Being able to say “thank” you while giving simultaneously the reason why has received traction among the latest leadership literature.
I recently witnessed an amazing story of a company’s Managing Director. His response to a casual question, “what’s your job title” was “I am a CTO”, nothing to do with technology however.
“Chief Thank you Officer”, he said; “I devote 15 minutes of my time, every day to go around and express my gratitude to at least 5 employees for their recent contributions; a report, a project, even a failure. But I make sure it is coupled with the concrete rational of my Thank-you in a way that my move becomes contagious. After the first week, everybody is talking about it, waiting for my visit. It seriously affects engagement levels and therefore performance”.
Here is an interesting and very relevant blog post
http://conantleadership.com/4-powerful-ways-to-value-people-beyond-saying-thank-you/