Leading With Gratitude

Leading With Gratitude

The hallmark of leaders with character is that they are generous with their gratitude. Make it your calling as a leader to go out of your way to express your gratitude towards those you lead and do it publicly. It has been proven that leaders who find ways to publicly praise their employees have a very low turn-over rate in their departments. Lead from a heart of thanksgiving and you will reap the rewards of a team who will achieve greatness.

One cautionary note, though. It must be genuine. Insincere gratitude for your own gain will only produce resentment. People can spot insincerity a mile away. I once worked for a pastor like that. When he was unhappy with your job performance, or was about to dump a huge project on you, he would spend 15 minutes telling the congregation how wonderful you were from the pulpit. When he was nice you knew you were either in trouble or he wanted something. Not only did his staff resent this, the congregation picked up on his lack of sincerity and he quickly lost their respect.

The bottom line is this - if you lack character, then your display of gratitude will lack sincerity and will actually pull people down. If you are a leader of character, however, gratitude will be a natural outflow of how you treat people and you will gain the respect and admiration of those you are called to lead. The most effective way you can get people to follow is to let them know they are truly appreciated.