Episode 3: Gratitude Builds Culture

In this episode of Culture Secrets, we're talking about the importance gratitude place in building strong workplace culture. 
When employees feel valued and appreciated, they are more engaged, motivated and committed to their work. Gratitude is a powerful tool that can be used to create a positive and productive workplace. 
I'm joined by Kevin Monroe in this episode. He's the world's gratitude coach, as well as a keynote speaker, consultant, global gratitude ambassador, and creator of the Grateful App. 

Grab my free e-book "How to Attract and Hire Productive Employees" at https://www,chelliephillips.com/talentattraction

Connect with Kevin: https://www.kevindmonroe.com/

Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Chellie Phillips: 0:06

If workplace culture is your jam, you're in the right place. Check out this episode of culture secrets, the podcast dedicated to creating workplaces where both employees and the companies thrive. Welcome to today's episode of culture secrets, I'm your host Chellie Phillips and today we're talking about the importance of gratitude plays and building a strong workplace culture. Many people believe that gratitude is a feeling that is only relevant in our personal lives. However, gratitude can also have a significant impact on the workplace culture of any organization. In fact, I believe it's such a key driver in the strength of your culture. I devote a whole chapter to the concept in my book, when employees feel appreciated and valued, they're more engaged, motivated and committed to their work. Gratitude is a powerful tool that can be used to create a positive and productive workplace culture. So what is gratitude? Gratitude is the act of expressing appreciation and thankfulness for the things we have in our lives in the workplace. This can mean showing appreciation for our co workers, bosses and the work that we do when leaders take the time to show gratitude to their employees. They create a culture of appreciation that fosters positivity, motivation, and productivity employees who feel appreciated are more likely to go above and beyond in their work, resulting in higher quality work and better outcomes for the organization. Gratitude can take many forms, including saying thank you. Recognizing an employee's hard work or providing a small token of appreciation may seem small, but they can have a significant impact on employee morale and overall workplace culture. Furthermore, gratitude not only benefits the recipient, but also the person expressing it. When we express gratitude, it creates positive emotions that can boost our mental health and well being. This positivity can also spread to those around us, creating a ripple effect of positivity throughout the workplace. In addition, gratitude can also help to create a culture of teamwork and collaboration. When employees feel appreciated, they are more likely to work together and support each other. This can lead to better communication, problem solving, and more innovative ideas. So how can leaders implement gratitude in the workplace culture? For the answer to this question, and more, I've invited Kevin Monroe to be a part of this conversation. Kevin is the world's gratitude coach. He is also a keynote speaker, consultant, global gratitude ambassador and creator of the grateful app. Welcome, Kevin. Why is gratitude such an important component to have?

Kevin Monroe: 2:37

So Chellie? I heard myself say this about five months ago, that BC before COVID. Right? Granite, many people saw gratitude as an option. And it was it was something those particularly perky or positive people did. But I think as we are moving through COVID, and going beyond COVID, I actually see gratitude is now an essential skill. And one of the reasons I say that, what have we noticed, we are now two years, five months into the pandemic. And increasingly people, workers part of this great resignation. People feel unseen, unheard, and not valued or under appreciated. And so gratitude is that and one of the things we see gratitude builds connection more quickly than any thing else. And so I just believe it's this it's now an essential skill for life and war. Now I have a friend and I'll the book is it's not all strawberries and cream. But there's some wonderful moments, Patty black stuff. This is her definition that she used for gratitude. And she gave me permission to share appreciation for all that we have all that we are and thankfulness for our ability to show love and kindness to others. Now, one of the reasons I use that definition, I grew up in the south like you did, right. And I was taught gratitude as part of good manners to say pleased to say thank you. But when I started having gratitude practices, it seemed like it was all about gratitude for stuff, being thankful for stuff, you know, I mean, for years, I would say I'm thankful for my wife, our children, my home, my job, those kinds of things. But what if, what if we expand gratitude to be that all that we are and when you talk about in the workplace, this is where I think it gets powerful in the workplace, that we're not just saying thank you for the work you did. But we're saying thank you for the worker you are, thank you for the skills, the talents, the abilities you give to our you, you know, you invest in our company every day you don't give them there's an exchange there, but that you bring your whole self talk bob chapman, CEO of berry wine. Miller said this one time, he said, Gosh, for years and they don't they do manufacturing. He said for years, we paid people for their hands. And they would have given us their heads and their hearts if we only knew how to ask, right. And so gratitude all of a sudden, when you just went, it's not just thank you for that task. But when we're saying I appreciate you, or I'm grateful for you, for your skills, I'm grateful for you for the effort you invest for going the extra mile for for staying longer for caring about our customers, our clients. Right? I mean that. That's way beyond a transaction. So and that's something else that I would say I've realized, saying thank you can be in often is very transactional, expressing gratitude becomes transformational.

