How to Make People Feel Like a Million Bucks Without Spending Any

Last year Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School, wrote a column on gift giving ideas for cash-short, recession-weary workplaces. It was both innovative and practical, making the point that "gifts that don't require a commercial transaction can strengthen human bonds." It was refreshing to see someone from a high profile business school actually suggesting alternatives to the commercialization of the holidays.

But if low- or no-cost gifts can add energy to the workplace and lift morale one week out of the year, what's to say that it won't work the other fifty-one as well?

Building on Professor Kanter's premise that gifts that create a "connection of caring" will reinforce motivation, and by adding a few ideas of out own, we offer our list of "How to make people feel like a million bucks without spending any."

• Hold a Management Slave Day. The bosses can cook, serve and clean up after a meal or do other chores for their staff.

• Give a mini-vacation. Can you close up an hour early one day? Or start an hour later after a weekend?

• Be an Affirmation Elf. This is a take on the Secret Santa idea, except that instead of giving a gift, you give a compliment.

• Try a Time Share Chore Exchange. Almost every job comes with at least one yucky, routine chore, right? Let your employees switch a ten-minute chore of their choice with someone else. It breaks the routine and builds sympathetic camaraderie.

• Rule suspension. Remove the most frustrating and least necessary rules. Okay, that last sentence is a verbatim copy job from Professor Kanter's list, but it was just too cool to overlook.

• Post a note. Except that this time when we say "post," we mean post office, as in use snail mail and send a note home to the employee's family telling them how their parent/sibling/child makes a difference.

• Name Recognition. This is another idea borrowed from Professor Kanter—actually, she suggested a graffiti wall—but we think smart folks like our readers may want to spin that a little and add some audio recognition as well.

• Do kid stuff. Remember elementary school assemblies when they'd bring in a magician or sketch artist or a Punch 'n Judy puppet show? This idea may not be no-cost, but it can be cost-effective to take an hour break for a bit of entertainment.