How a Little Gratitude Can Go a Long Way
Who here likes being thanked? Some of us might be uncomfortable receiving gratitude or recognition from others but deep down, we all feel the glow of feeling valued.
Who here likes giving praise? Maybe more of us are uncomfortable expressing gratitude than receiving it but in today’s fast paced world that is full of hyped expectations, the truth is that feeling underappreciated is a negative factor in all kinds of relationships, be they personal, business or employee/employer.
Being Thankful is Good for You
Gratitude is strongly linked to personal wellbeing and happiness. Being thankful is shown to make us more positive, more resilient and improve our relationships too. People who regularly take time to notice and note the things they’re thankful for experience more positive emotions, sleep better, and express more compassion and kindness toward others. That’s great for business and for us as individuals!
Grateful people tend to have lower blood pressure, improved immunity, healthier hearts, and better mental health. By focussing on the positives each day, our outlook on life, work and our problems generally start to improve.
Essentially, the more you appreciate and are thankful for, the more attuned you are to your feelings of well-being and gratefulness. If you think about it, it makes sense. The more frequently we give and practice appreciation, the more it becomes a habit and way of living. It’s a virtuous cycle that only makes you feel better and better.
Gratitude and Business
“Gratitude is the ultimate performance-enhancing substance at work” – Professor R. Emmons, author of The Little Book of Gratitude.
Appreciation and recognition for a job well done has also been found to be more of a motivator than money. A study of over 1200 UK workers published in The Magic Word for Business Growth Report, found that “40% of workers said they would feel less motivated to work hard if their employer did nothing to say, ‘Thank you’ or show gratitude for a job well done.”
Almost half said that “Rarely receiving any form of thanks or gratitude from their employer would make them want to leave the company.” At the moment good staff, any staff, are hard to find and keeping them is just as hard. If saying thanks keep staff and reduces pay demands, it just makes good business sense. And it is probably just as relevant for your suppliers and clients.
Why are we Reluctant to Say “Thanks” or “Job Well Done”?
“Surely they know how grateful I am,” we think, “I wouldn’t want to embarrass them by getting so emotional.” Or “If I say thanks for something positive, they’ve done, then all the things they do wrong will go unpunished or they will ask for more.”
We all have an egocentric bias that makes it difficult for us to accurately predict how other people—or even ourselves—will feel in a particular situation. That is, we tend to assume that the way we currently feel is the way others feel, or how we’ll feel at some later time. Since our gratitude is obvious to us, we assume it must be obvious to the other person as well. We often feel uncomfortable when we must express certain emotions because we’re not sure how to go about doing so.
By not recognising the positive things someone has done because they aren’t perfect, we miss the opportunity to change behaviour by focusing on the positive. People will respond better to praise than criticism. And as we discussed earlier, people value praise more highly than material things.
Gratitude in BNI
Who can think of ways we give and receive gratitude and give recognition in BNI?
That’s right, it our core value! But recognition is also one of our core values. Other ways we give and receive thanks include TYFCB, Testimonials and Chapter Awards.
How do we Practice Gratitude?
1. Write notes of appreciation
2. Replace “Sorry” with “Thank You”
3 Keep a Gratitude Journal
4. Do Random Acts of Kindness
5. Volunteer Anyone got more ideas?
Summary
Gratitude is the best Attitude