Chellie Phillips: 6:00

So if you had a CEO that called you up and said, Okay, I want to get serious about this. And I want to get into their heads and their hearts not just using their hands for the work that they're doing. How do they go about this? How do they go about instilling it first in themselves, so that it doesn't come across as as fake? Because you know, being authentic is super important in this day and time? Well, all the time, not just now. But it's super, like everybody's going, Are you real? Are you not now? You know? So how do you how do you do this in a way that comes across as authentic and real, and not just as words coming out of your mouth?

Kevin Monroe: 6:41

So let me give you a couple of ways to answer that one. We launched a campaign a couple of months ago that it's just called I'm grateful for you. But as we were launching that, I realized, simple plus sincere, equal significant, right. So if we are simple, so jelly for us. I mean, it's, it's this, we have two versions of the card, but what is just business card size, and it just says I'm grateful for you and the back is blank, where people can just write a note. The other is a note size card, if you're recognizing somebody for some achievement, or they're getting an award, write a longer note, I promise, you know, one who gets this card throws it away. Right, this becomes a keeper somewhere, people are telling us these I mean, I've got a CEO in California gave this to a friend, her friend, when she gave it to her son, I'm putting it on my refrigerator and never taking it down. Three weeks later, one day, she was at her refrigerator saw and she called her said, You know what, I saw that card today. And I thought of you. And I'm grateful for you. And that cards never coming off my refrigerator. I mean, people keep these things. But if somebody, this is a very simple message, I'm grateful for you. But if I add some sincerity into that expression, and into that communication, it becomes significant. Likewise, if I'm shallow, because I can see this happening, I've worked for leaders that if if our company, we're doing this like okay, so I'd go in on Monday morning to the team meeting, attached to the meeting agenda would be one of these cards. And item one on the agenda would be gratitude. And the leader would say Hey, everybody, you don't look at your card, look at look at your agenda attached to the agenda is a card, I'm grateful for you, you know that you you know, I'm grateful for you. Okay, let's go on to what's next. Right? And what would that would I mean, that would be a gimmick. So simple. Plus shallow is a gimmick. And that's what so the first thing I would be doing with that, see, tell me what gratitude looks like in your organization today? Who, who's involved in the expression of gratitude? Where's it happening? How often does it happen? And what's it look like? Right? And we would just do this informal assessment. I mean, you can do it more formally. One of the things I've heard from so a few months ago, a couple of months ago, it really hit me because so many people think gratitude is a theoretical and nebulous and I can get that. And then it hit me. It's like, what if we look at gratitude at the intersection of experience, whether that is employee experience, customer experience, patient experience, if you're in healthcare, whatever that or people experience, as some people call it, but experience, appreciation and recognition, so that we're making sure that because here's what I've had, experience leaders and HR leaders tell me, we've invested in a recognition system and nobody uses it. Or we've invested in a recommend in a recognition system and an employee appreciation system. And it seems formal. And in the recognition, have somebody submit something, and it's weeks or months after the event happened. And now somebody's being recognized for something. And oh, yeah, I kind of remember that. But what if, you know, to quote, Ken Blanchard catch people doing something, right? And when you catch somebody doing something, right, what if in that moment, you stop them and go, You know what, what you just did was amazing. The way I saw you turn that situation around, right? If you're in a call center, you're listening to that, you know, there actually some leaders that listen in on calls, there's some companies that require the leaders to take those calls once a month, or something, and you but you hear somebody doing something really well. And they had an irate customer. And in that moment, you go over, and you are specific. You go, Hey, Michelle, I heard I saw how you handle that situation with an irate customer. And wow, the empathy and compassion you showed, was amazing. And you diffused what was a very negative, and you know, volatile situation with kindness, and compassion. And wow, I'm so glad you're representing our company. Now, what's Michelle doing when she goes home at night?

