You can count on The Washington Post’s blog On Leadership for wide ranging responses from its huge panel of experts who address provocative questions.
First up for the New Year was this one: “This has been a tough year for many organizations, wtih fewer employees required to do more with less. 2010 looks to be more of the same. How can leaders iof such organizations motivate their people as they head into 2010?”
One answer, from Jepson’s Joanne B. Ciulla: Try a little gratitude. She writes, “I am not talking about a simple thank you. Gratitude is not easy nor does it come cheap. It is the acknowledgment of indebtedness to someone. As the philosopher Robert C. Solomon notes, gratitude requires humility because it is an admission of being vulnerable and dependent. Both employers and employees need each other and should, at a minimum, be grateful to have their businesses and jobs. People who feel gratitude tend to be happier because they celebrate what they have rather than lament what they lack.
“So, employers might want to start off the year with heartfelt gratitude. This not only means that they should express their appreciation and debt to employees, but that they promise to make good on that debt when business improves.” More
