Who is the author of Leading with Gratitude?

The authors of Leading with Gratitude are Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton.

Management & Leadership

Leading with Gratitude Book Summary - Leading with Gratitude Book explained in key points

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Leading with Gratitude summary

Name: Leading with Gratitude
Rating: 4.4 (105 reviews)
Author: Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton

Adrian Gostick Chester Elton

Eight Leadership Practices for Extraordinary Business Results

4.4 (105 ratings)

23 mins

Brief summary

Leading with Gratitude by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton explores the positive impact of gratitude in the workplace. This insightful book offers actionable strategies for leaders to create a culture of appreciation that can boost employee engagement and productivity.

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Leadership Effectiveness

Table of Contents

Leading with Gratitude
Summary of 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Learn how gratitude can boost employee performance.

What comes to mind when you think about motivating your staff? Maybe it’s an incentive scheme, with an annual cash bonus. Perhaps it’s a monthly team lunch, or a fabulous end-of-year party. But did you know that there’s a far more powerful tool you can use to make your team’s productivity go through the roof? And better still, it won’t cost you a cent.

So, what is this secret super-tool available to every leader in every organization?

It’s gratitude.

You might believe that you already thank your team for their hard work, and maybe that’s true. But the reality is, very few leaders know how to express gratitude in an effective way.

If you’re skeptical about the value of gratitude in the workplace, consider this statistic. Eighty-one percent of employees say that they’d work harder if their boss made them feel more appreciated. That’s the vast majority of your team!

The good news is that harnessing the power of gratitude isn’t difficult. You just need insight into how it works, and the commitment to practice it every day.

These blinks will guide you through eight simple approaches to gratitude that will transform your workplace into an energized environment, overflowing with goodwill.

In these blinks, you’ll discover

what avocados teach us about gratitude;
why fancy watches don’t always cut it as rewards; and
how a childhood action figure motivated a team.

The best way to glean solutions from your employees is to do it in person.

No doubt you’ve heard the proverb, “Two heads are better than one.” But what about a whole team of heads, or a whole organization of them? Would we then be moving into “Too many cooks spoil the broth” territory? Well, it turns out that when it comes to soliciting ideas in business, “The more the merrier.”

The key message here is: The best way to glean solutions from your employees is to do it in person.

Employees are a font of knowledge because they’re at the frontline of your business. They’ll often have insights that you won’t be aware of, like which items on your restaurant’s menu are left half-eaten on the plate. So, what’s the most effective way of tapping into this great resource?

Start by getting in touch with your staff in person, and actually listening to them. This is the policy of Kent Taylor, the founder and CEO of the hugely successful restaurant chain, Texas Roadhouse. With almost 600 establishments and a team numbering nearly 60,000, you wouldn’t think Taylor would have the time to talk – let alone really listen – to employees. But this is exactly what he does. Every week, he calls a store at random and asks servers for customer feedback. All his store managers have his cell number, too. That’s how he found out his mac and cheese wasn’t hitting the spot. He learned of this after an area manager’s daughter made a book about why she didn’t like it! If Taylor didn’t encourage open communication, he might never have known.

Implementing staff ideas is a huge motivator because it shows that you value what your employees have said. If you realize an idea isn’t viable, use the opportunity to explain why. This makes the employee feel respected, so they won’t be put off offering ideas in the future.

Finally, make sure you take the time to thank employees for their contributions. The simple gesture of gratitude increases staff confidence – a vital quality for innovative thinking. Taylor makes a point of writing thank you notes to employees who’ve come up with great ideas. If he can manage it with 60,000 staff members, the rest of us have no excuse not to.

To create an environment based on trust you must give staff the benefit of the doubt.

Imagine it’s Monday morning. Your star employee asks for a quick word, and you’re happy to oblige. After all, you owe her a lot. Then she drops a bomb. She’s resigning. Turns out she’s been unhappy for a long time. And worse, everyone knew except you.

The key message here is: To create an environment based on trust you must give staff the benefit of the doubt.

By practicing empathy in the workplace, you significantly improve overall performance.

