Today, November 23, 2023, many of us here in the United States will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. There are many traditions associated with this holiday, but there's one that I am particularly fond of - the simple act of expressing gratitude for everything that we have and to all of the individuals in our lives. You can say "Thank you" to your family, friends, and co-workers. You can be thankful for your happiness, health, or good fortune. It doesn't matter as much - just being thankful and appreciative and showing your gratitude is important.
What's often lost, however, is the importance of taking the time to give thanks and express your gratitude and appreciation throughout the year, not just on the Thanksgiving holiday. I've posted about why leaders need to say "Thank you" several times in the past (see "Real leaders say thank you a lot...", "Gratitude" from 2017, "Gratitude" from 2023, and "The two most important words..."). Michael Timms, writing for Fortune magazine ("Great leaders show gratitude beyond Thanksgiving") suggests making gratitude a leadership strategy. Timms suggests that expressing gratitude not only improves your own physical and mental health and wellbeing, it also encourages those who work with you and for you to be more effective and productive. Employees that regularly receive praise and gratitude are more likely to stay at their jobs. Timms writes, "Effective leaders know that if they want their people to continue working and producing results, they must recognize good behavior whenever they see it and express their appreciation. If you don't thank people for their contributions, you'll breed resentment, and they'll stop contributing."
Erica Ariel Fox, a contributor for Forbes magazine ("Thanksgiving is more than a day. It's a core leadership practice") agrees completely, writing that "Having a designated day to do something calls our attention to it. That's good. The flipside is that observing such a day gives us the sense that we're done with it. For leaders, Thanksgiving shouldn't be one of them." She goes on, "Expressing gratitude requires slowing down, putting down our devices, shifting gears out of troubleshooting and feeling our emotions. We are conditioned to solve problems, deliver results and keep our emotions in check at work. We’re not taught to pause and connect to how we feel. It’s shocking to many leaders to learn that acknowledging the sincere thanks they feel toward their teams and then sharing it is a meaningful form of value creation. Far from a waste of time, your team’s performance over time may depend precisely on this."
Michael Timms provides several recommendations for how leaders can "make gratitude a leadership strategy" (aside from it just being the right thing to do) - he calls it the "10 commandments of grateful leadership":
1. Leaders should be specific about what they are praising. Leaders who simply tell someone "Good Job" may actually do more harm than good, as general as opposed to specific recognition will lead the individual being praised to feel that the leader really doesn't know what he or she did to deserve the recognition.
2. Leaders should recognize and praise both the behavior and the impact. After providing specific praise and gratitude for the behavior, leaders should highlight the positive impact that the behavior made on other individuals on the team or the organization as a whole.
3. Leaders should recognize individual accomplishments as well as team accomplishments in order to reduce internal rivalries and improve collaboration between different groups.
4. Leaders should link tie the recognition back to the organization's mission, vision, and values.
5. According to a Gallup poll, the most meaningful recognition comes from an employee's direct manager, followed closely by praise from the CEO. The CEO in any organization should be the Chief Gratitude Officer!
6. Recognition in the form of monetary rewards is actually less effective (see several of my previous posts on the "crowding out effect" and intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation). Leaders should make expressing gratitude about appreciating effort and contributions to the organization, not a transaction.
7. Handwritten notes have been shown to be extremely effective, and they are often the most meaningful and memorable gestures of gratitude.
8. Leaders should be genuine, authentic, and honest. Don't force gratitude.
9. Leaders should thank their teams often. Timms writes, "Praise has a short half life." Leaders may find it helpful to actually schedule gratitude.
10. Leaders should always remember that "employees' performance isn't suffering from receiving too much gratitude from their employers, but it certainly is from receiving too little."
With all of this in mind, I would like to take this time out to say "Thank you" for all of you who have read my blog and have either provided me with feedback directly or indirectly in the comments you've sent me. I continue to find value in putting my thoughts down on this "virtual paper" and I am thankful for the opportunity to contribute to the profession of leadership, even if in a small way. I will leave today's post, as I often do, with a quote. G.K. Chesterton said, "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." Happy Thanksgiving!
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