Late last week, I read this story on FastCompany.com discussing how America’s happiest companies also tend to make the most money. Then, this morning, I read this piece, also from FastCompany.com, titled “For Happier Employees, Learn to Give More Gratitude Than ‘Thx'”. I have been working over the last several years to improve in my ability to show gratitude for my co-workers and those for whose success I am responsible. More recently, I have been putting even more effort into this, showing gratitude on a daily basis.
The equation is actually quite simple: happy employees = happy customers. Harvard Professor Francis Frei has done some remarkable research and teaching in this area, a fair bit of it documented in her book Uncommon Service, co-authored with Anne Morriss. Companies such as Zappos, Rackspace and Southwest Airlines, among others, succeed because they are able to deliver a much higher level of service than most of their competitors, doing so with much higher employee satisfaction rates.
Showing real gratitude is harder than it seems. We, as humans, leaders, managers, seemed to be programmed to seek and identify the negative. We can react to what’s wrong and fix it. Many who have a knack for problem-solving actually thrive on this. Others just don’t know any better.
Instead, we must pay much more attention to what is going on around us, with our teams and with our teams’ teams. Then, we need to identify something good that has happened–managing a situation, a demonstration of character, helping someone else improve performance–and specifically note it to the individual. Give examples whenever possible.
Your best option is to hand-write a note. It is intimate, far more meaningful and most likely to be kept if not displayed.
The point of this, though, is not to show gratitude in the hopes it will lead to greater profits. If that is your motivation, then the insincerity will shine through. For it to be meaningful, you have to actually mean it. You show the gratitude because it is deserved and helps reinforce the behaviors and activities that will make that person and your organization successful. Showing real gratitude is more about developing the individual. The rest is a nice addition.
Finding Greatness 