Chellie Phillips: 11:27

She's absolutely sharing what happened at work today. You won't believe this. And she's gonna tell her friends and she's gonna tell her family and...

Kevin Monroe: 11:35

Exactly, I mean, it's that kind of thing. And what was it was just in the moment, recognition. Right now, maybe she does get an award three months later. But in the moment when we like, say, as Ken Blanchard said, catch people doing something, right, or when you see people living out the values, you recognize them, and you say, Wow, the way you just honored your commitment to a customer, you kept your word, you kept our word, as a company, we value that, right. So it's these little things that are expressions of gratitude. But if they're specific, and they're sincere, and there's an example, it's not just you did great work, that's nice, but it doesn't really get anything. So when it's when it's that, Hey, I saw you do this, and I'm not I just don't, I'm grateful for it, I appreciate it. We value, right? So it's all that it's helping people's, just the opposite of what's happening. It's helping people be seen for who they are, and what they bring to the work, not just the tasks they do, but what they invest of themselves. You talked about Gary Ridge and WD 40. Company, you know, they for years now, they have had 96 plus percent employee engagement, which is so far off the charts. I mean, they are just this outlier, but it's because people feel appreciated, people feel valued. People feel respect, and it goes a long way.

Chellie Phillips: 13:12

But if your company isn't doing anything towards building that culture and growing, growing that value that we're talking about, how can I as an individual, bring that to my cubicle and start spreading it from there? Oh,

Kevin Monroe: 13:28

and I love that you're focusing on that. Right? Do you know the Heath brothers Chip and Dan Heath, they've written several books, one of them was stick made the stick. They're both college professors, one in North Carolina, and one in California. But one of their books, they talked about being a bright spot. Right. So what you're talking about is how you're one person with just their cube their office, or their team can do this and become a bright spot. In other people. Well, what's happening over there? What's happening with that group? Right, they they have these higher results. They have more camaraderie, they have lower recidivism, I mean, turn over recidivism. Wow, how did I get to prison work out of that, but that you become a bright spot. So some of this is you just expressing gratitude. And I'm going to tell you, I'm very I may be weird about this. I sign my emails with this with with some kind of gratitude, in gratitude, gratefully with gratitude or something, but it's not part of a standard signature. Because I want to type it every time. Right? I mean, I want to actually pause for that moment and think I am grateful for this person. I am grateful for this conversation, this opportunity. So it's not just part of the you know, The default signature I purposely want to add it in. So what if What if people just start, whatever their words are, I'm not trying to put words in people's mouths, but whether you say with gratitude, or gratefully or I'm grateful for you, whatever those are, when you just start signing all of your emails like that, well, people will notice. People will notice. And when that positive perspective, so one other thing you asked earlier, why is gratitude matter? Now, one of the so here's what I've come to understand. What gratitude does is it changes how we see the world. Right? Gratitude is this perspective and sense making skill we have. So if you know DeWitt Jones from National Geographic, he was a photographer with them for years. And he talks about it, his whole message is what's right with the world, right? And if we go looking for what's right with the world, and what's the good in the situation, or what is there to be grateful for it, it changes the way we see things. And as Nan said, we don't see the world as it is we see it as we are right. So you've got those negative Ned's and negative Nellies that no matter what happens, it's there's always something negative about why that well, they have that negative outlook on life. Likewise, if we if we're looking for the good, we're looking to find something to be grateful for in the situation, we will find it. And it will direct what where we go and what we find. And it creates that kind of positivity. And people want to be around those people. People want to work in a work group that's led by somebody that's positive and uplifting and encouraging. And you know, that that celebrates the good Gallup, one of their findings, is that what what contributes to workplace engagement is having a best friend at work. So maybe, maybe you're not part of a great team, but you have at least one colleague, right. And you can encourage you, you and that colleague, encourage one another one of the things I love about what you said, no one has to give you permission to be grateful. Right? I mean, if you want to be great, be grateful. And no one can stop you from being grateful. Either they can't come back. Well, gosh, Charlie, stop being so cheerful. They may criticize you. But they're right. They can't sit, you can't be grateful. So it's a personal choice. Nobody can stop you. And what if you started just, you know, infusing as well. Here's a story. The lady's name is Heidi. She was a teacher. And she was in this was at a time during an election cycle when it got really toxic and negative. And she said the teaching lounge, had just it had been a place of refuge, it had become a place that she didn't want to go, there was so much negativity and toxicity. And you know, maybe I mean, all that going on all the time. She wanted to do something about it. She does not ask permission from anyone. She takes a poster board and goes in day, first day of a month and writes, what are you grateful for, and sticks it up there and she writes something on the note, maybe one or two other people do that first day? The next day, she goes back puts up another poster board, same question, what are you grateful for today, she did this every day, for a month by the beginning of the second week. There were lots of people filling in on the poster board. She said by the beginning of the third week, the atmosphere in the teacher's lounge had changed. She didn't ask permission. She didn't have a it wasn't a company sponsored initiative. She just put up a poster board every day. What are you grateful for? I've seen people that that just go in and write it on the whiteboard in a common in a, you know, a big common conference area. They'll just write what are you grateful for and people just come in and start responding. And it just spreads? Right? And it's the simple things that cost no money. Now you can do formal programs, which could be good for you. But you can start with nothing. And one person. Heidi made a difference in that school. Because she just she was she was fed up with it right? She goes on putting the poster board every day. So whatever that however that works. But one person can make a difference. And what if a team says we're okay, so here's another one. What if we started our team meetings with what do we have to celebrate this week? Rather than what what went wrong? What you know what was what happens was so many team meetings people come in with that last customer encounter they had or that, you know, the team, the colleague that wasn't doing what they're supposed to do and it becomes a gripe session from the big Any Well, what if instead, somebody goes, Hey, let me tell you what just happened. And the most amazing thing that happened to me today was jelly. What was the most amazing thing that happened to you? What was the best client encounter you had so far? And it changes the atmosphere? And it's a simple question. Right? And you can ask that question so many different ways. It's not just what are you grateful for? It's what was the best part of your day? You know, what went really well? Where did you have a surprise, any of those? And it, it just ripples. The ripple effect is amazing.

