Originally published on the KingdomBuilding Leadership blog, March 13, 2021.
Much has been written about how leadership is a thankless job. "If you do great, nobody mentions it. If you don't, everyone complains." (Ellen Degeneres) But we're not going to focus on that! Instead, we're going to take the protagonist approach and reflect on the Science of Thanks and how bringing thanks to your leadership and your organization creates a triple threat against your competition:
1. Reducing the Gratitude Gap Increases Engagement
If you want your people to be loyal & productive - say thank you! You want to grow sales? Thank your customers, often! And thank your sellers, even more frequently! Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School and Adam Grant of Wharton School met with Harvard Business Review to discuss their research. According to them, "only 15% of us say thank you at work; and 35% of people surveyed said that their managers never said thank you" (https://hbr.org/2013/11/the-big-benefits-of-a-little-thanks). They then studied what would happen if someone was provided with a small note of thanks. The note was short, "Thank you so much. I'm really grateful." Later, the note writers went back to the test subjects and asked them for some assistance. Even though the test subjects had nothing to gain by helping (they had already been paid for participating in the study and they were helping on their own time), the test subjects who received notes of thanks helped 66% of the time - twice as much as the control group who received neutral notes! In receiving the thank you note, the test subjects felt valued, and therefore they wanted to help more. Take-away: showing gratitude, and highlighting that contributions are useful & appreciated, increases the engagement (and helpfulness) of those you thank!
2. Saying thank you has a Ripple Effect
Researchers Gino & Grant went on to explain how they expanded the study. First, in the lab, they had a second subject request assistance from the first helper, after the helper had received a note of thanks. Even though the helper did not know or interact with the second subject previously, they offered to help the second subject nearly double as much as helpers from the group that received a neutral note. They also tested the power of gratitude in the real world by studying a fund-raising call centre at a University. When the manager shared with the team the important work they were doing and thanked them for their hard work, performance went up! Specifically, number of calls made increased more than 50% per person and per week vs the average, for every week the manager thanked the team. This increase occurred even though the manager had little day to day interaction with the team, and only provided the weekly message of thanks and appreciation while reinforcing the importance of the team's contribution. Take-away: providing a simple act of appreciation, like saying thank you, results in the other person feeling valued, and when people feel valued they provide more help and more results.
3. Counting your Blessings each week reaps Psychological, Physical and Interpersonal benefits
Many scientific studies have concluded that counting one's blessings leaves people feeling more attentive, alert and energetic. Emmons & McCullough demonstrated in their study that when people were recording things for which they were grateful, they ended up engaging in more healthy related behaviours (i.e. exercising more often) and also slept better and fewer symptoms related to illnesses. Take-away: start a weekly gratitude ritual in order to reap the physical, mental and relational benefits that you will need for your teams, your customers and your personal relationships,
The last year has been very difficult for many people I know. Senior-level executives, front-line workers, early-career and mid-career professionals, people leaders and individual contributors have all been challenged to adapt, and pivot and be resilient. As we're all coming out of the Covid lockdowns, and we're working to reestablish ourselves in the market, remember that giving thanks is one of the easiest and least expensive ways to improve morale, tie your people to your purpose, galvanize the team, get closer to your customers and outperform your competitors.
