Just A Touch Of Gratitude. . .Goes A Long Way
Ever wonder why some leaders seem to inspire uncanny loyalty? Their employees will seemingly do anything for them?
A big part of it is gratitude. Grateful for sacrifice. Grateful for service. Grateful for support.
Just as gratitude will inspire loyalty, a lack of gratitude will destroy trust and lead to dissatisfied or worse, disallusioned employees.
But, it has to be sincere. I once worked for a team of travelling IT experts. We were the best of the best at WordPerfect corporation. And we were often required to leave on a moments notice to get on a plane and fly out to a customer site to attempt to fix a problem.
I was young and it was an excited time. I flew to some interesting places, like Chicago and Dallas. I flew to some less interesting places like Fargo or Cleveland. And then came the day that a client in Hawaii needed some help. We had a team of about a dozen engineers. We were each wondering who would get tapped to fly across the ocean and work in Hawaii for a week.
It was then announced that the two managers, who had never flown to Chicago, or Dallas or Fargo or literally anywhere, would be headed out on their first field assignment. Oh, and it was those same managers who made the assignments.
Suddenly our willingness to drop everything and hop a plane at a moments notice was went from a source of pride, to a source of resentment. They weren’t grateful for our willingness to put our personal lives on hold. Not really.
It wasn’t about a free trip to Hawaii. It was about managers who took for granted the sacrifices of their employees.
Your employees make you look good. Be properly grateful.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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