.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} I met a banker recently who has a $3.9 million annual earnings package. He credits his success to his mother’s good discipline and a weekly Friday appointment spent writing thank-you notes.

Surely we all remember the days following holidays when our own mothers stood over us as we wrote the obligatory notes. A simple “thank you” would never suffice; we had to be more creative than that.

“Think of something positive to say,” my mother would say, “like how you use what they gave you.” A challenge, she admitted, when it came to the oversized Balinese tribal clothes sent to young boys and tagged “Oceans of love, from Grandmother Flo.” Anything we’d lose friends for wearing, my siblings and I learned to convey a splendid use for.

A gift, a thank-you; it was an even exchange. But that banker I met doesn’t write his notes from the receiving end. You might say he excels at the pre-emptive thank-you. A simple scribble from him – whether to clients, colleagues or employees – has the power to motivate behavior.

David Kruidenier kept a framed thank-you on a wall beside his desk. It was addressed to a longtime Des Moines Register subscriber and was handwritten and signed by then-Register publisher Gardner Cowles in the early 1900s. That letter on the wall set a code to uphold, which he did.

So many of us who worked for David remember receiving handwritten notes from him on his trademark colored stationery. Some were critical. (Also known as “blue zingers.”) Most, however, recognized actions that at the time seemed too small to be noticed. How did he know we hit that sales goal? True, he was my uncle. But that doesn’t explain the effect his notes had on business at large.

I remember reading a quick “thanks for your efforts” during a particularly challenging patch from Bob Hudson, our company’s marketing director and my supervisor at the time. I smiled, gathered myself and moved on. If I had received the note by e-mail, I wonder if I would have taken the extra step to print it out.

Like many managers today, I find myself filling out the blanks on a performance review Web site – where any applause I have to offer is followed by “areas for improvement.” As positive as I intend these to be, I can’t imagine anyone printing out extra copies or framing one to hang on their office wall a century later.

The difference is, as David, Bob and my anonymous banker friend exemplify so well, managers need to act beyond neutral language and systems. The knowledge gained in a performance review is certainly useful. But after job goals and strategic plans, our ultimate charge is to forge connections that are well-timed, easily understood and, ultimately, personal.

Maybe a good thank-you is the same as a good gift. The content of both need do no more than let someone know that they’re seen and heard. Why would anyone step up their efforts otherwise? More than good manners, it’s a matter of good business.