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Sunday, April 17, 2022

Why it's Healthy and Productive to Cultivate a Culture of Gratitude

 


 

 

 

 

 

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.
 Check out a related post about the power of praise. One of the Greatest Missed Opportunities in Business Today

With gratitude,


Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT

 

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contact: Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile: 323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, wealth management services, third-party maintenance providers, real estate services, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.


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