The Importance of Gratitude
Why Gratitude is an essential skill for any leader to have:
Gratitude is more a way of being than something that is shown. Gratitude as a leader, is an internal understanding of how little you control and how much your success and happiness rely on other people. You can have manners and live a life without gratitude. Gratitude is a constant giving mindset understanding how much others have done for you to have the opportunity to give. You live with gratitude, and it is elusive, making maintaining gratitude a skill.
We work with many clients that believe that gratitude is a token with a time and place. Misplaced gratitude can lead to liability or a loss of leverage, even lead to insubordination! The evil that is gratitude is just waiting to destroy your team. If you really believe you can do it alone, go ahead. Feeling appreciated is one of the most desired pursuits in looking for a new job, talented people are leaving jobs because they don’t feel appreciated. For those of you that have an interest in doing right by your team, try focusing more on internal gratitude for the people around you and letting it permeate your interactions and decision making.
Your ego is the biggest threat to your business. That line makes almost every blog post and assessment. If you are living by your ego, you have entitlement rather than gratitude and you are headed for misery. Everyone in business has had to be humbled by a lack of control. Building a brand is simple and yet few are successful. The successful understand the separation between image/marketing and reality.
Your image or brand is essentially built around what “makes you special.” It is easy to fall in love with your own marketing and start to feel self-made, but no one does it alone. There are so many business relationships that are a part of success, now more than ever we are all experiencing the impact of logistics and supply chain disruptions throughout the market. How much do you control and how many other people come through for you on a regular basis? Think through all the little details of your product and business, how many people must do their job for you to have a chance to be successful?
Every interaction should reflect gratitude for even the right to be free and be doing what you love or chasing your passions. Gratitude shows in the way you treat the warehouse worker or delivery driver, it shows in subtle interactions with your employees, partners and even customers. How grateful do the people around you think you are for them? This is not just business: Always focus on what you are grateful for, do not concern yourself with what others should be grateful for. Always be grateful for what human beings do for you. Embrace gratitude by celebrating every person who you interact with because there are many human beings who contributed to your success that you will never get to thank, meet, or know of.