Sometimes you are just minding your own business and you hear something profound. I am talking about the sort of thing that really registers with you because it speaks to something simple, something profound. In fact, sometimes it is the sort of thing that taps right on something you believe in deeply. And all you can do is think, “Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”

These are the sort of serendipitous moments that can have a deep impact on your thinking. You hear it and either think “Crap, I should really reconsider how I think about that.” Or you think “Wow, that is what I’ve always said. Cool.”

This particular moment for me was a bit of both.

Always Listening …

I am that annoying sort of person that is always listening to the world around me. Whether I am busy doing something or just sitting around, waiting for something to happen, I listen. And that works for me because I hear so many interesting things that I let just sort of sit in my head. It’s as if what I hear are the ingredients of things that eventually bake into ideas.

On one particular morning I had taken my pups to the dog park and was getting caught up on podcast listening. And an ad had a tagline that really stuck with me.

“Appreciation appreciates.”

At the time it didn’t seem so important. It just sort of fell into my ear and into the mixing bowl of ingredients and sat there. But on the drive home I began to mull these two simple words over in my head again and again.

“Appreciation appreciates.”

And I decided that this was actually a pretty profound notion to me.

Appreciating Appreciation …

I should point out that I think the phrase in question was somehow related to finance. With the basic concept of “appreciation” growing in value, similar to invested money. Maybe that was it. Maybe it wasn’t. I don’t know and I don’t care, because I quickly determined that it was, in fact, correct.

Appreciation does appreciate.

As I begin the third act of my career I have the privilege of looking back on a lifetime’s worth of work experience. I started working (officially) just before I turned 15 years old and this year I turn 50. Well let me tell you, alot can happen in 35 years.

I have had some horrendous bosses / supervisors. The sort of people who saw myself and other employees as the typical “machine part” that was only there to perform a function. These people were incapable of showing appreciation. In fact, they practiced a dark art that was quite the opposite of appreciation. They wielded abuse and negativity, believing that it would increase productivity and thus improve their numbers to their own bosses.

It was all very much a mentality born of 20th century materialism. Pure “command and control” and absolutely no collaboration.

Then, there were a few bosses who were different. Desperately few. These people were mentors that invested some part of themselves in me. They planted seeds that would later grow to give me the tools I needed to be a better manager or boss. Their help and appreciation made me a better mentor.

Invest Your Appreciation …

All these years later I look back at my career, or rather the part of my career where I have supervised others, and realize I have been investing my appreciation all along. I have always made a point to be as open as I could be with the people I worked with. I say “thanks” and mean it. I’ve let people know I appreciate them and their effort.

No, not that perfunctory “thanks” bullshit that we all mutter 100 times a day. “Here’s your order, have a good day,” the kid at the drive through says. “Thanks,” you reply. But neither of you means it. You aren’t thankful and he doesn’t give a crap about your day.

No, I mean real thanks. The sort of thanks where you know you could not have completed this job alone. The sort that shows you realize that their job is hard, or boring, or tedious, or whatever. You know because you have been there. But rather than expecting them to suffer like you did, you work to make things better.

You honestly appreciate them and their efforts.

And much like the ad, your appreciation appreciates. It grows in volume and value. The people you manage and, hopefully, the ones you work with will pick up on the vibe you create. They will be able to let out that breath they took as they walked into the office this morning. They will be able to relax and appreciate they are appreciated.

And in turn, that will increase the results that you show to your own managing executive. You will have a higher return than everyone else at work makes because everyone who makes the same investment. But you have added your appreciation. And now it is appreciating create more value.

Sometimes we just hear something, out of nowhere, and it puts all sorts of things in place. If you apply them, that is …