Thursday’s Leadership Insight (Early Edition)What If Gratitude Became a Daily Practice in Your Leadership and as People?
Two Thanksgiving Lessons
“We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”
John F.Kennedy
Happy Thanksgiving. It is early. You didn’t lose any time. It isn’t Thursday. In the spirit of gratitude, I wanted to say Thanks to all of you who are faithful subscribers and followers and Giving you all some extra time to relax and connect with those you love on Thursday.
This Thursday’s leadership insight asks an intriguing question. What if gratitude was a daily habit for us as leaders and all people? A history of Thanksgiving in the United States will be described to give us perspective and gratitude lessons ,one specifically for Thanksgiving and one for life, and a bonus leadership example.
Gratitude, at its core, is the practice of recognizing and appreciating the good things in life, both big and small. It’s about acknowledging the value of what we have for others and the contributions of others to our well-being. As we approach Thanksgiving, a holiday centered around gratitude, it’s worth exploring how this powerful concept can transform our personal lives and professional leadership.
This is especially important today as we are experiencing a gratitude gap. Leadership expert John Maxwell refers to gratitude as leadership’s most important and least expressed virtue. Gratitude and expressing gratitude are the missing pieces of many leaders’ practices. According to a January 17, 2024, Center for Creative Leadership blog, How to Show More Gratitude at Work: Giving Thanks Makes You a Better Leader, the authors write, “One study found that while about half of people regularly say thank you to their family members, only about 15% of people regularly say thank you at work. The same study found that 35% of people say their managers never thanked them. Compared to other contexts, this muted expression of gratitude in the workplace can be considered the “gratitude gap.”
a Glassdoor survey found that 80% of employees would be willing to work harder for an appreciative boss. In a study conducted at a fundraising center, calls were boosted by 50% after a director thanked employees for their work. Research has even found that employees who intentionally practiced gratitude took fewer sick days. According to researchers, gratitude is powerful because it’s a complex social emotion. In other words, it’s an emotion that makes us think about others. We can’t be grateful that someone went out of their way to help us unless we stop and think about the situation from the other person’s perspective. It’s little wonder that gratitude is also linked to oxytocin — the hormone associated with social bonding.
How can we, as people and in our leadership, close the gratitude gap.?First, some History for perspective
The story of Thanksgiving clearly shows how leaders acted in gratitude in a National Constitution Center blog entitled Who Started Thanksgiving and other holiday trivia! November 23, 2016, The real story has followed this timeline.
The national holiday did not begin with the Pilgrims. There was no nation then, as the pilgrims were English citizens of an English possession.
. In 1777, the Continental Congress declared the first national day of Thanksgiving following the American victory at Saratoga. The Battle of Saratoga was a great victory. The Revolutionary War was still in progress, and the outcome was still uncertain.
George Washington became the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday when, in 1789, he set aside November 26, a Tuesday, as a day of Thanksgiving for the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. It was a great event, as we now had a stable government. Our future was uncertain as many foreign parties, especially France and England, waited for our downfall. It should also be noted that Washington had to lead forces to put down domestic threats of rebellion during his presidency. This was not a national reoccurring day of Thanksgiving; Jefferson didn’t want to observe the day as he felt it might create a national religion.
Thanksgiving became a national holiday celebrated on the last Thursday of November in 1863 due to the persistence of Sarah Sarah Josepha Hale’s campaign for a Thanksgiving holiday and President Abraham Lincoln’s attitude of gratitude. Abraham Lincoln created a national day of Thanksgiving by executive order, then called Presidential Proclamation #106, on October 3, 1863. This may seem a bit ironic. He was leading a split country during a protracted civil war, threatened by foreign powers, and painfully planning a speech for November 19, 1863. The speech, the Gettysburg Address, was to commemorate the Federal cemetery for those Union troops killed in this three-day battle. The battle had left 51,112 casualties on both sides combined ( 38% of the Confederate forces and 25% of Union forces were casualties). He had many things on his mind. The Civil War was still raging, and 504 Union and Confederate soldiers were dying on average every day. There was still some concern over foreign intervention, and the outcome was doubtful. He also saw a need for a time of Thanksgiving to express thankfulness for many other things, focus Americans on gratitude, and cast a vision of a better future. The full text of Presidential Proclamation #.106 is below. It is well worth reading for an example of a leader modeling gratitude, sharing the realities of the challenge and the blessings for the future to those he led and served.
