I’d
like to say that there’s some magical formula for fostering a grateful
culture within your organization, but there isn’t. A culture of
gratitude, or a culture of thank you doesn’t materialize on its own. A
thank you culture is the result of consistency with your values and
decision-making.
Most leaders want their organizations to be a
place where people genuinely enjoy coming to work, like working with
each other, and where people feel that they are contributing towards
something important.
Gratitude and appreciation are key to
creating a positive work environment. I’ll discuss how to do this
shortly, but first let’s look at why. Why does gratitude matter? Why is
it something we should all strive for? Let’s see what science has to
say.
The Science of Gratitude
To
start, what exactly is gratitude anyway? Gratitude, to me, means taking
a moment and recognizing the good things that we have and the good
things that other people are doing. It sounds easy right?
But if
we look closer, there are actually a few different ways in which we
interact with gratitude. We can feel grateful, we can express our
gratitude, and we can receive expressions of gratitude.
Various
studies over the past century or so exploring our different reactions
with gratitude have revealed multitudes of benefits of gratitude in the
context of both health & wellness and social . For example, feeling
grateful not only increases life satisfaction but also one’s willingness
to help others. And, the act of taking time to express gratitude is a
proven mood-booster.
The Importance of Gratitude at Work
I
have worked with enough teams and at enough companies to recognize what
it feels like to operate in organizational cultures that lack a sense
of appreciation.
It’s not surprising that research shows our
perceptions of gratitude in the workplace can be fairly complex. A
recent study on US Americans’ relationship with gratitude found the
majority of people wish they were thanked more often at work. Meanwhile,
that same study found that the office is the place where people are
least likely to express gratitude.
So let’s break that down:
employees feel that they should be appreciated more, yet don’t feel that
they should verbalize their appreciation for others at work. Yikes.
Leaders
need to foster an environment in which everyone not only feels
appreciated, but also freely expresses their gratitude to others.
Initially, this could be the belief in practicing the golden rule “treat
others as you’d like to be treated.” But, beyond simply being the right
thing to do, there are many other positive benefits of a culture of
gratitude.
Gratitude Keeps Teams Motivated
On
high gratitude teams you see and overhear people doing small things for
each other every day; helping them on something, picking up the phone
to help someone who is away, volunteering to take on extra work to help
out a colleague who already has a full schedule. It’s wonderful to
witness this.
You'll never hear someone say “that’s not my job!” but quite frequently hear “how can I help you out?”
When
you’re on the receiving end of an expression of gratitude, you feel
appreciated and that your work is being recognized. But beyond those
emotions, researchers found that people who are thanked for their
efforts are driven to work harder and volunteer to help more in the
future.
So if you want to motivate your team, don’t forget to
take time every now and then to thank them for their efforts. It doesn’t
take much, but your sentiments can go a long way.
Gratitude Improves Relationships and Encourages Collaboration
In
addition to keeping our team motivated, gratitude plays a role in
promoting better teamwork. Sharing our appreciation with the team has
encouraged them to do the same amongst each other. I hear it all the
time in the office. And while knowing gratitude is present is reward
enough for me, there’s an even bigger upside for the team as a whole.
Gratitude
exchanges among colleagues are proven to positively impact prosocial
behaviors. Those who feel and express gratitude to colleagues are more
motivated to spend time with others and work on improving the
relationship. Meanwhile, those who are thanked for their work are often
more willing to broaden the scope of the help and support they offer
others at work.
Something as simple as hearing a colleague say,
“hey, thank you for helping me out with this project,” can promote
closer collaboration and teamwork.
Receiving Gratitude Reduces Likelihood of Burnout
Most
companies offer wellness programs. And that’s another reason gratitude
is important for our culture. In addition to motivating and driving
collaboration, when people feel appreciated, they are less likely to
experience burnout.
Fast-paced
organizations are notorious for having high rates of burnout amongst
employees. It turns out gratitude helps. A 2021 study found nurses (one
of the professions with the highest burnout rate) who received
expressions of thank you from patients were significantly less likely to
experience burnout than their peers who did not. This is not
surprising. If our work benefits others, we want to know about it and
feel valued by them. But what is surprising is how little effort it
takes to show people they are valued.
Taking just a few moments
out of every day to express your appreciation can make a huge impact on
your team’s happiness and employee retention.
