Listen
If you value the contribution of team members, a good way to encourage it is by listening to them when they speak up. Too often we silence them forever because we didn’t listen to them when they spoke up. Even the best among us are guilty of silencing others.
Listening is not just acknowledging what they said, but honestly trying to figure out how their suggestion can be implemented.
Listening could mean nothing to me, but the world to them.
This is not an act of charity, but labor of love. Labor that is meant to exercise MY empathy muscles so that *I* can become stronger. I need them just as much as they need me.
And who knows…the idea could be sent in Divine Order.