Grateful for Gratitude

 I know it's an assumption, but I would still make a bet - everyone likes to receive gratitude for a job well done.  That moment of clarity where another person lets you know just how much you're appreciated.  It's a great feeling!  It can take a cruddy day and turn it around.  It can help a good day get to a great day.  It's really an easy thing to do... saying "thank you" to someone who did a great job, or helped you out, or challenged you to be better at what you do.  

Showing genuine gratitude is a really simple but powerful tool that costs a team very little in energy or effort, but can pay off big-time in helping teams to achieve their goals.

Consider research done at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  A research team randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups.

• One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in the same way they always had.
• The second group — working different days than the first group — started their shift with a pep talk from the boss, who told the fund-raisers she was grateful for their efforts.
• During the following week, the team members who heard her message of gratitude made 50% more fund-raising calls than those who did not.

Or the research conducted by the American Psychological Association that reported:

• Almost all employees surveyed (93 percent) who reported feeling valued said that they are motivated to do their best at work and 88 percent reported feeling engaged.
• Among employees who feel valued, just one in five (21 percent) said they intend to look for a new job in the next year.
• In a separate but related study, 78 percent of employees said they would recommend their organization to others as a good place to work.

Or research conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where they ran multiple experiments to investigate how witnessing gratitude affects people’s feelings toward the grateful person and the benefactor (the person who is being thanked).

The results showed that people who had received gratitude were more willing to help out, and more likely to want to become friends with the reviewer, than those who hadn’t.

Our shared values and principles encourage us to value each other and the creative solutions that we all bring to the table as we work to solve problems, create value for our users, and achieve business objectives together!

• Shared Value - Individuals and interactions over process and tools.
• Shared Value - Customer collaboration over contract negotiations.
• Shared Principle - Build cross-functional, dedicated, persistent teams around motivated people. Give them the environment, empowerment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.  When they achieve an objective, give them another one.
• Shared Principle - The best customer results emerge from self-organizing teams.

There is even a "national holiday" dedicated to sending cards and notes of thanks to folks telling them you care!

So what's stopping you from sharing gratitude with teammates and partners today?  We even make it SUPER EASY to send cards with our Shared Success tool. 

Take a moment today, this week, next week and all year long to show your gratitude to the people who help you, help your customers.

We all win together.