Welcome to the first post of 678 Partners. Thanks for taking the time to read this and my hope is that you will continue to visit our blog and learn more about us.
Creating an "Attitude of Gratitude" has been on my mind quite a bit lately - hence it being the inaugural topic - but it is by no means a breakthrough concept. If one Googles (try it!), there are a host of search results that pop up from blogs, books and what have you.
And yet, this is missing in the workplace. Something so simple to do and takes so little time is often one of the things we overlook on a day to day basis. To be sure, companies have formal recognition programs of some sort but what is culturally missing these days is the powerful tool of a mere "thank you" to the person that made a difference at a certain snapshot in time.
Focus Group Of One Anecdote: Recently, a colleague helped me with something. It was a favor, really, and I made a point of walking up to him merely to thank him. When I was done, he asked if there was anything else. I said, "No. Just thank you." The shock on his face was priceless. It was clear that he receives very few tokens of gratitude just because.
In response to my anecdote, some may say pouring efforts in a project or extending ourselves is all part of a day's work. True. It is. But you do get a spring into your step when you hear a sincere "Thanks!" or having someone sing your praises to your manager or a colleague. This is by no means a complaint of how we have become less civil in the modern age - I will leave those things to Emily Post. Rather, it's about how we reinforce community and camaraderie in the workplace. Showing appreciation is one such tool to do just that.
In the next couple of posts, I will discuss ways in which the power of "thank you" can work wonders not only with peers but also with your customers. In the meantime, I would love to hear your experiences about the power of appreciation (for good or bad). Please send your thoughts to parissa321@gmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you!
Until next time... Thanks for reading!
Parissa
This is something that I've been working on very hard, especially in the face of the challenges I've had this year. When things aren't going well in life, it can be difficult to come up with even 3 things to be grateful for. I've started practicing this daily and hope to expand on the list.
ReplyDeleteI'll continue reading your blog as I work to develop this "attitude of gratitude" in the face of many challenges.
Jeff