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Living In Gratitude: Grateful Leaders

Gratitude is not a limited resource, nor is it costly. It is as abundant as air. We breathe it in but forget to exhale.

– Marshall Goldsmith

Being appreciated is correlated with increased performance and engagement at work. Yet, 59% of employees state they’ve never had a manager who “truly appreciated” them, and 53% said they would stay longer at their place of employment if they felt their work was more appreciated.

So, if people like and want to be appreciated, why aren’t more managers expressing gratitude for their employees?

A 2018 study might explain part of the issue. Researchers ask people to write letters of appreciation and then predict how that letter would be received. The researchers then asked the recipients how they felt after reading the letter.

The letter writers dramatically underestimated the positive impact their letter would have and also believed that the recipients would feel awkward about receiving such a letter.

A recent HBR article discusses the outcomes of research conducted around power positions and the expression of gratitude.

They wanted to answer the questions:

Does having power (e.g., being a manager or executive) influence feelings and expressions of gratitude? If so, why?

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