Who should you have thanked today?

A heart-felt “Thank You” means a great deal to the receiver. Even more so when you can make that Thank You a public mini-testimonial for the person you're appreciating. So here's six ways to say those two special words:

1. Send an unsolicited testimonial on LinkedIn. This will be a permanent thank you that your colleague can display with pride on their profile. Remember to make it meaningful. Be specific in what they did for you, and the effect it had. Consider using the STAR format: Describe the Situation or Task, then the Action they took, then the Results this action delivered.

2. Send a “Thank You” tweet through Twitter, and again, be specific about what they did, as this will help their followers understand how they can add value to their work. It will introduce them to your followers, too.

We had a really successful staff development day not long ago, so I thought I might share the format - as it might be useful to other small companies or project teams. If you have a lot of associates and flexible workers as we do, it's important to get together now and then to catch up.

1. Vision - the vision behind the company or project, the inspiration behind it all. Does the mission statement need renewing?
2. Celebrate ourselves - review recent successes. It's easy to find in routine operational meetings that you're discussing mostly challenges and problems, and success is not lauded. You might find, as we did, that we had many successes to celebrate.  We made time to thank one another for the support we got within the team.
3. Review of projects, feedback from clients and learning points! We realised we had some strengths and skills we hadn't previously identified.
4. Magic Wand - if you could wave a magic wand and change something for the company what would it it be? (We decided moving en masse to the Seychelles wasn't really on, but as we actively promote remote and flexible working, an employee moving to  sunnier climes would not have to resign!) /more