Les Giblin talks about how everyone wants to feel important in How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing With People. In a segment of the book about why employees often feel frustrated at work, Giblin provides these reasons:
- Failure to give credit for suggestions
- Failure to correct grievances
- Failure to encourage
- Criticizing employees in front of other people
- Failure to ask employees for their opinions
- Failure to inform employees of their progress
- Favoritism
Giblin concludes that segment with the following paragraph:
Notice that every single item has to do with failure to recognize the importance of the employee. Failure to give credit for work says, “Your work isn’t very important.” Failure to correct grievances says, “You are so unimportant that your grievances don’t amount to anything,” and so on.
I absolutely agree with him and I think these same issues cause problems outside the workplace as well. I think showing genuine appreciation for someone and respecting them are key to having successful relationships. The people I most enjoy being around are those who have consistently treated me well and made me feel loved, which is why I try to give other people those same good feelings whenever I can.