For this third article in our four-part series on gratitude, we’ll look at tried-and-true ways of expressing gratitude at work.
In the previous article in this series we highlighted some of the health and organizational benefits of being a more grateful person. So by this point you should be more than confident that practicing gratitude is a winning strategy (on top of being the right thing to do).
That’s all good and well. But you may still be wondering how to best go about showing gratitude in the workplace. That’s the topic of this article.
Below you’ll find four gratitude in the workplace examples. The first two are specific, while the last two are more general in nature. All of them will help you create a culture of gratitude in yourself and your team members.
Write a Thank-You Note
Some call thank-you notes old-fashioned; I call them a timeless way to show genuine appreciation. An email is nice, sure, but how much time and effort does it really take? Physically picking out a card and writing a brief message by hand is a deliberate signal that you care. That your gratitude is deep enough that you’re motivated to take a few minutes out of your day to share it.
Despite their reputation, though, thank-you notes aren’t always as simple as they sound, especially in a work environment. There’s an art to the truly meaningful, gratitude-conveying office thank-you note. Luckily, there’s no better authority than Christopher Littlefield, CEO of the Beyond Thank You workplace consultancy (and who was mentioned in the first article in this series). Littlefield feels so strongly about the power of thank-you notes he devoted an entire Harvard Business Review article to the topic in 2001.Interestingly, this was one of HBR’s top 3-read articles of 2023! A good sign that many are still looking for guidance to do this well.
When it comes to writing a good thank-you note, Littlefield offers four recommendations:
- Keep it genuine.
- Set the context.
- Share what you appreciate and why.
- Close the message.
In his article he also provides several examples of thank-you notes that work. Here’s an example of a note someone might send to a coworker who advocated for them to get a raise or promotion.
Hi Kira,
I heard from Aya that you put my name forward for a promotion and I wanted to say thank you. Regardless of whether I get it or not, I am honored you thought of me for the position, and I can’t thank you enough for all of the time you’ve invested to help me grow over these last few years. I feel extremely lucky to be able to learn from you as a leader and appreciate all that you have done for me.
Thank you.
As you can see, a good thank-you note doesn’t have to be long or overly sentimental. It just has to clearly show your gratitude.
Make a Gratitude Chart
Chances are you’ve heard of gratitude journals. The idea behind them is that regularly writing down things you are grateful for will help you a) more fully appreciate your blessings once you see them spelled out in front of you and b) internalize the process of feeling grateful until it becomes second nature. It’s an excellent exercise for cultivating a sense of gratitude in yourself. If you keep this kind of journal, you have my full support.
On the other hand, if you’re looking to increase the gratitude you show to others, a gratitude chart might be a better alternative or complement. In a gratitude chart, you record the times you expressed gratitude to others. Creating a physical (or virtual) record is a tried-and-true way of making abstract efforts more concrete. Instead of just thinking to yourself “I should express gratitude more often to my team members,” you have a record holding you accountable. You’ll be able to tell at a glance if you’ve been walking the gratitude walk—or have more work to do.
Whether your chart should be daily, weekly, or at some other time interval is up to you. The important thing is that now you can track your progress—and get back on track if you find your expressions of gratitude to be stingier than you’d like.
Quotation Call Out "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."
– Willie Nelson
Expand Your Scope of “Things to Be Grateful For”
A surprise effort; stepping in to rescue a failing project; a considerate gesture toward a struggling coworker; having a team member’s back: these are all things to very much be grateful for. They are also easily recognizable as such. (This isn’t meant to take away from their value or impact, I promise. It’s just to point out that it’s easier to feel grateful about certain things than others.)
I want to suggest that there are less obvious things that we ought to feel just as grateful for. Take courage, for example. I think we’d all agree that being brave in the face of uncertainty or when repercussions are likely is a very admirable trait, and one we wish was more common among our coworkers, employees, and ourselves.
Do you honor courage when you see it? If the answer’s “no,” or “not as often as I should,” I promise you’re not alone. When it comes to gratitude, it’s all too easy to overlook patterns of behavior in favor of singular, wave-making acts. But this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to recognize the former.
Any time someone you lead brings their voice to the table, especially if they’re offering feedback about you, no matter how defensive you feel inside, celebrate their effort with gratitude and praise. When people offer unconventional ideas, challenge the views of colleagues during discussions, or raise concerns about actions that contradict your values, acknowledge their courage and hold them up as an example. Make it clear that things to be grateful for can come from unexpected places.
Whose courage have you admired but failed to acknowledge? Whose personal or professional resilience in the face of a long-term challenge do you respect? Whose calm demeanor helps make every crisis just a little easier to get through? Seems to me all of these people deserve your gratitude.
Call-out/Tip
There are plenty of ways to show gratitude at work. If you find the advice in this article doesn't work for you as well as you’d like, it’s more than okay to find other approaches that feel more natural. Just keep in mind that practicing gratitude implies action—that is, more than just thinking to yourself that you feel grateful for someone or something.
Make Gratitude Routine
I will be the first to admit that I’ve struggled with gratitude over the years: to understand why an occasional compliment for a job well done isn’t really enough, and why recognition programs aren’t enough to indicate your gratitude. I think this is because, like so many other people, I considered “being grateful” an active process—something that requires effort and exertion, like studying or going on a jog. In other words, it wasn’t my default state. It was something “to do.”
Over the years, however, my perspective has started to change. I’ve discovered that it’s just as easy to make being grateful your default state. You just have to open your eyes a little and pay attention. Because if you look—not even all that hard—you’ll find endless things to be grateful about, from small to big.
Annie Dillard expresses this better than most in her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Creek. She writes, “I’ve been thinking about seeing. There are lots of things to see, unwrapped gifts and free surprises.” She’s talking about gifts in nature, but there are free gifts in our offices and homes as well. In the section, Dillard goes on to tell the story of how, as a young girl, she would “hide” pennies along the sidewalks near her home, and would delight in the thought of the “first lucky passer-by who would receive . . . regardless of merit, a free gift from the universe.” Later she adds, “The world is fairly studded and strewn with pennies cast broadside from a generous hand. But – and this is the point – Who gets excited by a mere penny?” Well, what if you did?
Maybe we don’t see because we aren’t looking. Or maybe we’re so committed to our own agenda that we ignore the free gifts and the positive impact right in front of us. What if you committed to seeing them and being grateful?
I think being grateful should be so routine that it’s like breathing – it keeps us going, and you most notice it when it’s not happening. Not in the sense that we no longer appreciate someone’s good deed or accomplishment, or some amazing milestone that’s been reached, but in the sense that it becomes completely routine. You are never not moved by the remarkable. What’s unremarkable is how easily you can express your appreciation for all that’s good.
When you can do this—when you can make gratitude “breathing”—you will inevitably help to create an environment that does the same. And that’s something to be grateful about.