Every night before bed, my wife and I do a 10-minute meditation to help prepare us for sleep.
One of the things I love most about this meditation is the thankfulness section midway through. In it, the guide reminds us that we spend so much time focused on problems that we often forget all the goodness already in our lives.
Isn’t that often the case—in leadership as well as in life?
Issues Take Precedence
I, for one, am way more inclined to focus on what I haven’t yet done than to pat myself on the back for what I’ve already achieved.
We look for opportunities to coach employees on ways they can improve, but often neglect to remind them of all the ways they’re already killing it.
We track risk logs on our projects, deep-dive challenges in our programs, and look for “dogs not barking” in our businesses. It totally makes sense—these are the things that could keep us from achieving greatness.
But that hyper-focus on fixing what’s wrong often comes at the expense of noticing what’s working.
We rarely take time to appreciate the little things that go right every day.
Like the help desk technician who quietly and consistently solves dozens of user issues day in and day out. Or the project manager who meets with dozens of stakeholders behind the scenes to drive alignment.
Or the account manager who spends extra time updating their pipeline status in the CRM. (IYKYK)
Make Gratitude a Team Habit
As leaders, we can do a better job of creating a team culture where we recognize the goodness in addition to solving the problems at hand. This might look like:
One-on-ones: Begin each 1:1 by acknowledging one thing your team member did well that week, and encourage them to share what they’re proud of, as well.
Slack hashtag: Encourage gratitude with a weekly #gratiTuesday practice. (I borrowed this from a friend and have used it with several teams. Every Tuesday, team members post something they’re grateful for—anything from cooler weather to a key customer win—using the hashtag.)
Leadership recognition: Build a regular recognition rhythm where leaders publicly recognize one team member for their performance—weekly, monthly, or quarterly depending on team size.
Team shout-outs: Create space in Slack and all-team meetings for team members to provide shout-outs for others’ good work.
What other practices do you have to create a culture of gratitude on your team? Drop me an email or leave a comment below so we all can learn from each other. ❤️
Bonus read: A quick reminder that we also need to surface problems and not just ignore them.
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