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Dan's Biz Bookshelf: Leading With Gratitude

Leading With Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results

Gratitude is something I have always believed in, so it was fun for me to find a very good book that echoes my own feelings. I have always been confused and surprised by leaders who do not like to say thanks. I have never understood it.

I guess they are afraid that if they show too much gratitude, the person they are thanking will ask for a raise. Or maybe they are reserving the right to lay off that person someday, so they don’t feel comfortable telling her she is doing a good job.

The authors of this book want you to be grateful as a leader and as a boss. They open with what they deem a “staggering” statistic: 81% of working adults say they would work harder if their boss was more grateful for their work. Additionally, 94% of women acknowledge that a boss who expresses gratitude to them are more likely to be successful.

So, what the heck is the problem? Here are some reasons:

• We tend to focus more on problems than successes.
• Some managers get nervous when their employee is smarter than they are.
• Leaders, especially sales managers, do not want their salespeople to feel too comfortable and get complacent. They want them scared and hungry so that they will never let up. I once knew a sales manager who encouraged his salespeople to spend a lot of money and get in debt because he though debt was a great motivator. What a jerk.

This book you will help you learn the benefits of showing gratitude to your employees, and frankly they far outshine the alternative.

Here are four ways to effectively show gratitude to your employees:

1. Assume positive intent. Assume that the employees want to do well even if they don’t. If they make a mistake use it as a learning experience to make them better in the future. It is always a shame to waste a good mistake.
2. Walk in their shoes. Put yourself in their position and see what they are facing. Then, in a peer-to-peer way, work together to solve the problems permanently.
3. Celebrate the small wins. Make a big deal of the small achievements especially if they represent a significant step toward big achievements.
4. Reinforce core values of the company. The more time you spend with each employee the better the relationship you will have with them and the better they will perform. Each employee is different, and it is up to you to find the right way to motivate each one with the right amount of gratitude.

As I said, I like this book and I hope more people will take the time to read it. It will pay off in the long run and make you a much more effective leader.

Dan Beaulieu is president of D.B. Management Group.

Leading with Gratitude: Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results

Author: Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton

Copyright: 2020 by Harper Collins

272 Pages

Price $24.99