A lot of times we only think about gratitude around the holidays. Outside of Thanksgiving and other days throughout the year that push us to be thankful for something/someone specific, we don’t often focus on gratitude. Similarly times of tragedy can give us a forced perspective that makes us thankful that we aren’t experiencing hardships, disease, poverty, war, etc. For most people, gratitude is not something that comes naturally, there has to be something that instigates the feeling of gratitude for us. Gratitude is not instinctual, but there are benefits to developing an attitude of gratitude that can affect other areas of your life and your leadership practices.
A study conducted at UC Davis followed thirty participants. Initially, the researchers worked from a larger population asking people to journal a week of their daily activities. In the end, they selected ten participants that wrote about their week with an emphasis on the inconveniences, ten who wrote overall neutral/factual accounts of their week, and ten who wrote about their week with an emphasis on gratitude. They followed these thirty participants for ten weeks observing their daily routines. The researchers reported that the ten who wrote with gratitude exercised more, visited doctors/physicians less, and generally presented as more positive on average than the other two test groups.
A study this small cannot certainly attribute a cause and effect of acting with gratitude, but I don’t believe that the results were completely random. There is a lot to be said about the way we talk to ourselves. I have said it before, our brains are easy to trick into feeling the way we want them to feel, it just takes a little practice. This is the same reason that when we force ourselves to smile for extended periods of time, we actually begin to feel happier. Similarly, if we practice talking about the things around us through the lens of gratitude or at least not through a lens of defeat, we can start to reshape how we view the world around us.
Relating this to leadership, this is one of those lessons that reinforces the idea that people like to work for happy, confident, and positive people. As a leader, you have a ton of influence on how those around you handle adversity. If a problem arises and you start in with a negative defeated attitude, those around you will follow your lead and take on the same demeanor. If you approach the situation with positivity and a “can do” attitude (even if you aren’t sure you can fix it) it will give those around you more hope for fixing the situation and moving on. Going into April there are not a lot of planned gratitude events on the horizon. It is now your responsibility to make sure you are practicing gratitude. Like many other things we discuss, it is an active practice. Make a plan, change your attitude, and incorporate gratitude into the way you think about the day ahead of you.
- Bria