The Gifts of the Pandemic | Stronger Through Gratitude

You just went out of your way for someone, and they didn’t even say thank you! What gives?

This is my next to the last post in my series titled The Gifts of the Pandemic.

So far in this series, we’ve looked at pandemic gifts or teachable moments that include:

• Learning
• Humility
• Empathy
• Adaptivity
• Purpose

The final installment in the series will focus on:

• Human Experience Elevation

It’s easy to remember a time when someone failed to acknowledge our contribution. However, it’s almost impossible to know how often people walked away from interacting with us feeling underappreciated.

Based on my experience this last year, I’ve noticed leaders expressing gratitude more frequently to their team members. Michelle Gass, CEO of Kohl’s, exemplifies this unintended benefit of the pandemic.

Michelle told me one of her top priorities during COVID-19 has been to “consistently express my tremendous gratitude and thanks to our 100,000 associates. In every message, I’ve been very intentional about saying thank you. Sometimes it was in recognition for people who are on the front lines in our e-commerce fulfillment centers. Other times gratitude would be expressed for those who made curbside pick-up possible.”

So here are your challenge questions based on Michelle’s input:

• 1. Did you increase your expressions of gratitude during the pandemic?
  2. How are you intentionally ensuring that you are communicating gratitude across your organization?

And here are a couple of bonus questions from me. Are your expressions of gratitude authentic, specific, and immediate? Do you see that gratitude going viral across your organization?

To learn more about the role of gratitude in crisis, please pick-up or gift a copy of my book Stronger Through Adversity, which provides more than 20 pandemic forged lessons from 140 plus leaders like the CEOs and Presidents of Target, Verizon, Microsoft, and Marriott. As an expression of my gratitude, I’m donating a portion of the book’s proceeds to the international nonprofit Direct Relief, which provides food and supplies to those on the frontline.

I hope you will join my guests and me for LinkedIn Live conversations every Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Eastern. Until then, please know I am grateful for the time you spend with me and these posts. May you be Stronger Through Adversity thanks to the gift of gratitude.