A Best Practice - Showing Gratitude

Do you want to see absolute leaps in performance and relationships in business and life? Build practices where people think and feel they are appreciated and acknowledged.

So, how can we show and share gratitude? Let me give you a few techniques that have worked for me and then perhaps some of you would like to share how you are measuring gratitude.

Write Thank You notes to employees.

One practice I adopted years ago was to acknowledge employees thanks from customers. I would make a copy of the thank you note or write the thank you that a satisfied client shared and then give the original thank you note to the employee and kept a copy for my file. At the end of the year, I often had more than you notes than dings for performance appraisals. Employees enjoyed their performance appraisals because now they had been appreciated and well as supported in their areas for improvement. A much more productive experience for all.

Write Thank You notes to customers.

I once received a wonderful thank you note from a company that provide me with extraordinary service. The note shared how they enjoyed working with me and valued my desire to honor them with my business. I still do business with that same company and still enjoy opening the thank you notes.

Write Thank You notes to family and friends.

This one seems obvious, but honestly, I started this practice last. Often times, I am ashamed to say that I was not as forthcoming in writing Thank You notes to my closest family and friends. I still remember a phone call I received from my mother after I had sent her a thank you note for being there in a particularly tough time. Acknowledging tangible gifts of money, etc. is easy. Saying thank you for the really meaningful gifts of time and thoughtfulness certainly meant a great deal more to her.

Send Thanksgiving Cards.

I had a wonderful executive mentor who always sent Thanksgiving cards, a practice that I have adopted over the past few years. I love sending these cards to family and friends. My list keeps growing. Each year I am receiving more and more Thanksgiving Cards. Warms my heart and certainly helps me to stay in touch with clients, contacts, family and friends that I don’t see often enough.

Do you see any value in building more consistent practices that promote genuine appreciation? Any other suggestions for what and how we might build best gratitude practices? I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts.