Gratitude In The Workplace

Gratitude In The Workplace:

It Matters More Than You Think

Gratitude can make all the difference

in your success and satisfaction at work.

Happily ever after isn’t just

the stuff of fairytales.

Come and get it.

It’s Thanksgiving weekend here in the US as I write this article. Most of us have taken some time to express thanks for the good things in our lives on this holiday. We’ve enjoyed feasts with family and friends in celebration of our closest relationships. We’ve been thankful for our health, our homes, and the many other blessings we enjoyed this year. Nearly every country has its own version of a Thanksgiving holiday, a day set aside specifically to express gratitude.

The trick for many of us? To feel gratitude not just on sanctioned holidays, but all year round. Harder still? To feel gratitude about our work. There’s great power in gratitude. So many of us just don’t take full advantage of it. I’m here to tell you it matters more than you think. The impact that gratitude can have in your life and in your work is enormous.

It’s easy to feel gratitude for the big and positive things in your life: your wedding, the birth of your child, or recovery from illness. The small things are less obvious, but you probably feel gratitude much more often than you even realize. You find your car keys, just in time, after misplacing them for hours. You almost drop a gallon of milk, but catch it at the last minute. You open a present from someone and it’s exactly what you wanted to receive. That immediate feeling you have is gratitude.

If you’re like most people, you want “happily ever after” in your personal life. You strive for it and revel in the moments when happiness lingers. When it comes to work, though, most people accept far less than happily ever after. It is work, after all. People tend to splash around a bit in strife and negativity at work; it’s human nature to bond with others in tragic or frustrating situations. The workplace creates opportunities for this type of bonding every day. It makes feeling gratitude at work very challenging. Consider these examples.

Maybe you don’t feel appreciated. You’re undervalued or underpaid. You’re taken advantage of or asked to do things that don’t make sense. You have to work more hours than you want, and maybe more hours than others. You see people get ahead, who, in your mind, don’t "deserve" it. Your boss may not be smart enough, or human enough, or fair enough. Your co-workers may not always carry their weight. 

These types of feelings are completely natural… but in all cases, they play directly against your satisfaction and success at work. We’re certainly not in our happily ever after state of mind when we have these feelings. We’re about as far away from Thanksgiving gratitude as we can get.

Today, I’m here to tell you that finding and cultivating gratitude in the workplace increases not only your satisfaction, but also your success at work. Feeling and showing gratitude at work has real impact. Gratitude is your best and most direct path to happily ever after. With small adjustments in how you think and act at work, you can literally transform your life.

Don’t believe me? Read the five keys I share in this article and give them a try. See if these small adjustments don’t add up to big changes for you.

Finding The Flame

What Lights Your Fire At Work?

Finding The Flame

I’m not a fan of all the “find your passion” storytellers.

But I am a fan of finding passion in your work.

Hmmm, what to do?

 If you’re familiar with my writing, you know I’m not a fan of all the “find your passion” storytellers. So-called experts tell you that you have to find your passion to be successful in your life. So begins the elusive search for your one true passion. Without it you can’t be successful, right? Trying to find your passion under the weight of that burden is overwhelming. If you can’t define the one distinct passion that makes you leap from bed every morning with enthusiasm, you feel like you’ve failed somehow. Is that true? Of course not.

Searching for your passion is often an exercise in frustration. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all about loving what you do, and feeling genuine excitement about the impact you have in the world. The problem is that many people think about passion as a “what,” as in what-you-do-with-your-life. They also tend to believe that there’s one right answer. I think of passion more in the “how.” How you do the things you do is often much more important than what you do in terms of feeling passionate about your life.

Have you ever wondered why you can’t find your passion, after years deep in thought trying to figure it out? It’s because you’re trying to think your way to a feeling. Forget what Merriam-Webster says: passion in its most real sense is a verb. Passion is a sense of energy and enthusiasm. It's a feeling that can create focus and action. It isn’t something you can think your way into finding. You have to feel your way to passion. If you don’t know what lights your fire, you may need to think less… and do more. Taking action and assessing how it makes you feel may be the key to finding passion in your work and your life.

This week I share some wisdom from Marie Forleo, a one-of-a-kind mentor and inspiring force in this world. She recently published an article on finding your passion. There’s no storytelling here. It’s the best practical guidance I’ve seen on the topic, and so I share some of her insights with you here. Marie was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey just today, as I’m publishing this article. Oprah refers to her as a next-generation thought leader. I couldn’t agree more. I hope you agree.

Want to find your flame and figure out what lights your fire at work?  Here’s some bite-size wisdom for you to consider.

Great Employee?

Are You A Great Employee?

Three Ways To Know For Sure

Being a great employee is about more than 

working hard and delivering results.

The payoff is worth it.

I have a confession to make. I haven't always been a great employee. It hurts a little to admit it. It also makes me realize I'm much wiser today than I was even a few years ago. Before you get the wrong impression, read on. After all, you may be in the same boat and not even know it.

For years I believed that being smart, hardworking, and committed made me a great employee. I would work long hours, juggle priorities, and deliver important results. I thought it was enough. What I realized at one point is that those characteristics made me a great worker. It takes more than that to be a great employee. I can say that because I've been both. Sometimes I really earned my status as a great employee. Other times, I didn't.

You might be wondering why you should even care if you're a great employee. Here's why. Great workers... are pretty easily replaced. Great employees... are not. We all want to feel valued at work. Irreplaceable even. The fact is, you really only fall into that category when you go beyond what's expected of you in your job. Great employees are the ones that companies fight to keep. They're also typically the most successful and the most satisfied people in a company.

Increased job security? More opportunities for advancement? Greater success? More satisfaction? I mean, if you have to work (and work hard) anyway, why not focus on what it takes to be a great employee? You might be surprised just how little it takes to gain a lot of ground.

What does it take to be a great employee?   

Speak Like A Human

An Expert View:

Speak Like A Human At Work

Ever find yourself or others

speaking "professionalese" at work?

Speaking like a human may get better results.

I'll start by saying, "Guilty as charged." Put me on the phone with someone from the South for any length of time, and at least one word I say later will make me sound like I was born and raised in Louisiana. International conversations? You don't want to know. It's natural for us to start to sound a little like the people we talk with on a regular basis. 

We all grow up hearing phrases that become part of our language as adults. Our language also develops through our friendships and acquaintances. It's one of the ways we connect with others, by bonding over common language. At work, we adopt a unique "workplace" language too as we communicate with co-workers. Sometimes this happens without us even being conscious of it. It's like having a southern accent after a telephone conversation, and wondering where it came from.

I remember sitting in an executive meeting one day with a new leader who had just joined the company. It was clear that he had no idea what we were talking about. We may as well have been speaking a foreign language. It was our own version of what author Daniel Pink refers to as "professionalese." Instead of saying, "This isn't working" we'd say things like, "We may need to optimize our results by adjusting our strategy and pursuing different opportunities." To a stranger, I imagine we sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher: "Wah, WAH. Wah, wah, wah, wah."  Worse yet, I'm absolutely certain that's what we sounded like to employees and customers.

In this week's Expert View, I share an article in which Daniel challenges us to "speak like a human at work", just for seven days, to see what happens. It's essentially a challenge to keep it real in discussions with co-workers and clients alike. Just so I'm clear, this is not exclusively a leadership issue. This problem exists at all levels of any given organization. I share this challenge with you, because I think it's an excellent way for all of us to practice being authentic to who we are in the workplace... and avoid eating our souls for breakfast.

Read more. Let's see if you're up for the challenge.