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.