When someone in your team does great work, praise them publicly.
Although goals and targets guide our daily planning, I’ve yet to see a tasty-looking metric produce a bigger smile than a sincere, specific, and public display of gratitude. At the end of the day, we’re all humans who want to belong and be valued for the work we do.
We should also be aware of the inverse of this maxim: when someone is underperforming, we should provide criticism privately. Criticism delivered in one-to-ones, directed at the work and not at the person, shows we care enough to speak the truth in a safe environment. This builds trust. And soon enough, they’ll provide opportunities for us to praise them publicly.