GRATEFUL LEADERSHIP: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

READING FORM

GRATEFUL LEADERSHIP

JUDITH W. UMLAS

MC GRAW HILL

(239 PAGES)

Part 1: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

People are not being acknowledge when they deserved to be.  The ability to deliver true, heartfelt, profound, and genius acknowledgement is a critical competency.  This soft skill is the hardest both to teach and to learn.  Acknowledgement is a skill we all have-although it is in need of development.  The power of acknowledgement can change the level of employee engagement.

Grateful leader can make huge changes in the very way people do their work and how they feel about what they are doing.  By definition, Grateful Leader are those who see, recognize, and express appreciation and gratitude for their employees and other stakeholder’ contribution and for their passionate engagement.

Expressing gratitude is typically taking action acknowledge, support and engage the people profoundly.  Personal leadership interaction has been identified as being critical to motivating employees in a research done by Mc Kinsey  and company.

By creating a culture of appreciation

·         Employees and stakeholder feel valued and appreciated.

·         They are motivated to strive for continuous improvement and always greater results.

·         Promotes a positive environment.

Gratitude in one of the deepest form of affirmative self-expression.  The ability to acknowledge other is a critical skill that is not often considered in the usual list of outstanding leader characteristic.  Acknowledging someone could change his or her attitude.  Grateful leadership can have a huge difference to productivity and to the success.  There need to be a balance between acknowledging effort and good result and holding people accountable for their performance.

You simply cannot be an effective leader without the ability to deliver profound, generous, heartfelt, and authentic acknowledgement to those who deserve them.  You also need to be Grateful Leader and show gratitude toward your people for their contributions.

Acknowledgement is the heartfelt and authentic communication that lets people know their value to their organization/team, and the important of the contribution they make.  The underpinnings and foundation for acknowledgement is as in the 5Cs.

THE 5CS
1.  Consciousness	·         Start becoming conscious of the over whelming and overflowing feeling of gratitude.
2.  Chose	·         Choose to deliver the acknowledgments to the people you work with.
3.    Courage	·         It takes courage to give someone a heartfelt, generous, and grateful acknowledgement ·         It takes real, gut-gripping nerve and confidence to tell people how much they mean. ·         Giving and receiving acknowledgement is a feel-good loop through which we can build a general approach to dealing with other.
4.    Communication	·         Choosing how to get it across to someone ·         Tailor your acknowledgement to the individual ·         Discover the best means of communication the grateful acknowledgement.
5.    Commitment	·         Make the change.

HAVE THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE

Everyone has their own hourglass which holds the sands of time.  When all but the last previous grains have fallen to the bottom, death will seek its owner.  Time is a valuable, but finite resources.  In life, we use time to make money, fulfill our ambition and do the fun things we enjoy doing.  But, beware of the thieves of time that threaten to steal away our precious time.

Some of the most common thieves of time:

1.      Those who do not cherish the value of time

·         They are constantly late for appointments due to reasons such as

-       Traffic jams

-       Rushing for some last minute chore

-       Losing track of time

·         Some make it fashionably late

·         Punctually is a serious issue every minute we are made to wait is a minute of our life time lost.

·         Overcoming by

-       Spacing your appointments a part

-       Don’t make appointment it difficult hour and location

-       Starts your function on time regardless

-       Meet your friend halfway

2.      Those who think they know best how to manage other people’s time

·         They devise systems such as time table, work schedules and KPIs.

3.      Ourselves

·         In life, we strive.  We are all driven to climb to the next level.  The road well- trodden is long, winding and filled with plateaus.

·         But there’s also the road less traveled.  It may be more steep and treacherous, but it will take you faster to the peak, and it has fewer plateaus.

·         Whichever road we take, we must never linger too long.  Patience is virtue, but procrastination is thief of time.

·         We think too much, and by the time we act, there’s not much time left.  Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.

Be a master of your own time and space.  Do not let the precious grains in your hour glass just skip way.

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By Raphael Kok Chi Ren

The Star,

Thursday, 31 March 2011