What drives your team’s productivity? Is it pressure, perhaps, or that end-of-year cash bonus? Well, no. Surprisingly, a team’s main motivator is empathy.

The key message here is: By practicing empathy in the workplace, you significantly improve overall performance.

Celebrating small successes is a powerful way to motivate your team.

When we were kids, our parents often used small incentives to encourage good behavior: pocket money if we’d done our chores, or ice cream if we’d eaten our vegetables. But as adults, we’re often forced to delay gratification, which can leave us feeling deflated.

The key message here is: Celebrating small successes is a powerful way to motivate your team.

Consistent, positive reinforcement compels a team to keep working hard.

What do gratitude and avocados have in common? Do you give up? The answer is that neither of them keep. Unless you eat it while it's ripe, your avocado won't be good for anything but the compost. Similarly, appreciation loses its power if you don’t express it straight away.

The key message here is: Consistent, positive reinforcement compels a team to keep working hard.

To be effective, expressions of gratitude must align with an individual’s values.

Think back to a time you were rewarded for outstanding work. It’s likely your company presented you with a cash bonus, voucher, gift, or plaque. And you were probably grateful for the acknowledgment. But did your reward actually match your interests or ambitions?

The key message here is: To be effective, expressions of gratitude must align with an individual’s values.

Gratitude can be used to connect company values with day-to-day work practices.

Does your team know what your company values are? Could they explain how those values relate to their tasks? Or are those values merely lofty ideals that don’t mean much in the face of the daily grind?Company leaders often invest a huge amount of time carefully crafting their organization’s core values. But typically, these values fail to reflect the reality of daily office life, and they become nothing more than platitudes.

It’s interesting to learn, then, that a Johns Hopkins University study found that 95 percent of job-hunters rank company culture over financial compensation. That’s right – almost every candidate is more interested in what your company stands for than what it pays.

The best teams are made up of coworkers who take the initiative to thank each other.

One day, the leader of an IT department noticed something important was missing from his desk: his childhood G.I. Joe action figure. He assumed his team found Joe weird and had quietly made him disappear. But he was wrong. They loved Joe so much that they’d turned him into a trophy, to acknowledge a colleague who’d supported a team member. A few days later, the winner presented Joe to another colleague, recognizing their contribution to the team’s goals.

This anecdote is a wonderful example of the positive energy that’s generated when teammates take gratitude into their own hands. This injects fun and humor into the workplace, counterbalancing the inevitable stress and pressure we all feel from time to time. Goodwill flourishes between employees when they feel appreciated by their teammates, which in turn fuels motivation.

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What is Leading with Gratitude about?

Leading with Gratitude (2020) explores a surprising but extraordinarily powerful tool that leaders can use to significantly increase team productivity and cohesion, while increasing staff retention. By learning how to express gratitude in meaningful ways, leaders can improve workplace culture, arrive at better solutions, and make productivity skyrocket.

Leading with Gratitude Review

Leading with Gratitude (2020) explores the transformative power of gratitude in the workplace and provides valuable insights on how to lead with appreciation. Here's why this book is definitely worth reading:

Packed with research-backed strategies, it offers practical methods for fostering a culture of gratitude, leading to increased employee engagement and productivity.
The authors draw on real-life case studies to illustrate the positive impact of gratitude in various organizations, making the content relatable and applicable.
Through its compelling analysis and actionable advice, the book sheds light on the role of gratitude in creating a fulfilling work environment, making it far from boring.

Best quote from Leading with Gratitude

Like ripe bananas, gratitude doesnt keep. The closer to an achievement a leader expresses her appreciation, the better.

—Adrian Gostick, Chester Elton

Who should read Leading with Gratitude?

Leaders looking to increase team productivity
Managers facing staff retention challenges
Business owners wanting to better understand their companies at a grassroots level

About the Author

Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton are the coauthors of Wall Street Journal best sellers The Carrot Principle, The Best Team Wins, and All In. Translated into over 30 languages, their books have sold to 1.5 million readers around the globe. Gostick and Elton are also cofounders of The Culture Works, which helps companies recruit and retain stellar employees.

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