Lyre of Letters and The Power of Gratitude!

Every year as I wrap up the year, I make it a point to send hand written letters of gratitude to the family members of those employees in my staff who had put in the 'work' and made a difference to my group that year.

I just write about how much of a superman/wonderwoman his/her spouse/parent/ son/daughter is, to my team and the organization, and how much we are indebted to them for what they bring to the work place in my letters .

I also thank them for being a wonderful enabler for him/her to deliver what they did at work and it would not have been possible without their support and sacrifices ( all those extra hours away from family which otherwise could have been spend with them, all those weekend plans they had to shift because of some leadership visit/ mock drills or urgent deliverables he/she at work)

I call these gratitude letters.

It costs me nothing more than a couple of hours in the morning of the last week of the year, and some post covers with stamps.

Having a post office next to my home also helps.

I believe writing to a colleague (in the old school sense- with pen and paper) is a noble deed indeed!

It will help us express our gratitude in authentic, intimate and unique ways. Through writing we can express certain things which at times are difficult to convey impactfully verbally.

Plus, doing these letters of gratitude makes me very happy!!.. The kind of happiness that lingers around for days!!

What more happier in life than adding a smile, sunshine and a ton of positivity to another person's life!.

Here is the set of letter I sent during the turn of a gruesome Covid year - 2020

At first, I was amazed by how strongly people responded to getting these personalized notes of appreciation. Then when I received a few of them my way, I really understood the power of written letters.!

Here is one such letter I received back from a little star!

Small things add up!!

Gratitude and appreciation are so essential for a healthy work environment.

A simple thank you and a show of appreciation can make all the difference to someone who, you might not know is fighting some life-situation monsters unknown to you!

Who knows, some times when you give a dressing down to an employee on a Friday evening on something he has done wrong, you might be destroying not just his peace of mind, but the peace at home of a family looking forward to a wonderful weekend with him/her together, or a kid waiting for her parent to enjoy their precious Friday evening once she return from office!.. It can be any other day as well.

We all need to be just more kind...! Compassionate...! Empathetic...! None of these cost a dime!

As managers, we don't fathom how much of an impact we can make not just to the professional well being of any employee but at time even to his personal/mental wellbeing as well!

Employees should not be resources, they should be assets in our HR/manager lingo! And they don't come in to work with their mechanical brains, they come in the whole with their personal relations, trust and personality traits.

Small things add up.!!

Personally, these are some little things which helped me build trust and connect with my team members easily and we all try to maintain that connect even after changing teams and organizations.

Last 7 years a people manager, I had only 2 voluntary employee attrition in the teams I managed directly! ( Zero in the first four years!). I was always lucky to have phenomenal team members working for me.

At the end of the day, relations matter..!!!

Gratitude is like muscle. The more we do with it the stronger it gets. Let us practice more and more of it!

-- Prince Ramanan