The Art of Encouraging the Heart

Recognize, Celebrate, and Encourage Your Team

There’s never a wrong time to reflect on how we, as leaders, can uplift our teams by recognizing their contributions, celebrating their successes, and making them feel like the heroes they are. When we focus on Encouraging the Heart, we create a space where people feel valued, and that kind of energy sparks motivation, enthusiasm, and a deeper connection to the work we’re all doing together.

What Does Encourage the Heart Really Mean?

Today, it seems like everyone is busy at work—between meetings, new products, proposals, and everything in between, it is easy to stick to the status quo, keep your head down, push forward, and produce results. But it’s during the most hectic times that people need to hear they’re valued and appreciated for the hard work they put in. 
 
With 35 years of research, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner have shown in The Leadership Challenge how leaders can practice key leadership behaviors (called The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®) to improve employee engagement and leadership effectiveness. Among The Five Practices, Encourage the Heart stands out as one that requires a little extra intentionality—while we’re all busy focusing on results, it’s easy to forget to pause and reflect on the team members that make those results possible.

Encourage the Heart is about recognizing and celebrating the contributions of your team. It’s more than just saying “thank you” when the work is done! It’s about creating a culture where appreciation is a natural part of how a team works together. 

There are two main ways that leaders can Encourage the Heart:

• Recognizing team members for going the extra mile: Employees who go above and beyond are doing so because they are passionate and committed; they won’t continue to do so for long if they don’t believe that doing so is appreciated and recognized
• Celebrating victories and values: Creating a shared sense of accomplishment for employees helps each understand their part in the team’s greater achievements and reinforces the values the organization says are important

What Does it Look Like to Encourage the Heart?

While it seems simple, Encouraging the Heart can be a challenge. Many leaders struggle with taking time out of their busy schedules to recognize individual efforts, or they may fear it might seem insincere, so they breeze right by it. However, heartfelt recognition builds trust, morale, and engagement. Take this situation for example:

Your team has been working long hours on a huge product launch that is coming up, and while progress has been steady, morale seems to be slipping. You notice team members are feeling exhausted, and the end goal is starting to blur amongst the stress, despite an end-of-week deadline.

The pressure is on the entire team, but it is up to the leader to Encourage the Heart. Before you leave the office for the day (or step away from your desk!), you send a quick message to each team member, acknowledging how they have helped move the project along—whether it's staying late to resolve an issue or offering a creative solution to a problem. 

The result? Your team starts the next day uplifted, knowing that they are seen, valued, and appreciated, and they’re more motivated to push through to the finish line. 

How Do You Know Encourage the Heart is Working?

We agree with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner when they say: "Being a leader requires showing appreciation for people's contributions, and creating a culture of celebrating the values and victories by creating a spirit of community."*

When Encourage the Heart is working, you might start to notice signs such as:

• Team Morale Improves: When people feel valued, they’re more likely to stay committed, collaborate, and take initiative.
• Employees are Engaged: Employees are more motivated because they feel appreciated and connected to the work.
• ‘Cheers for Peers’: Team members don’t just wait for you to praise them—they’re regularly acknowledging each other’s efforts. Over time, recognition becomes a part of the team’s culture.

The best leaders don’t just excel in one area—they bring all five practices into their leadership approach. However, the power of Encouraging the Heart lies in its consistency, and small gestures of recognition and celebration go a long way!

*The Leadership Challenge, 7th Edition

Registration closing soon! Join us Thursday, March 6 & Friday, March 7, 2025 for The Leadership Challenge® Workshop to learn how to apply The Leadership Challenge® model, The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®, in a variety of situations, from your current role to your future goals: