You can feel it, right? The air is a little crisper. The wind has a bit of a bite to it. Sometimes when the rain falls there are small hints of crystalized flakes mixed in. Retail spaces are a mix of autumn-themed items and a wide range of green and red. The supermarket freezer is filled to the brim with turkeys. We’re on the cusp of the holiday season, starting right into the eyes of Thanksgiving and preparing for the full run of December’s festivities with an eye on a new year looming in the near future.
Before we start to wrestle with wrapping up goals and objectives for the current year and making plans for the next, the rhythms of our work and personal lives linger around gratitude for a bit. Gratitude, however, shouldn’t just be something we honor as we prep the turkey and debate whether cranberry sauce is a condiment or a side. Gratitude is something that should be part of our everyday rituals and routines all year long.
Research has repeatedly shown that being grateful has a host of personal and professional benefits. A focus on gratitude can reduce stress, build resilience, and improve our overall well-being. You may even find you sleep better at night and are generally more patient. Makes you want to carve out a little time to meditate on the things you have to be grateful for, doesn’t it?
The personal perks of gratitude are reason enough to embrace the practice, but the benefits don’t end there. Adopting a posture of gratitude also pays dividends in your professional life, too.
Several years ago, Harvard Business School researchers Francesca Gino and Adam Grant completed a study that highlighted the impact of gratitude on workplace performance. If you haven’t heard their take on the study, this podcast is worth a listen.
Their research found that gratitude in the workplace can cultivate a spirit of teamwork and a shared vision. Other studies have indicated gratitude can lead to improvements in employee confidence and job satisfaction. Think about that. Making space to recognize team members for the work they do and expressing your sincere thanks for their efforts can lead to a happier, healthier, more productive team.
No business functions as an island. We’ve got clients. We’ve got partners. Making gratitude part of your interactions with them can also have a positive impact. According to a recent PwC survey, 29% of customers say they stopped using or buying from a brand due to a poor customer experience. Conversely, a previous study by Rockefeller Corporation found perceived indifference can negatively impact customer loyalty – about 68% of customers will leave if they think a company doesn’t care about them.
Gratitude shows you care. It tells your partners that you respect them and their contributions to a shared purpose and goals. It creates a sense of collaboration. It nurtures relationships instead of transactional exchanges.
It can be easy to get caught up in the endless cycle of deadlines and pressure. It can feel like stress is a natural part of your existence. The urgency to keep clients happy. The pressure to land the next big contract or investor. The press for perfection. Your team feels it. You feel it. And yet, taking the time to recognize what you have accomplished and creating space to be grateful for it can offer assurance that your hard work matters and that success is attainable. It can recharge us in a way that pep talks alone don’t. It can move us to a place of abundance instead of the press to keep stretching higher.
Gratitude can fuel creativity. It can make us more willing to take calculated risks. It can improve problem-solving and adaptability. These are building blocks for growth and forward movement. In other words, a focus on gratitude sparks even more things to be grateful for as it fosters the sort of business culture that leads to growth, innovation, and improvement.
Simple thank-yous to more intentional efforts of expressing gratitude are worth the time and investment it takes to make them part of your everyday business plan. It’s part of how you grow a business.
Happy customers make purchases. They refer others to your company. They leave positive reviews (which, by the way, matter a whole lot!). Engaged, happy staff stick around, produce good stuff, and take pride in their jobs, which also has a positive impact on corporate relationships with partners and clients. In other words, gratitude can improve fiscal stats like profitability and retention.
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