When I read the details about the November Active Rain contest to define gratitude, I thought long and hard about examples in my life that exemplified gratitude.
I think it goes without saying that people such as our parents and spouses sometimes do extraordinary things for us out of their love and gratitude for us (and vice-versa). Certainly there are examples in my own life that I can recall but they are personal to me and I prefer to keep them private.
8 Memorable Expressions of Gratitude
Professionally, I can recite a series of acts of gratitude that one of my former supervisors showered upon me and his other direct reports with regularity. That's him in the picture above! We've remained close friends despite his Detroit Tigers fetish. His methods of gratitude became part of the culture he built within his sphere of influence. Here is a list of things I remember him doing...
1) "Thank you for coming in today." was often a statement we heard at the end of a work day. It was said in earnest, not sarcastically. He never took your attendance for granted. He realized that there were other employers that could compete for the talents of his team and this was an easy way to remind us that we were appreciated.
2) On more than one occasion I received handwritten thank you notes at my home address from my boss. In this day and age of the ease of email and text communication, the use of handwritten notes is a lost art. I have kept these handwritten notes from him all these years. I cherish them.
3) Verbal recognition amongst peers was another form of gratitude expressed by my bosss. During in-person meetings or teleconferences if there was an opportunity to call out someone that had done a good job, he never hesitated to broadcast that message wide and clear. It really helped us build our personal brand within the workplace. Name recognition is critical especially in larger companies.
4) Gifts were sometimes a pleasant surprise from my boss. For example, I was once presented with a pair of marble book-ends, engraved with our company logo. He found extra funds in his budgets to buy small dollar items to commemorate special occasions such as a promotion, anniversary or just because. A subtle footnote to this is that he used those funds to buy a corporate item, thus reinforcing loyalty to the brand amongs his people.
5) Education was another powerful form of gratitude that my boss would go to battle for on our behalf. He would never hesitate to champion a request for tuition reimbursment with the higher-ups that had to sign-off. Even if there was push-back he he made a strong case on our behalf. He was willing to fight the battle.
6) Awards were another creative form of gratitude developed by my boss. He would come up with an on-going awards program and design handsome certificates to present to winners. He didn't wait or expect the corporation to develop such a program - he took it upon himself to institute one internally.
7) Money is nice. But let's face it. Companies are scrooge to hand it out. But when there were special programs available to reward employees who have gone above and beyond, our boss never forgot to take time to submit the deserving names into the hat to try to get them a little extra dough. This took extra work on his part. He made the investment.
8) Not sure what category this falls under, but one of the more memorable forms of gratitude he taught me was the ice cream social. One night (we were located in Albany, New York) he called me into his office and asked me to listen to a phone call. He dialed one of our offices we were responsible for in Utah. The lucky person who answered the phone was entertained by a peculiar command from my boss. He told her that they were doing a great job and that we wanted her to go buy ice cream for the whole team and all the toppings they could muster and build the most decadent sundaes they could. He went on to instruct them to eat their colorful creations in front of their customers! He told her that when customers asked why they were eating sundaes to tell them that their boss told them that they were simply the best! "Send me the receipt for the ice cream." he told her.
How To Express Gratitude in 2015
So what can we do with all these ideas to make gratitude a bigger component in our 2015 business plan?
I think that as leaders of people or relationship managers of people in a book of business, we've become too complacent with expressing gratitude. As I mentioned earlier, email and texts make it efficient for us to communicate. But in my opinion these forms of communication are not ideal for expressing thanks.
I submit that we adopt a behavior in our 2015 plan to utilize more personal forms of appreciation. Stop relying upon email and texts. Rather, invest a couple of minutes and a postage stamp to handwrite a brief note of thanks.
Do this not only for clients but for your personnel as well as they are a critical part of your operation.
Remember, they have made a conscious choice to leave their family and home and work side by side with you. YOU. Not your competitor down the street. YOU.
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