
Practicing gratitude can bring a myriad of benefits to leaders.
Connectivity
By expressing gratitude regularly, a leader builds deeper levels of connectivity with their staff. They make their colleagues feel valued and that is a very powerful way to create a highly motivated team.
Balances emotions
As leaders we will face challenges, situations and people that can trigger our anger. Very few good decisions can ever be made in this emotional state.
It is impossible to feel gratitude and anger simultaneously so practicing it regularly helps restore the emotional balance in a leader, thereby increasing the probability of making rational and considered decisions.
Empowers mindset / Presence
It is easy to let our mind take us to the past to regret actions, conversations or missed opportunities; alternatively, to drift into worrying about the future and the potential stresses or challenges we may face. Both will disempower our mindset and erode our confidence and ability to act decisively.
By practicing gratitude, it brings us back to the present. In doing so we empower our mindset and it becomes much easier to lead from a position of confidence and decisiveness.
The Gratitude Three
Find a way to reflect every day on three things you are grateful for from the previous day. I like to sit and reflect on this over a coffee and record in my journal every morning.
It doesn’t need to be a lengthy process. You can do it while taking a shower, brushing your teeth or on your daily commute. The focus should be on consistency as opposed to duration.
Clients frequently express that it is hard to find things to be grateful for when their mind is consumed with leading themselves, their family or staff through periods of adversity.
The solution is to start small, look for little things at work or in our personal lives like a smile from a stranger, the sound of a child's laughter or the warmth of a summer day.
What three things are you grateful for?
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