Gratitude - a spontaneous feeling or a deliberate action?

Were you making new resolutions for the year ahead, or was there a sense of commiseration for the ones you failed to keep? New Year’s resolutions - some love them, some hate them. 

This year I didn’t make a big list of new resolutions but having been inspired by something I read, I have resolved to try and do one thing better. That is to live this year in ‘radical amazement’. No eye rolling now - stay with me!   

In our day-to-day lives, it’s so easy to take things for granted and to stop being amazed by life itself. Rabbi Abraham Heschel says - ‘Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement,’ - ‘everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually.’ 

But how does one go about cultivating this amazement? I wonder if it is birthed out of the basic art of gratitude.  

Gratitude, as philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero is credited as saying, ‘is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others.’ 

When it comes to being grateful, perhaps we often mistakenly think that gratitude is a feeling we experience and therefore we cannot do anything to change this. Feelings just come and go without warning and it can be difficult to change them. Maybe we are wrong to think this way. Whilst gratefulness is something we feel, it’s not only an emotion - rather it is also an action as well. And it’s a well-known little fact that if we practice the art of being grateful it more often than not, leads to us feeling grateful. 

Gratitude in the workplace is cited time and time again as being of great significance. Studies consistently show that employees and volunteers will work harder when they feel appreciated. Organisations that encourage expressing gratitude witness higher engagement, an increase in productivity and retention, greater satisfaction and improved health and well-being. Gratitude is also something that helps to develop more trust between team members and a more psychologically safe environment.  

If this is proven to be the case, then practising the art of gratefulness will be beneficial in many ways, both to us as leaders and our people.  

So, how might we show gratitude as a leader in 2024? A few ideas perhaps may include: 

1. Be specific with gratefulness - tell the person what it is you appreciate and why. Tell them how it makes you feel - emotion has a great impact on motivation and change. General remarks are ok but being specific and citing the situation and context makes for much more meaningful gratitude. 

2. Be adaptable in your appreciation and tailor it to the individual - praising and thanking some people publicly in a meeting may be their worst nightmare, whilst others would welcome this. Be mindful of who you’re thanking. 

3. Be authentic - there’s not much worse than no appreciation, but insincere appreciation has got to be pretty close.  

4. Be intentional - don’t leave it to chance. Have a plan. Think each day or week, who can I thank today?  

5. Be grateful for people, not just performance - think about appreciating enthusiasm, willingness, commitment or effort - don’t focus only on the task or job. 

6. Be quick to celebrate - foster a culture of celebration and joy by sharing the successes throughout the business or organisation. Even in the mistakes and challenges look for moments to be thankful for, whether it be the way a team pulled together and supported each other, or lessons learnt going forward.  

7. Be humble - without humility, it’s difficult to be thankful.  Adopting an attitude of gratitude might be one of the most morally courageous things we do as a leader, because for some of us, it is a struggle to ask for help, and therefore we can wrongly think that thanking someone for their help is an admission of weakness. But admitting we don’t know everything and welcoming help from others is a really powerful way to empower, inspire and appreciate others.  

It’s the start of a new year, a time to reflect back and look forward.  

What were we grateful for in 2023 and what will we be grateful for in 2024? 

Let’s not wait to feel grateful, but let’s begin to practice the art of gratitude and who knows, we might just be radically amazed!