The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth. Abraham Lincoln By the President: William H. Seward. Secretary of State
The final president to be part of the evolving Thanksgiving story was penned by Franklin D. Roosevelt, who firmly believed in gratitude and Thanksgiving but, in 1939, thought the last Thursday was too close to Christmas. He proclaimed Thanksgiving on the third Thursday in November instead. to spark a sagging economy. This was a very unpopular move. Many states and communities would not recognize the change for the next two years. On November 26, 1941, he acknowledged defeat, agreeing to a joint resolution of Congress that specified the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
Interestingly, people stuck to believing in a “traditional” Thanksgiving during a worldwide economic, political, and military crisis. Twelve days later, on December 7, 1941, The U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor and other bases in the Pacific were attacked by Japan. His subsequent Joint Resolution of Congress would be to declare war on Japan on December 8, 1941, and Germany and Italy on December 11, 1941,.World War II had come to the United States. Thanksgiving was celebrated throughout these trying times, which would happen on December 8, 1941, until victory in 1945. This traditional Thanksgiving has remained in place even in 1963 when John F Kennedy was assassinated the week before. In my opinion, he would have favored that, as gratitude was essential to him. He often said, “We must find time to stop and thank the people who make a difference in our lives.”
Kennedy’s thoughts give guidance to closing the gratitude gap. First, stop and think, then express and act in gratitude. Lesson one on recognizing gratitude and expressing gratitude on Thanksgiving comes from Mrs.Laura Maxwell, the mother of leadership expert John Maxwell. She used a thinkfulness to thankfulness Thanksgiving day pre-dinner activity. This is an activity any family can follow
1. Have all your guests bring a list of all they are thankful for to dinner and ask all to share their list.
2. The next question is how can you express gratitude to those who aren’t present. Remember that gratitude is a gift few hear frequently because it doesn’t get spoken.
Lesson two, a guide for practicing gratitude in life, comes from my esteemed colleague in Maxwell Leadership, Denise Miller. Denise is the principal consultant of DLM Strategies http://www.dlmstrategiesltd.com/ She shared a card she uses to encourage a daily habit of gratitude using the GRATITUDE acronym below.
G. Generous Giving: Share resources, time, and knowledge freely with your team.
R. Realistic Yet optimism: Maintain a positive outlook while acknowledging challenges.
A. Adaptative Learning: Be genuine in gratitude and adapt your approach to each individual. Strive to be a learner and teacher
T.Tenacity: Persist in showing appreciation, even when faced with difficulties.
E. Ethical Eager and Engagement: Interact with your team in a moral and principled manner.
F. Faith and Focus: Believe in your team’s potential and focus on shared goals.
U. Uplifting Others: Use your position to elevate and support your team members.
L. Leadership-driven: Continuously develop yourself and others as a leader, recognizing that personal growth benefits the entire team.
By embracing these principles, leaders can create a culture of gratitude that permeates their organization, leading to happier, more productive teams and a more fulfilling leadership experience.
Practicing gratitude daily will take time. Can you do it .? Consider this example of a practice by Doug Conant, who is credited with turning around Cambell Soup. During his tenure at Campbell Soup, Doug Conant wrote his employees an impressive 30,000 handwritten thank-you notes.
This practice and other initiatives have been credited with creating a culture of gratitude and turning around a struggling company. Conant’s approach shows how a simple act of personal appreciation can profoundly affect organizational culture.
The daily habit of small acts of gratitude will close the gratitude gap.
Today’s leadership questions for you are:
1. What would living, working, and leading in a grateful world be like? Will you choose to think, act, and interact in gratitude?
2. What small steps can you choose to start today?
Happy Thanksgiving All