I first heard about the power of frequently writing ‘thank you’ notes a couple of weeks ago at a training about leadership. The instructor of the training made a point of highlighting the power of saying thank you for a job well done, and how effective ‘thank you’ notes are for appreciation and recognition.

Motivated and inspired by the training I started writing these notes for a couple of days until my excitement started fading away, and I just stopped doing it. I felt that it really wasn’t that important, and that people wouldn’t care anyway. Until last weekend…

I worked over the weekend (a questionable perk of working in hotel operations) and ended up covering extra shifts and worked a lot of extra hours due to busy operations and emergencies. Having worked those extra hours I felt a little bit exhausted on Monday, and Monday is usually the most stressful day of the week, as everyone returns from their days-off with plenty of energy and the urge to show everyone in the hotel that they’re back by sending tons of ‘extremely important’ e-mails. I was exhausted and drained until I found an envelope on my desk with my name on it, and a simple hand-written note saying ‘thank you for your efforts and help over the weekend’ from the manager on duty who was in charge of the hotel over the weekend.

I suddenly got all my energy back, felt appreciated and good about myself. More importantly I know truly understand the power of ‘thank you’ notes and how much it can mean for the people receiving them.

Writing a sincere ‘thank you’ note whenever appropriate, just moved to the top of my daily to do list.

I encourage you to try the same, and share your experiences with me by leaving a comment below.