I had the privilege of working with some great leaders at ADKF in San Antonio recently, and at the end of the class I asked everyone to please take their buttons and pass them on to colleagues who hadn’t attended. These buttons had positive affirmations on them, and had been passed back and forth throughout the two-day class as a way of saying “thank you,” or “great idea.” The next morning, I was told, the office was flooded with buttons being passed around as a token of appreciation. I was thrilled. These leaders were creating an epidemic of appreciation, something that is lacking in so many organizations these days.
What is shocking is how many leaders think their organizations are saturated with appreciation and gratitude, while employees disagree. Thnks, an organization whose mission is to understand the importance of gratitude in the workplace, did a survey of 250 CEOs and employees. Almost 90% of the surveyed CEOs felt it was important to lead with gratitude and 88% felt their employees would give them high marks in demonstrating gratitude. Boy were they wrong. Only 37% of employees felt adequately appreciated, while a whopping 96% said appreciation was important.
Bottomline, letting people know they’re appreciated and doing it on a regular basis is important. For more than 20 years Chester Elton and his co-author of Leading with Gratitude, Adrian Gostick, have been studying leadership, and discovered a single constant among all the top performers. “As we studied the best teams, the best leaders, the best cultures, there was always this thread of gratitude—always,” he says. “And so it became very apparent that it wasn’t a nice-to-do if you were to be a great leader. It was an absolute must-have.”
Why not consider making appreciation part of your strategic plan for the year? This doesn’t have to mean expensive trips or time-consuming events. Instead find small ways to say thank you. I don’t know about you, but when someone authentically tells me that in some way I’ve made a difference and they appreciate me, it makes me smile for at least the next eight hours. A simple thank you—even in the form of a button—creates a positive environment that builds relationships and strengthens connections. In other words, it’s a small action that reaps big results.
