The importance of inspiration and gratitude in your business

As we near the end of 2022, with everything everyone has been through - COVID, the economy, and many layoffs, now is a good time to evaluate where your company is at, and think about what you can do to help your team. One of the most important things you can do is to ingrain inspiration and gratitude into your culture. Show appreciation for your employees for the extra time they work, taking on a greater work load, and picking up projects no one else has the bandwidth to do, and they will in turn give you the gift of hard work and loyalty.

For many startup founders, inspiration and gratitude can easily be overlooked. While many understand the benefits of treating customers well, they skip the part of passing it on to their employees. Don’t hesitate -  express gratitude not just to your customers, but also employees on a regular basis, through recognition and rewards, demonstrating your appreciation for the extra effort or for the extra business. Doing so builds happiness and empowerment. The best part of this is the extension of goodwill a business receives from employees - sharing their positive experiences with others. 

Definition of gratitude:

The quality or feeling of being grateful or thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.

There are many benefits of incorporating gratitude into your business culture. For employees, a business will experience an increase in employee engagement and productivity. (Gallup) Employees whose managers focus on their strengths are more engaged. When employees are more engaged they are more productive which also leads to greater employee retention.

The Global Happiness Council estimated that “a meaningful increase in well-being” yields, on average, about a 10% increase in productivity.

Happier employees work harder, their level of work is improved, they stay longer, and they extend that happiness to others. The benefits of having happy employees results in saving money with reduced turnover rates, higher quality products and less hostility within the office environment. A positive office environment leads to greater respect for others. And, happy employees tend to extend their gratitude with customers not just in sales but in support which leads to happy and higher levels of trust with customers.

As a startup founder, one way to build a positive environment is to communicate. Managers that consistently and genuinely communicate through regular meetings, make themselves available when problems arise, show interest and are more approachable, have a higher level of trust from their employees. In addition, team members whose managers work with them to understand their responsibilities, set priorities, and communicate progress tend to be more engaged and embrace accountability. Managers who leverage their employees strengths, and give them the opportunity to grow, contribute to a higher level of work and engagement than those who focus on weaknesses.

How to inspire:

1. Give employees the latitude to develop their strengths with goals and challenges by providing training and career development opportunities

2. Employees are motivated by positive feedback. Recognizing a job well done with a reward reinforces the effort.

3. Encourage your employees to share their ideas and opinions. 

4. Employees are more engaged and embrace accountability when there is autonomy and trust to get the job done. This gives them a sense of personal accomplishment.

In ‘Find the Right Words to Inspire Your Team’ by Joel Schwartzberg, he emphasizes the importance of choosing the right words when communicating to your team with the goal of inspiring and motivating them. Using power words such as ‘proposing, suggesting, or recommending,’ to communicate with the point of making an impact.

One well known company whose culture focuses on both their customers and their employees is HubSpot. According to The HubSpot Culture Code:

We (HubSpot) obsess over our culture just like our product. Because culture is a product. 

HubSpot's positive culture environment enables it to easily attract customers as well as employees. For their employees, HubSpot’s culture code includes ‘work to make a difference’ and ‘value amazing people’ instills the feeling of work that matters - really helping the customers. According to Comparably and their “Happiest Employees” list, employees who are given the opportunity to grow and meet their career goals rank their company highly on workplace culture. By helping their employees achieve success, HubSpot is empowering their employees to help their customers be successful.

Happy employees -> Happy customers -> Successful company

While we have seen a greater ‘return to normal’ we will never get back to where we were in 2019. 2022 has had some highs, some lows, some crazy and confusing times. As we quickly approach the end of this spirited year, we are taking a moment to thank those who have helped us to build our business and make it a success. Because without you, we would not still be here, doing what we can to help others. 

At Fly to Soar, we’ve experienced the benefit of gratitude in two ways, one - expressing appreciation for the benefit of lightening the load for all with laughter for example, no matter how big the challenge and two - how one person’s success can lift an entire team. 

From Lenka and I - THANK YOU! For your patience, support, and most importantly, trusting us to assist you with growing your business.

Let us know how you and your company are doing. Contact Us or share on social media.  

Happy Holidays!

Fun Fact

Since 2015 REI, the outdoor apparel retail company, shows gratitude to their employees by closing their doors on Black Friday. Instead they launched a campaign with #OptOutside encouraged people to go outside, and paid their employees for the day. The impact is that many companies have followed them including Subaru, Meetup, etc. According to Edelman.com, their web traffic increased 36% on rei.com and they earned billions of impressions in the first 24 hours, 2.7 media impressions and 1.2 billion social impressions.