The term “value added” is in my opinion overly used these days in many fields, I remember it for example from my IT past. One of the German words for it is “Wertschöpfung”, you create a value. “Wert” aka value, “Schöpfung” for me is nicely connected to the creation of the world, reminds me of my childhood bible studies.
But there is another word, it looks quite similar but it goes far deeper in meaning for me. The word is “Wertschätzung”, my English dictionary comes up with appreciation, esteem, regard, high regard. It suddenly hit me, for years on I would use it in every single email, ending it with ‘Best regards’ or even better ‘Kind regards’ 🙂
But what I notice when talking with people from all walks of life, there is far too little of “Wertschätzung” in the world. Do we really value & appreciate each other, for the small gestures, the large moments, the day2day interaction?
I came across this beautiful story, told to me from a nurse back in Germany, who works in the field of anesthesia, it is about her experience in the usually stressful working day. She said the management takes their work for granted, no appreciation at any level. But I hope every of her patients is appreciating her very much, for a special moment of human touch. Every patient, who is naturally a bit anxious when falling asleep, she takes couple of extra minutes to talk with them, to ask them about their favorite place to be and to describe it to her. This helps them to relax on their way into a surgery.
She also told me about a drawer of candies, they keep it always full in the wake-up room. Just as a Chocolate Angel, in a way, when their colleagues are especially stressed, they would knock on the door, asking to ‘visit’ the candy drawer. A way to share appreciation among colleagues.
Never underestimate the power of “Wertschätzung”, it comes in all forms and shapes, it doesn’t always need to be large and visible but it is needed from all of us.
So let’s all go out and find our very own method of appreciation, I found one of many in the passion of my life, being a Chocolate Angel. What might be yours?
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