How Gratitude Creates Better Businesses

The Thanksgiving holiday inspires most of us to reflect on things we are grateful for. For those who celebrate in full, it is a powerful and grounding experience that helps power people and families through good times and bad. For this reason, I had gratitude on top of my mind. While pondering the theme of gratitude, it occurred to me that many of the ways that gratitude powers our personal lives also power successful workplaces in many ways.

Let’s analyze some of those phenomena, and how they impact so many areas of the workplace. From innovation to productivity, inclusion, and even physical health, gratitude ties into almost every aspect of a thriving business and workplace.

Gratitude reminds us to make business about everyone else

?In business and marketing, we are prone to making it all about ourselves. All companies (including my own) are guilty of this to varying extents. ‘We’re faster’ ‘we’re better' ‘we’re most experienced’. The problem with this is while customers care about you, they care more about the decision process that goes into doing business with you, and the different pain points and anxieties that go along with this. Gratitude is a great way to shift the focus to your end-users in a way that is both human and empowering to them.

Simon Sinek highlights this example through an interaction he had with a homeless woman. Sinek describes changing the messaging she used to request donations from commuters. This simple tweak changed increased contributions from $30/day to $20/hour. The verbiage Sinek used was as follows: “If you can only give once a month, please think of me next time”.

This harnesses gratitude as the benefit that a potential donor receives when donating. It also alleviates negative emotions and anxieties that arise when potential donors contemplate donating in the first place. This framing is both empathetic and empowering.

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Gratitude connects employees to their workplace

Most of us have likely had that job… The job with a micro-managing boss who demands excellence through an ever-evolving subjective lens while jumping on every opportunity to point out your mistakes and shortcomings. The thought process of these kinds of companies and managers are simple. If I don’t ride on my employees, the job will never get done. No matter how hard I push them, my team simply won’t perform.

This whole perspective is both wrong and counterproductive in so many ways. It negates the existence of pride in one's work and workplace. It denies the existence of humanity and human connection in business. It is simply the last way to go about getting more out of the people who comprise your team and workplace.

In 2021, some managers and workplaces still aren’t shifting their thinking from ‘how can I get more out of my employees’ to ‘what can I do to help my employees get the most out of themselves’. If you are a business of any size and you have A) hired good people and B) made consistent investments in their growth, you can change your workplace’s culture forever.

By showing investment in your employees and giving them a sense of support and stability, you will foster an invaluable sense of gratitude for your company. This system of mutual ‘give-and-take’ has resounding impacts.

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Gratitude builds resilience

By fostering gratitude between employees, we also catalyze a few other powerful dynamics. Mutual respect, inclusion, loyalty, collaboration, and resilience. During the first lockdowns back in March of 2020, these ingredients were vital to the survival of some workplaces. As billions globally feared for their health and livelihood, companies built on a foundation of gratitude were more equipped to channel more and power through unprecedented times. This continues to be true for companies as our economy shifts through a tight labor market and the ‘great resignation’.

What’s next?

Usually, I end these with a series of questions facing workplaces with a call to action of some kind. Today, I’ll simply leave it at this. The hard times are not over. Find any excuse you can to feel grateful and use that power to channel more within yourself and your relationships. We all need more from ourselves and each other.

I am grateful to continue sharing conversations with you and am eager as always to hear your thoughts in the comments section!

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