3 Ways To Show An Attitude of Gratitude As A Leader

When you think about some of the best leaders in the world, do you question why they are such great leaders?

One of the reasons is because they know how to show gratitude and thankfulness to their employees.

More and more studies are showing that having an attitude of gratitude is the quickest way to raise your vibration, raise your energy, and get you back into a more productive, efficient state.

You cannot fake gratitude or thankfulness. So, you need to make sure as a leader when you do recognize someone, that it is genuine. It must come from a place where you genuinely respect, appreciate, and acknowledge your employees and the people around you for what they are doing.

Gratitude also needs to be expressed often in order for people to truly feel it and for it to have a lasting impact.

Thanking an employee once a year during their year-end evaluation is not enough. You need to thank them, and appreciate them, for what they do all throughout the year.

There are different ways that you can do this but here are some that I find work well.

Regular Recognition

One of the things that I implemented with my teams in order to create an attitude of gratitude was to always have recognition as one of my agenda items during our weekly staff meetings.

This was a time that not only was I able to recognize the staff, but I encouraged them to recognize each other.

I also encouraged them to recognize people outside of our direct team, so that we could hear how others were impacting us and share that appreciation. Then I would reach out to those people directly and thank them personally for the impact that they had on our team.

This had such a great impact on our team and opened everyone up to consider what the others were doing.

But it has to be done in a way that makes everyone feel like their contributions to the team matters and so that they realize others recognize the part they play in the team.

This means making sure that you're not just recognizing the same people every single week, and making sure that everybody is speaking up and recognizing others. After all, this practice is intended to help the team as a whole.

Impromptu Notes

Another way that you can go about showing gratitude for your employees and those around you is by sending them little notes of appreciation that they are not expecting.

This could mean sending them an email, a little thank you card, or something completely out of the box. Get creative! There are so many different ways that you can really touch someone when they're least expecting it.

The great thing about notes is that they are something the recipient can keep and look back at.

Unlike verbal praise that can sometimes get lost in translation or downplayed by other parts of the conversation, a written note that only emphasizes the gratitude stands alone and can have a great impact on the person’s feeling of appreciation and value they bring to the organization.

Celebrate!

Everyone loves a reason to celebrate!  Make sure you are taking time to honor the wins.

It is so important to pause the work for a little bit to take the team to lunch or happy hour so that they can get out of the office and really connect with each other and recognize all the work they have done.

When your employees know that you’re grateful for them, they will be motivated to work, more dedicated and step up when you need them most.

Not only does it impact your employees, but you will find that showing gratitude and recognition will help you stay in a positive frame of mind.  It will make it just a little easier to not get caught up in everything that's going on around you that isn’t so positive.

Find a way to show your attitude of gratitude today.