Everyone craves human connection at work. We want others to respect, recognize, care for, and enjoy us. When they do, we revel in the positive emotions of joy, pride, and even love--and we're motivated to contribute our best. Over time, these inner work life reactions to what organizational behavior experts Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer call "nourishers" in fact fuel superior performance. As a manager and a team leader, you can inspire top performance and nourish the inner work lives of your employees with simple human acts of recognition and acknowledgment that you perform every day. In doing so, you indirectly influence work progress by sparking your employees' positive perceptions and their inner motivation to work even harder. In this chapter, the authors describe the four major nourishers--respect, encouragement, emotional support, and affiliation--that spur productivity in your employees. They also describe the four major toxins that you must avoid to keep from poisoning their enthusiasm: disrespect, discouragement, emotional neglect, and antagonism. Based on thirty years of research and detailed workplace diaries, this chapter uses real-life examples to demonstrate the powerful impact of nourishers and toxins on the success or downfall of projects and their leaders. This chapter was originally published as Chapter 7 of "The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work."