I was reading this morning's HBR post on managers' appreciation to their teams, and cannot agree more with what Tony Schwards is saying. It's probably hardest to express appreciation if you are perfectionist and have super high standards by which not only others, but also often you don't perform well.

It's true - we can always do better. However, the issue is often at what cost. As managers we have to balance the stimuli we provide for our teams to perform, and this starts with ourselves.