Speaking to the 5 Love Languages at work
By Melissa
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels
We all give and receive love differently and understanding the love languages of those around us goes a long way in nurturing relationships. Insight into how your partner, friend or co-worker prefer to receive appreciation or affection enables you to affirm them in a language they understand.
Interested in seeing if one could apply the 5 Love Languages at work, we at Pomegranite took the 5 Love Languages quiz again to brush up on our knowledge. While Pomegranite is ahead of the game from an office culture perspective, it was great chatting through the 5 languages with everyone, identifying each other’s preferred language and seeing if we could make any changes at the office.
Words of Affirmation
Instituting a culture of gratitude and publicly acknowledging great ideas or work well done goes a long way in improving motivation and morale within a team.
One way to speak more words of affirmation is to incorporate team wins into meetings. This could be an opportunity to shout one another out for something awesome they worked on.
Internal communication channels, for example, Slack, could also be used to praise colleagues generously at any point during the day.
Quality Time
Quality time with colleagues can mean more than spending time with them outside the office or going to lunch with them. Making time for their projects, engaging with them on their ideas and understanding their goals are other ways of speaking their love language.Â
Some employees really thrive in a group environment. Brainstorming and feedback sessions often lead to groups feeding off the collective energy and can go a long way in making teammates feel valued.
Company activities and taking time to chat about topics unrelated to work are ways of getting quality time as a team. Social activities such as these can also make people more comfortable when reaching out to colleagues for collaboration on a work project.
Acts of Service
Colleagues who go the extra mile to ensure projects get done might just be affirming that their love language is Acts of Service, and that they feel valued when teammates assist them in solving problems or navigating mental blocks.
Offering to review a co-worker’s work or going out of one’s way to find a much needed resource for them will go a long way in strengthening office relationships.
Physical Touch
Traditionally, Physical Touch behaviour is equated to intimacy, which is not really appropriate in a work setting. Instead, this could be viewed as emotional intimacy, or rather, empathy at the office.
Attending a late meeting for a co-worker could free them up to pick their child up from school. Making yourself available for a remote teammate experiencing a crisis can make them feel seen and heard.
Taking an employee’s circumstances into account and assisting them in navigating their role in a way which supports their unique situation is a way of making them feel valued and speaking to their love language.
Receiving Gifts
Team birthday gifts, cake on employees’ birthdays, forwarding useful tools and articles, and giving small gifts around the holidays are simple ways of connecting to co-workers who favour the Receiving Gifts love language.
Encourage your team to take the quiz to understand each other better and take your work relationships from strength to strength.