Chellie Phillips: 20:36

It's nice that something can be infectious in a positive way.

Kevin Monroe: 20:40

Right? Yeah. And I mean, you just see what people do what one person can do. A lot of companies now in the EMC World Do you all have use Slack or something like Slack or Yammer, or they have,

Chellie Phillips: 20:57

we have an internal comms system? And then of course, we got teams and all that kind of stuff. Now say, yeah.

Kevin Monroe: 21:03

So two years ago, when when we first started doing gratitude challenges, and we were just doing this by email, there was a lady she was the CO CEO of Scrum Alliance, her name's Melissa. And they use Slack. She started just posting whatever the prompt of the day was in email, she started posting it on their Slack channel. And same thing like with Heidi, it didn't take off overnight. But some people started responding people started responding. About three months later, Melissa Tolmie, author, people started starting the prompt. And then all of a sudden, it's just like, several times a week, somebody just does a shout out, Hey, what are you grateful for now? Or what's the best thing that happened to you today? And these things just automate, I mean, sporadically ripple throughout the company, because anybody has the power on a slack channel or you know, it that kind of internal comms messaging, anybody can post others post, what's their favorite, inspirational quote, or motivational quote of the day? There's opera, and Domino's is a Latino family services organization in New Mexico, they start with a mindfulness moment in every meeting, and I've been in been part of several of their meetings, I've been fortunate to work with him. Different people bring the mindfulness moment, right. It's a point they read, or a daily devotion or inspiration piece, somebody and they just come and read it to the group. And there's this beautiful thing. But it's just some they they take two minutes, the start of a meeting, and have one of these uplifting, encouraging. It changes the tone. It's so simple.

Chellie Phillips: 22:50

So what is the countermeasure to the corporate guy sitting there going, Oh, this is just mindset. This is hoodoo. Voodoo like this is not going to have any kind of real impact. What's your answer to that guy?

