Whenever I return home after visiting a country where the standard of living and abundance is different from what I’m used to in Canada, my feelings are divided when I enter the grocery store. At first I want to gag when I see how much food is available and a few minutes later, I feel a sense of gratitude when I think of how privileged I am to have access to all those different food choices.
My mother always said: “Happiness is made of small things”. When I was a child I did not understand the full scope of that saying. Today, I assure you, I pay attention to all the good things that are going on in my life every day, which has the effect of generating even more positive things in the different areas of my life.
In recent years, at night before falling asleep, I introduced a ritual: I think about my day and I take the time to recognize at least five things I am grateful for, both at work and in the rest of my life. One thing could just be that I mingled with great people or that I received a thank you due to an exchange with a participant in a training session.
At work, recognition is too often still dictated by the department of human resources, a process, a standard procedure or the responsibility for the manager instead of it being a shared task among all the team members. In cases of “programmed” gratification, recognition necessarily derives from the head …
Being grateful to a boss, a colleague or an employee can be an action of gratitude if it comes from the heart.
An authentic leader naturally says thank you to his professional entourage and staff on a daily basis. He knows how to cultivate an attitude of gratitude around him. He starts to spin the wheel of “giving-receiving.”
By Geneviève Desautels, contributor professional and personal leadership
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