Don’t pass up
gratitude at work. There’s no doubt that there are countless benefits of
gratitude at work. But in fast-paced environments, it can easily slip
off the radar. So let’s look at how to avoid that by diving into how
exactly we can make gratitude part of the employee experience.
Make Gratitude a Habit
Everybody
is busy and everybody has their own experiences. Sometimes we can feel
completely overwhelmed at work, and to top it off we all also have
personal lives too. When we have all these things going on, it can be
hard to come up for air and recognize how good we truly have it.
So,
it’s important to make gratitude a habit. Meaning, making time to step
out of yourself to be aware of what’s happening right now. If you’re
stressed at work, it can be as simple as remembering that you have a job
to stress you out in the first place. And beyond that, there are most
likely other people around you going through the exact same thing that
you are. Why not be grateful and appreciative of them?
Get in the
habit of taking moments of time to yourself for gratitude. Step away
from the chaos for a moment, and you’ll give yourself a better
opportunity to recognize the good things happening. You don’t
necessarily have to start a gratitude journal or meditate to do this,
the separation alone is often enough to get you thinking. I like to go
for walks around the block; getting a little exercise and breathing
fresh air helps me remember and appreciate the good things.
Sometimes
it’s hard to get the blocks of time for this habit. What works for me
is making it part of my daily routine. There’s this tendency for many
people to sit there and work while eating lunch at their desks. And
that’s ok, but it’s important to take breaks to get you outside and into
a different headspace.
Pay it Forward
“Actions
speak louder than words” they say. And that applies to gratitude in
some ways as well. Leadership plays a significant role in an
organization’s relationship to gratitude.
My first job was a very
typical corporate job where you walked in and there were rows upon rows
of desks. I was just out of college and eager to learn. Productivity
was of the utmost importance at this organization, so I worked hard.
Certainly people said “thank you,” here and there, but I see now that
something critical was missing: the culture didn’t value people or
support helping them grow.
I, like many others, was simply a cog
in the wheel of this 40,000 person insurance company. My career and
happiness did not matter to them. I think everyone with enough years in
the workforce has been somewhere like this. Even in larger
organizations, a lot of this culture has to do with management and how
they approach things. It is possible to foster this culture at a large
organization if management consciously commits to it.
For me,
it’s common sense: your team’s success is directly correlated with your
own. If we truly value each individual on our team. After all, we
couldn’t possibly be successful without them! So, if management is on
board to support every member of the team in not only getting the
experience they want, but also in general being happy in their career.
This is just one way to put gratitude into action .
Hire the Right People
A
big part of building our culture is hiring genuinely thoughtful people
who share your values. Gratitude is not a tactic, it’s a philosophy.
It’s the golden rule: treat others as you want to be treated.
“Thank
you” should not come with ulterior motives. You don’t express gratitude
because you want somebody to do something. People can see right through
this sort of manipulative pseudo-gratitude. Say thank you because you
genuinely care and want the people around you to be successful. And hire
people who bring that same philosophy with them to work.
But how
do you make hiring decisions that help us continue driving this
culture? It can be tricky to suss this out completely during the
interview process. Sometimes the version of someone you meet in an
interview is not the same as the one who comes into the office on the
first day. That's why hiring the right people is the first essential job
function of managers--and many managers struggle with this vital skill.
Practice Patience
Finally,
there are some days when it’s easier to feel gratitude than others. For
example, sometimes people can frustrate you. Perhaps it’s because
they’ve disappointed you, or they’re not reaching their full potential
or meeting their goals. Taking a deep breath and finding the gratitude
and the good things that you see in other people helps a lot with
patience. And patience is an important part of gratitude.
It’s never too late to start being grateful. You can drive a shift in your organization toward a culture of thank you.
Here’s a few things you can do starting today.
- Think
of one thing you’re grateful for. Write it down in a journal or
vocalize it to a cherished friend. Try the Alphabet gratitude technique.
Start by thinking of something you're grateful for that begins with an A
(E.g., Apple pie) then a B and so on...
- Incorporate gratitude into your staff meetings. Have people share “I’m grateful for _____” in addition to their normal talking points.
- Make time every week to personally express your gratitude to someone on your team either verbally or in a written note.
With gratitude,
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT
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Interested
in learning how to develop your organization's leadership capability,
culture, and employee engagement? We begin with a collaborative
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contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com or Mobile: 323-854-1713
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