Kevin Monroe: 23:03

I would first off to ask what what measurements are important to you in this company? Right? Because every company is measuring something, what is it that you're measuring? And let's see what positivity, gratitude how it will impact that measurement? Right? If it's employee engagement, you will watch that number go up. If you're concerned about turnover, you will watch turnover go down. I'd had some statistics from something else. 70% of employees would feel better about themselves if their boss were more grateful. 81% would work harder. Glassdoor, right. So gosh, you're concerned about productivity. Well, let's watch happen. Let's do a do a study. See what happens. over a month period. When we start with gratitude and we embrace positivity. I think it's going to move any number in the right direction, right, the good numbers, it's going to move in the right direction. Here's another one that when I saw this one, a friend shared it with me 59% of people have never had a boss who truly appreciates their work. Good thing not six out of 10 people have have have always been undervalued is what theirs are taken for granted. Oh my gosh. Right. So what are some of the measures I mean, discretionary effort, which really means going the extra mile going above and beyond doing more than required Discretionary Effort shoots through the roof when people feel appreciated. One of my favorite studies shows that there are three groups of people impacted when appreciation or gratitude is expressed three groups the person expressing the gratitude the person to whom the gratitude is expressed. We get that right. But I mean, just if you explain, so one of the studies had people writing a gratitude letter, and a decent percentage of the people never mailed the letter. But they still had a boost of positive emotion because they wrote the letter. And then if they wrote the letter, that and other people that had the most the biggest booths were the people that actually read the letter to the person, they wrote it. But there is a third group and think about this in the workplace, think about this, the people that see a leader or a peer appreciating someone else in the company, anybody that sees that has a positive response to it. And they are more likely to say yes to a project, or to go the extra mile when they feel that kind of effort is appreciated and rewarded, just because they saw it happen. They go, Oh, well, Charlie's Bosco, okay, he, he or she is the kind of person that recognizes and appreciates effort. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna invest more effort. So people that just see it happen are impacted in a positive light, that one I love. And I've got a friend Nick works in. Gosh, Nick would talk to you if you want to talk to Nick runs the he's general manager of Hilton Garden in Albany Medical Center, Albany, New York. So the hotel is connected to the hospital. And so they have a lot of people staying in the hotel who have family or are going into the hospital themselves for surgery or something. And he has so many stories, but the pandemic wiped their team out wiped their business out and he's been rebuilding and Nick is rebuilt with gratitude and expressing gratitude and and he just watches it permeate the team permeate the facility. Right and sees all of this impact and and sees it transform some really different, really difficult guest encounters and sees people change. I mean, he called me a couple of weeks ago to tell me about this guy that was just so in his face, and he was so mad about something. What happened. They were playing some baseball tournament Little League baseball tournament, his son got hit in the head, had some accident was rushed to the hospital by helicopter. He and his wife are rushing in the car trying to get there you know, and they're all upset, don't know what's going on don't know what's going to happen and a lot of emotion and they take it out on something that just didn't go the way they felt. The next day this guy came to INEC was just as gracious as he could be and apologetic and grateful. The next day this guy looked him up and apologized, said man, you know I overreacted. But it diffused a negative situation. Let me Vicki O'Grady Longo, she works for Pfizer. She's a Pfizer rep in New York City. She's got these cards, she gives them out every single day. In hospitals. She had four encounters over a two week period that all had the same thing happened to nurses. If I if I if I've got the third, fourth person, right, two nurses, one physician, I think the fourth story she felt was a barista at Starbucks. She was going through picking up coffee for a meeting. And she gave them each a card wrote something on the back in these four people all had the same response. They read the words on the front of the card. I'm grateful for you. They took it flipped it over rent, what was she? The word she had jotted on the back, tears began filling their eyes jelly. And every each of these people took the card and pressed it to their heart was the way they responded. Is that not? Wow. Are you talking about making a moment just expressing gratitude, expressing your appreciation for the in the lady at Starbucks. She was having a bad day. And in Vicki had this big order. Vicki just complimented her for the way she delivered. And you know, she said you were a great representative of Starbucks today. And the lady took the card and grabbed one of the Starbucks stickers and Vicki just said hey, you can pass the car along to someone and she can No no, no. She took the sticker taped it to the cash register. And I've heard this statement. I've heard other You made my day, in 30 second or 6o second. I mean, think about how many times they're there. So we've had the what's the opposite of this when a person in the workplace comes unglued? And whether it's justified or not? unjustified range somebody in the workplace, you know, the ripple effect of that negative, it, it permeates the culture like crazy.

