pays for the work. Only my voice tells someone I saw them do it.
Gallup's 2024 research with Workhuman puts numbers on the problem. Only 22% of employees say they get the right amount of recognition. Gallup also tracked nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024 and found that the ones who received high-quality recognition were 45% less likely to have left two years later. Behind those numbers are people like the ones on your list.
How to Show Appreciation to Employees, One Name at a Time
The usual move is to go big. A holiday email to the whole company. A nice lunch with a card everyone signed. Both are kind, and people enjoy them. But thanking your team as a crowd sends the message to no one in particular. Everyone assumes it's for someone else.
A thank-you that lands has four parts. Start with their name. Say the specific thing they did. Say what it made possible. Then tell them, within the week if you can.
Out loud, it might sound like this: "Maria, got a second? I never said this, and I should have. When that project almost fell apart in October, you stayed on it until it came together. We wouldn't have made it without you. Thank you." Anyone can say that. Very few of us do.
Keep any request out of it. Save the next assignment for another day.
How you deliver it matters too. Pick one, or mix them:
Say it in person. Walk to their desk or pick up the phone.
Put it in writing. A handwritten note outlasts a conversation, and they can reread it on a rough day.
Ask how they'd like you to thank them. Some people love a shout-out in front of the team. Others want it quietly, just the two of you. Ask.
Give an hour back. Cover for them so they can leave early for a recital or a checkup.
Trust them with more. Down the road, hand over a bigger piece of the work, and tell them why you chose them.
Don't wait for the holidays to say it. A thank-you in March, on an ordinary afternoon, tells someone you were paying attention all year.
Employee appreciation in a small business has an advantage the big companies can't buy. You can know everyone's name. You can remember what each person did. Recognizing good employees takes a real memory and about thirty seconds. You have both.
Ask me how to show appreciation to employees, and I'll ask you who you haven't thanked yet.
The Weight of Saying a Name
There's a reason this is harder than it sounds. When you say someone's name and tell them what they did for you, you can't hide behind a program. Your voice might shake a little. Mine does.
As an owner, I know my words carry more weight than I ever assumed. A thank-you I toss off in a hallway might be the one someone repeats to their family at dinner.
That's why gratitude in leadership has to start with the person in charge. That's me. That's you, if you own the business.
Where I come from, gratitude is a practice. You do it on purpose, on the days you feel it and the days you don't. My faith taught me early that every person is dealing with more than I can see, and saying thank you out loud is one small way to honor that. You don't have to share my faith to know what it does for someone.
When someone takes the time to tell you what your work meant, you walk away knowing it counted here. That's a safe place to land. Every time you say a name out loud, you make life a little stronger and a little kinder for the person on the other end.
One thing you can do this week: Start with one person. Write down how they helped this year, in a sentence or two, with one real detail. Then tell them, by name, in your own words. If your voice shakes a little, let it.
Keep that list where you'll see it, and put a date beside each name once you've said it out loud. Thanksgiving gives us a reason to start, not a deadline. The year will end whether we say it or not, so I'd rather say it now.
If you want to keep thinking about this, Room for One More Chair is where I write about building a workplace people don't want to leave. And A Bigger Table is about what I hope all of this adds up to for the people who come after me.
