I’m predicting that 2020 will be the year that successful organizations and professionals see gratitude as a cultural focus.
There is gratitude consistently next to connection in happiness studies, but it also shows up in studies of business success.
It wouldn’t surprise me if it impacted health and longevity directly, too, and was entirely at the intersection with the connection.
Gratitude with customers, clients, and the network is a way to have better (more fruitful) days selfishly. The irony of how self-serving the act is can’t be lost on many, right?
Meetings
Amplify isn’t alone in starting most meetings with gratitude. Some of our leaders kick off with business and personal wins. Some start with a good news segue. The strategy links in gratitude and starts meetings off with optimism and great energy!
Core Strengths
There’s a saying, “If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”
In business, there’s an opportunity to focus on working and being grateful and acknowledging it. This gives you the energy and momentum to accomplish more and to leverage core strengths.
More effort on strategy and growth results in more strategic development.
Employees
People give a lot to their careers and their jobs. They want to feel valued. Deliberate efforts to express thanks go along way. The gratitude must also be at the team level so that collaboration and helping feels good. No matter what they produce, sell or accomplish, every organization is only as good as their people. Processes, automation, policies, brands, and other business elements are just tools for people to do a great job.
With the increase in remote work over the last few years, the need to make your gratitude more obvious becomes more challenging and critical. Our language and our energy need to be consciously thankful. Otherwise, emails are read with the unintended tone, extending to Teams/Slack/text and other remote mediums.
Networks
Connection, deep personal relationships are at the intersection of happiness, success and health/longevity. Yet, it’s our weak ties that bring opportunity. People want to be seen. They want to be heard. Using the language of gratitude and expressing it is one of the simplistic ways to connect.
Clients
We are only as strong as our team, yet we can’t give them opportunities without clients. And we all have clients. If we are traditional back-office accountants, our client is the rest of the executive, the board, operations or other stakeholders. And let’s face it – there’s nothing to count or to strategize without those clients. So let’s be grateful we get to be part of their journey!
Families
Work-life integration is on many 2020 prediction lists this year. I kind of wish it was on mine, too, because it makes so much sense. And it increases the need to be thankful for our families. For their patience, while we send one last email. For their understanding, when we take that client call at dinner time. For their tolerance, when we are on our phones chipping away at more work. Sometimes, gratitude is expressed in time. We give time to focus and time that is about connection. We need to remember to bring time into our acts of thankfulness.
At this time of year, we are all more aware than ever of what we have to be grateful for. And if we don’t make that top of mind, my prediction is we will fall behind, as organizations and as professionals, and indeed, like friends, parents, and spouses.
It feels good, it is on-trend, and it will pay off, so let’s bring gratitude to the forefront of 2020.
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