Why is being grateful good for your business?
Being grateful is a part of day to day living, or so we think? We say thank you to the barista when we get our coffee, thank you when someone buys us a gift, thank you when someone holds a door open for us. There are unwritten rules in society regarding how to behave and when to show thanks but how often do we apply the same level of gratefulness in the workplace? How often do we practice this with ourselves and with our colleagues?
Showing gratitude towards your staff and colleagues provides a huge level of job satisfaction and positive feelings of self-worth. In some circumstances, a manager just saying thank you sincerely is more meaningful than a monetary bonus! A grateful workplace usually goes hand in hand with a positive workplace culture, where your staff feel valued and appreciated for their efforts.
Ways to show thanks to your staff
- Say thank you! Sounds simple, but expressing thanks for hard work or dedication on a project goes a long way!
- Offer further development and training opportunities to your staff who have worked hard and want to excel
- Say thank you even when a project hasn’t been successful, saying thank you for doing your best certainly is a morale booster
- Organise fun days outside of work
- Have an office treat day – a Friday lunch or buy a cake
- Encourage staff to take time off – they deserve it
Thanks to yourself
Remember to thank yourself and be grateful for all the effort that you put in. Be kind to yourself, we can’t always achieve everything in a single day.
If you approach the harder times in life as a lesson learning exercise you will most certainly be happier!
What are the benefits of being grateful?
Some of the proven benefits are:
- Improves physical health
- Enhances empathy and reduces aggression
- Better sleep
- Increases mental strength
- Improves self esteem
- More positive relationships
Gratitude is a skill, but a skill well worth making the effort to invest in. Even something as simple as a smile can make waves and brighten someone’s day. Practicing saying thank you to the people you encounter for simple acts of kindness quickly becomes habit, and not only will make them feel good, but you will feel good too!
As quoted by World Gratitude Day, “Gratitude promotes happiness by giving people more positive emotions and making them savour good experiences. Gratitude helps people savour good moments, appreciate life, deal more effectively with bad experiences, improve their health, and build more rewarding relationships.”
World Gratitude Day is on September 21st. How will you celebrate, and what will you do with your team to express more gratitude?
