Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Tis the day that Hallmark, Nestles, and Telefloral live for! The day of Chocolate, Cards, Chocolate, Roses and Chocolate. As most of you know, I have a bit of a thing for chocolate. I even own www.INeedChocolate.com, and while I don't have anything up on the site right now, I am researching some options and identifying what it is that I want to host there.

So, another love of mine, is of course, Apple. I came across this YouTube video and thought I would share for those of you who might not have seen it yet.

So, chocolate is my simple pleasure. When stressed, happy, sad, whatever, a little piece of chocolate picks me up. OK, so perhaps a little piece, let's say......the size of Vermont would do the trick. For some people, it is Starbucks, a massage, a pedicure, etc.

For the past couple of years, I have kind of had this theory about work-life, which stemmed from reading the 5 Love Languages book (see reading list) and how that relates to our work-lives. The book primarily talks about how we deal with our love ones and our children, but I believe those same theories can be applied to those who we work with as well.

The five languages are; words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. Each person may have more than one "language" that make them feel appreciated most, or a combination of several. Mine, is quality time. Look around you office, can you spot some of them?

Those who love to receive gifts, are typically those who give gifts as well. Do you have someone who proudly displays trinkets people have given them? What about those who desperately are seeking your praise, and affirmation of doing a good job. If you look closely, I bet you can identify almost everyone you know into one of these categories. So, what does that all mean, what do you do with it? Well, if you can identify what "language" your employees are speaking, that is how you reward them, make them feel a part of your team.

Quality time people, want regular meetings, lunches or one-on-one sessions. For those who value words of affirmation, they want praise, be it vocal or written, maybe write them a note thanking them for their work. You may have noticed that hard-cold cash wasn't on that list, and not all managers have a lot of that to offer, so why not try finding your teams love languages and see how they respond?