Embrace a Culture of Gratitude
Laszlo Bock, SVP, People Operations at Google, recently said in a LinkedIn post, "Google’s People Operations Analytics team recently found that being grateful—and expressing it—can be the secret weapon to workplace happiness and to warding off the malaise that can come with routine." Bock goes on to quote the latest research from his team, which reveals that employees who self-identify as more grateful are largely immune to the sinking effects of tenure on satisfaction. They stay happier, longer.
Does embracing a culture of gratitude really help employees stay happy? How can you embrace such a culture?
At the very foundation of creating a culture of routinely expressing gratitude is setting up a system of regularly responding to people's work. Ken Blanchard and Don Shula's book The Little Book of Coaching: Motivating People to Be Winners suggests that there are four ways in which a coach can respond when employees work:
- No response: The coach makes no acknowledgement of the work done.
- Negative response: The coach is always on the lookout for a mistake and blasts off if one is made.
- Redirection response: The coach helps the employee understand the correct way and redirects the employee's energy toward the goal when a mistake or failure happens.
- Positive response: The coach makes an effort to find the positive things and bestows a genuine appreciation for a job done well.
In an open work environment the first two response types can have an adverse effect. As good as it is to be conscious about providing redirection or a positive response, it is just as important to express a sincere thank you before giving any other response. In the rarest of situations, you may not need to thank someone, but in most situations at work, an honestly expressed thank you can go a long way in retaining the self-esteem of an employee and helping bridge gaps in work relationships.
In the inspirational talk "Thank People for Giving You Input," leadership coach and author Marshall Goldsmith talks about why people find it so difficult to thank people for their input, and his reasoning points to the presence of ego. People often find it difficult to fathom that the people below them in hierarchy can provide worthy input and thus often fail to thank them for the same. In his book What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Marshall says that "Eventually, you'll come to see that expressing gratitude is a talent—a talent that goes hand in hand with wisdom and self-knowledge and mastery."
In her insightful article "Help Employees Have Their 'Best Days' in 2015," Brenda Pohlman reveals that our “best days” and the moments are intrinsically linked with situations where we felt a sense of gratitude and appreciation. So...expressing gratitude may bring you a step closer to giving your employees their best experience of the year!
