How Gratitude Can Radically Change a Company's Culture

Gratitude holds new significance after the disruption of the pandemic this year, both personally and professionally. We find ourselves experiencing a deeper appreciation for simple things, such as paper goods, and reflecting on what a true privilege it is to safely see our family, friends and colleagues during “normal” times. In the spring of this year, most knowledge workers made the transition from their connected, in-person teams to the confinement of their makeshift home workspaces. Without team lunches to celebrate significant milestones or the opportunity to stop by a colleague’s desk to say “Thank you” for a job well done, we quickly discovered that fostering a culture of gratitude and team recognition could not be simply replaced by an occasional virtual happy hour.

Gratitude buoys the morale of employees and is essential to a balanced, fulfilled work life.

A recent qualitative survey of team members at EQ Office distilled a simple truth, backed by scholarly research: Gratitude buoys the morale of employees and is essential to a balanced, fulfilled work life. During this season of “phygital” - physical and digital - work environments and the nearing holiday season, it is imperative that we explore our understanding of gratitude at work, grasp why it is such a vital part of professional feedback, and learn how to encourage it in any organization, at any level. 

What is gratitude in the workplace?

According to a study by the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, gratitude can be defined as a two-step process. The first step is to notice that you are benefiting from a positive outcome. The next is to recognize that there is an external source of this positive outcome. Gratitude includes both steps, not just one. 

We turned to a group of EQ Office team members to deepen our understanding of the role of gratitude in their work lives. They shared their personal definitions of gratitude: 

“Gratitude is when someone looks outside themselves to honor what they have.”

“I go back to gratitude being a practice. It isn’t something that comes naturally or easily, at least for me. I have to be intentional about looking for the good things, and then also honoring where they came from.”

“I used to think that thankfulness and gratitude were the same. But over the years, I’ve learned that thankfulness is just the foundation — it’s usually just words — and gratitude is the actionable follow-through.”

Brené Brown, a clinical social worker and respected research professor, has found that the practice of gratitude cultivates joy in both personal and professional contexts. She explains, “For me, it was very counterintuitive, because I went into the research thinking that the relationship between joy and gratitude was: If you are joyful, you should be grateful. But it wasn’t that way at all. Instead, practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives.” By honoring both the benefit of a positive outcome and the source of that outcome, we can actualize Brown’s discovery that “It’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes us joyful.” At work, this helps people infuse joy into their everyday tasks and challenges. 

The importance of gratitude infused feedback

In the professional world, it’s easy to assume there is a strong correlation between “constructive feedback” (as opposed to gratitude) and a positive outcome. Leaders often think the more they point out the “missed-the-mark-moments”, the more team members can grow and evolve.

Although constructive feedback is a key part of professional development, an expression of gratitude has even more power to transform performance for the better.

But as the leadership and executive coach Chris Rollins points out, “When you build a culture that’s focused on growth and development, inexperienced managers and leaders focus on things that need improvement — rather than on what’s working.” Although constructive feedback is a key part of professional development, an expression of gratitude has even more power to transform performance for the better. 

When we asked EQ Office team members about their favorite way to infuse gratitude into their feedback, this is how they responded: 

“To tell them how they may have helped or positively affected something or someone. It is so important to acknowledge those moments when someone does or says something that positively impacts you in some way.”

“In a group meeting, where I can publicly acknowledge an individual or team effort.”

"Verbally and in that moment — I believe strongly in speaking words of affirmation to co-workers at every (genuine) opportunity possible.” 

Incorporating gratitude in these or other ways can turbo-charge a purpose-driven work culture. Rollins suggests that managers and leaders balance every critique they hand out to members of their team with five instances of positive feedback. One study reported in the Harvard Business Review revealed that the most successful teams benefit from that exact ratio, 5:1, of praise to criticism. 

One study reported in the Harvard Business Review revealed that the most successful teams benefit from that exact ratio, 5:1, of praise to criticism. 

Gratitude as a cultural catalyst

Professionals perform better when they feel appreciated at work. When teams feel that others understand what they have to contribute, it has been shown to reduce stress, help drive higher job satisfaction, and increase confidence in their ability to reach their goals.

When teams feel that others understand what they have to contribute, it has been shown to reduce stress, help drive higher job satisfaction, and increase confidence in their ability to reach their goals.

These benefits are just the beginning, as gratitude can become what some have compared to a “gateway” that leads into other aspects of a positive work culture, a culture that prioritizes empathy. Unlike other investments in a high-achieving work environment, regularly expressing gratitude costs a company nothing — and delivers proven results. 

EQ Office team members opened up about what makes them feel most valued at work: 

“I feel most appreciated when I can be generous with knowledge. I feel like I have become a resource of sorts for a lot of different things, and I feel most appreciated when people look to me for guidance or perspective. I enjoy learning new things, and I love to give others the same opportunities that I am given.”

“I appreciate a personal gesture of thanks (email, verbal, in a meeting) and getting credit where credit is due.”

If gratitude is to become the catalyst for a transformative work culture, it needs to be frequently expressed and highly specific. When people express their gratitude, Rollins suggests that they pinpoint what someone has contributed and the impact it has had, an idea that he has borrowed from Simon Sinek’s approach to purpose. Rather than simply saying, “Great job on that project,” Rollins recommends that you get specific, and show that you have paid attention to the participation of each individual: “I’m so grateful for how you showed up for this work. Your ability to stay focused through a lot of uncertainty and distraction helped other team members stay calm.”

Practicing gratitude acknowledges each person’s humanity and the particular effort they have made, as well as a team’s interdependence in fulfilling a purpose-driven mission together.

Practicing gratitude acknowledges each person’s humanity and the particular effort they have made, as well as a team’s interdependence in fulfilling a purpose-driven mission together.

As we near the end of this unprecedented year, we asked EQ Office team members to share their closing thoughts on the role of gratitude in their lives during 2020:

“What is that adage from the 1980s song ... ‘You don't know what you have until it's gone’? This year has been a harsh reminder for me that gratitude exists in both times of abundance and scarcity. It [gratitude] is not dependent on circumstance, it’s dependent on attitude and response. That’s been a real lesson for me this year.”

“Practicing gratitude has been one of the most practical and important ways to stay grounded through this wild year. Shout-out to my Five-Minute Journal. (If you know, you know.)”

“I guess I learned what gratitude is not this year … it’s not ‘toxic positivity,’ or saying ‘Everything is fine.’ It’s the ability to live and work from a place of being appreciative of the things and people around you.”

“Gratitude is grounding."