It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada, and I’m curious about the impact of gratitude on your leadership. I tell a story about my boss in ‘church land’, Peter Elliott, the Dean of New Westminster.  I was leaving my office at the cathedral late one afternoon and I poked my head into his office and said, facetiously, “my work here is done!” He replied smiling, without skipping a beat, “not by a long shot!” I was quite touched; my work was appreciated, noticed and important, all in 5 short words.

For this week then I’d like to offer an exercise. Take the time to reflect on a leader who thanked you sincerely, and what it meant for you, and for your development. Then, pay that forward; who in your organization needs to be thanked (this could be quite a long list), and go and thank them, specifically and sincerely for their contribution and what it means for the success of the organization. And thirdly, check with yourself again, how did it feel for you to articulate that gratitiude? What did you notice inside of you about the interaction with the person?

Next week, I’ll follow up on this exercise. In the meantime, my hope is that each of us finds a person to thank, and as importantly, that each of us is thanked.