Gratitude: an essential Leadership skill for Library Leaders
After the two years of trying to beat Covid my library managers and teams were telling me they were exhausted. Constant anxiety can do that to you. I was searching for ways to build team resilience to address these increased anxiety levels when I stumbled on an article regarding the importance of visible gratitude to a team’s culture. Research has shown the outcomes of visibly bringing gratitude into management practice are team resilience, increased staff happiness. Teams become more positive, more resilient and they blossom. Showing gratitude in the workplace is also particularly important during times of change, precisely because change can’t be done alone. And everyone in library land today knows that change is now a constant.
The key to successfully implementing gratitude into your management practice were threefold.
1. Do it Often: this needs to be a regular component of your interactions with your team members, both individually and at the team level
2. Be Sincere: it must come from your heart and what you are saying thank you for has to mean something to you personally
3. Be specific: yes, it must be for something specific. A general thank you for all the work that a staff member is doing does not cut it.
I shared this revelation with my broader senior leadership team of 16 managers throughout the organization and let them know that I was going to practice it. It was a bit nerve wracking as the CEO to start practicing something in front of managers who look to you for leadership but nothing ventured, nothing gained is my motto.
In this regular monthly meeting a section of the agenda is set aside to acknowledge individual staff or teams who are exhibiting our organization values - R.I.S.E.: Respect, Integrity, Service and Empowerment. This is partly to embed our values in the organization by highlighting behaviors that embody these values and, also to acknowledge staff effort and the importance of the work that they do at the management level.
I had done my preparation for this practice and had thought about a specific action, contribution, or support that each member of my team had exhibited that mattered to me. And I thanked every person there personally. My first lesson was that saying thank you to your staff individually and publicly for a specific action does matter. Every face after I thanked them showed a smile, was a bit lighter and sometimes a bit embarrassed that they were singled out, but in a positive way. When I explained what I wanted to do and why, there could have been some cynical rolling of the eyes on the inside, but I had prepared and was very specific and personal for what I was grateful for. My Management team felt seen, they felt that their work and effort mattered and this has been reflected back to me. After a few months my management team took over the values section of the meeting and all had a personal thank you to me. And you know what. My face smiled, my step was a bit perkier, and I did feel lighter because my work mattered, my effort was seen and yes, I was a bit embarrassed by the attention, but it did matter.
I really recommend to all leaders to build visible gratitude into your management practice — thank people for specific actions, reflect and thank them for what they bring to the organization and “see” their effort and them. The rewards will be immediate and positive.
