For a moment: forget any schooling, corporate training, sacrifice, etc. that brought you to where you are today as a leader. Have you ever just sat for a moment and thought about the odds of you actually existing? If out of the millions of sperm your father contributed, that one that encoded with your DNA didn’t make it to the egg, you wouldn’t be reading this right now.
When you think about it, the odds of you being here are less than winning the lottery while being struck by lightning. It’s a miracle. And that alone is a reason to be grateful. So, the question is: Can gratitude be a competitive leadership advantage? Find out what the latest research shows.
Science is on it!
I’ve always known gratitude to be a positive thing, but for the first time, scientists have actually begun studying the physiology of gratitude. Here are just a few of the positive outcomes gratitude have contributed to, as listed at PositivePsychology.com in early 2019:
- Patients who expressed optimism/gratitude two weeks after an acute coronary event ended up having healthier hearts in the long run (2015 study).
- Writing a letter of gratitude to someone led to better mental health in adult populations who were seeking psychotherapy (2016 study).
- Individuals practicing gratitude were found to: experience less burnout, have better sleep, lower levels of cellular inflammation and overall better physical health (2018 study).
Gratitude on the job
Obviously living a healthier, happier life can carry over to the workplace, but researcher David DeSteno has spent much of the last two decades examining gratitude and why it should be cultivated in every organization.
His conclusion, Gratitude and Prosocial Behavior, co-written with Monica Bartlett, was cutting edge research when it was released in 2006. They conducted three studies that found a tangible positive relationship between kind, helpful behavior – the kind of thing you want to see in your team members – and gratitude.
The two big takeaways of this report for me were:
- Gratitude directly facilitates “helping” behaviors, and
- People who are grateful will not only help the people who helped them, they will also show similar aid to strangers.
A dozen years later, DeSteno was back with more conclusions about gratitude within a company. In a report co-written with Leah Dickens, the duo was able to link self-control/patience and gratitude.
Their studies found that people who practice gratitude can delay future rewards to a higher degree than ungrateful people. While one may immediately jump to how this could help a company financially, it also shows that people who are grateful are willing to stick with a project longer and don’t have that “hurry up” “frazzled” attitude that can put a team on edge.
In doing my research for this article, it’s amazing what gratitude can be attributed to now that the experts are studying it. From causing additional optimism to reducing blood pressure, to actually making you want to exercise more, gratitude is one emotion that we should all be working hard to cultivate, both inside and outside of the office.
As a leader, you have a great opportunity to create a culture of gratitude within your organization, start with your direct team, at home or even with your close circle of friends.
Gratitude just by itself can create miracles!
Whole Leadership Systems, offers a simple three-step executive coaching process that will turn your outdated culture around. It starts with YOU! Contact me to schedule a complimentary consultation at [email protected].
