It is Thanksgiving day tomorrow!
I love this day as people express their gratitude for everything that they have in life. Such a wonderful thing to do.
While we gladly express our gratitude to our near and dear ones, this year why don’t we also extend this tradition to our workplace too and advance in our career by giving thanks?
Today, I want to talk about giving thanks to the people you work with.
What? Why?
No one ever thanked me for the job I am doing.
Also why should I thank someone for doing the work they are being paid for?
How on earth will I advance in my career by giving thanks?
If these are questions have crossed your mind, then let me take this opportunity to first a big thank you for having these questions. These questions intrigued you check out this episode and I am sure you will listen till the end to get your answers.
So let’s get started.
Gratitude at work is unheard of.
And yet we find a lot of our colleagues and sometimes even ourselves saying – It is a thankless job.
We are craving for gratitude at work.
I am sure you will go that extra mile to help the person who thanks you in return for the help you offer.
That brings me to the gratitude paradox – You crave for it the most, but you get it the least!
Why does that happen? Why is gratitude the most unheard of at the workplace?
The answer lies in your questions you had.
We have been grown up with the thought that we don’t have to thank people who get paid to do their job. Also at times, even when you want to, you are often confused about the right way of doing it, aren’t you?
Will a thank you over email work? Or should you personally say thank you to the person? Should you make a call? – Questions galore. And when these questions dominate your mind, you end up not saying the simple thank you!
So how do you go about expressing gratitude at work?
Do it the Nike way. Like Nike says Just Do It, you must just say it.
The medium you choose is immaterial. You could do it over email, phone or in person. Doesn’t matter. Just say thank you! It is imperative you say it.
And make it a regular affair. It is a good practice to express gratitude for every help you get – big or small.
Now I am sure you are thinking how does it help you advance my career?
Let me tell you a few ways how it can help –
#1: It helps you get a dream job
Oh yeah! You heard it right.
In the book, ‘The secret’, author Rhonda Byrne says that to manifest your dreams, you must ask, believe, and then receive.
You ask specifically what you want out of life. Use a present tense structure and write down what you want from a perspective of gratitude: “I’m grateful to have [INSERT DESIRE].”
To fastest way, thus, to manifest your dream job is to ask specifically for it from the perspective of gratitude and assure yourself – “I’m grateful to have my dream job.”
So be grateful and land your job sooner than you think.
#2: It helps you be productive work
Saying thank you regularly makes you significantly happy. Research shows that happier people are more engaged, highly productive, and resilient.
I don’t really need to talk about the benefits of being productive at work, do I?
So be grateful, be happy and thus be more productive.
#3: It helps you get your due recognition
Saying thank you makes you have a larger influence on people. When that happens, people don’t dare to take credit for the work you do. Instead, they give you the credit. They recognise you in front of people and you get your due recognition.
So keep being grateful and experience the magic of getting recognised.
#4: It makes you more trustworthy
When you genuinely say thank you to people at work (especially when they least expect it) people change their perceptions about you. You are looked at as a nicer, kinder person and it is easy to trust such a person.
Once you are trusted, people will go extra mile to do things for you when you want them to do.
So be grateful, build trust and get your work done.
#5: It helps you get a promotion
Last but not least, when you get into the habit of saying thank you, you don’t treat a demanding situation as a problem but you treat it as an opportunity. Let’s say you have a tough client or you are working a tough project or things just don’t seem right despite whatever you do; you don’t curse your client, yourself or others around you. Instead, you thank your client for the challenges, thank your manager for assigning the project to you, and even thank the circumstances.
When you say thanks to everyone, you get the confidence to look at things differently. Then you approach problems differently and come up with solutions despite all the difficulties you face.
This problem solving approach gets you noticed and get promoted.
So be grateful for all the adversities you face at work and to those who put you in these adverse situations.
Being grateful has a ton of benefits. It creates a positive atmosphere around you, makes you a confident person, and gives you all that you desire.
Would you want to miss out on these by not being grateful?
All you have to do is say thank you to everyone around at work as often as you can!
And here are 3 ways to help you keep doing this often –
First, begin with saying thank you to yourself.
Be grateful that you are in the job you do. Many have lost theirs during the pandemic and are struggling to get one.
Be grateful that you have problems at work. If you didn’t have them, you wouldn’t help your organisation solve customer’s problems. And if that wasn’t done you wouldn’t get paid.
Be grateful for the challenges you face at work. These challenges give you an opportunity to seek help from others and be grateful to them for offering help.
These are just a few things to begin with. But I am sure you have a lot more reasons to say thank you to yourself for the things you are blessed with at work.
You don’t have to say thank you for everything in one day. Keep discovering one thing that relates to the work you do every day and be thankful for that one thing on that day.
If you can, maintain a gratitude journal.
Every day write thank you for one thing.
You can also maintain an e-journal, if writing is no more your thing!
Doing so makes you feel good. It turns anxiety and stress into fulfilment and joy. These are good feelings to begin your day with and to end one!
Second, find a reason to say thank you to your colleagues at work.
When you work together and spend over 1/3rd of the day at the office, there are bound to be thousands of small things you will keep doing for each other. That way you should have no dearth of reasons to be grateful to your colleagues.
Give up the mindset that you don’t have to say thank you to people for doing the work they get paid for. Remember the gratitude paradox we talked about? Everyone is carving for gratitude at the workplace – even you! So be on the lookout for reasons to say thank you to all your colleagues. And once you find it – just say it!
To level up this game, think of the wonderful memories you have had at work with your colleagues. On thanksgiving day it would be a good idea to rekindle these good old happy memories with those colleagues and say a special thank you to them.
It will not just make their day, you will have a great one too!
Lastly, say thank you to all those who were responsible for setbacks in your career.
I am sure; you don’t want to really remember these on a good day. But trust me, it is a good thing to do.
When you avoid the setbacks, you are still carrying their burden. Remembering them and reflecting on those setbacks will help you uncover the lessons you learned from them. Once you embrace these lessons and be grateful to them, it will set you free. You will never look at these setbacks as setbacks ever again. That is the power of gratitude.
If you have been thinking that these setbacks have been because of people around you, thanksgiving is a great time to say thank you to all those people and move on. It could be your manager, your colleagues, your subordinates or just about anyone at work. Thank them for making your life miserable and let go!
In summary,
Gratitude is most desired at work but you get the least.
Gratitude has a huge positive impact on your career.
So be grateful to your work, your colleagues and those you think have been responsible for setbacks.
Happy Thanksgiving!