Chellie Phillips: 30:13

What is it? How many positive encounters that you have to have to counteract that one negative encounter?

Kevin Monroe: 30:18

It's five, seven, I mean, different studies, but it is from five to 12. I've heard right. What do you if, you know, instead, you're you're the person that's creating these positive ripples. And my friend Ginny has calls it the gratitude reservoir, right? What if all of the all of these times you're expressing gratitude in the good time, you're just filling up the reservoir, and then I mean, you all you you live in, or you work in a business where this happens, storms hit, and all of a sudden, people are working out rageous overtime, to restore power to communities? Well, if people feel appreciated, and people feel recognized for all of it, when those storms hit, people are proud to be out there, representing the EMC and going so far and above and beyond to, to restore and to know that we are a vital service to our community. But if people feel neglected, and overlooked and ignored, they're not they're not out there with any joy. In those moments, they're begrudging, right? That they're having it, but I, I see these people, I don't want to say, guys, but I see these. You can tell they love what they do. And they get to be a hero. And when we appreciate them for that heroism, it fills their tank to get

Unknown: 31:48

Some through those long nights and bad weather. Right, so appreciate your time doing this with me,

Kevin Monroe: 31:55

Gosh, I mean, the fact that you're, you're writing a third book, and what I loved is how there's this sequencing or stair stepping of these books. I mean, there's a journey.

Chellie Phillips: 32:08

Yeah, they built on each other, like one is the personal and then one's professional. And then now this is corporate. And so they really have played on top of each other. And they've reflected a lot of me and my journey, you know, like, now, that's what I'm getting to really focus on the internal atmosphere here. I mean, I'm still communications and still doing all that kind of stuff that normally people think this culture thing is an HR function. Yeah. And we're totally going about it a different way. We're doing it through PR and communications, like the internal comms side, like that's what really makes a difference. And you know, the research that I've gotten everything really, one of the things that really stood out, when we started putting this program together is when people leave a job, they were doing exit interviews, it was probably Gallup because they have a lot of their research and everything. But they talked about the reason that they left is because no one ever showed them how they were part of the success journey for the organization, or how their job was going to have any impact on the success the organization had. And that just really stood out with me is that, you know, we we have these companies and every, you know, nobody would have started them if they didn't think they were doing great things. And why are we not taping the people that are making it happen for us? Or for the community or for the organization or whatever? Why is that such a hard thing for for us? And do it and letting them feel that ownership and that contribution? Can that yes, you do make a difference to it? Well, we could not do this without you know, there's only so when you really start looking at it, I mean, it really does. It's very cyclical, like, you know, like my personal success journey has really gotten to where it is because, you know, I've found the place where I feel like I've been breathed into like, you know, I've been encouraged, I've been allowed to grow and develop and do those kinds of things. And then you know, working with a sorority women seeing their struggles, getting noticed getting hired showing that value in the workplace, and that kind of thing. And I don't want to send them someplace to go to work that's not going to treat them well and not going to you know, develop them and not give them opportunities to, to, you know, develop personally and professionally. And, you know, in my mind, it's like it's all a big circle like it's each piece and without any one piece. The whole thing just falls apart. And it's been it's been a fun, a fun learning journey for me, I guess.

Kevin Monroe: 34:34

Thank you for I just, you know, I love. I love the conversation. I love the opportunity to contribute to a work like this and just grow gratitude. Well, thank you Chellie. And yeah, if you need something else, email me, whatever. You know how to get a hold on me.

Chellie Phillips: 34:55

All right. Thanks so much, Kevin. Thanks for listening to culture, seek rates. If you liked what you heard today, subscribe, drop me a rating and share the link with a friend. If you want to learn more or perhaps have become lead a discussion with your company or organization, visit my website at WWW.ChelliePhillips.com That's ch e ll ie p h i ll ips.com. Remember, building a value culture is your competitive advantage and the backbone of any successful organization.