Employee Engagement is a huge concern for many leaders today. There are statistics all over the place highlighting the current state of employee engagement in the workforce and the numbers are staggering.

In its State of the Global Workplace Report 2023 , Gallup says the majority of employees (59%) are ‘quiet-quitting’ or doing the bare minimum.

Scary numbers for sure but don’t sweat it, there are two words and a simple habit that can help improve that percentage. The Power of Thank You.

Reflection

When was the last time that someone, completely out of the blue, reached out to you and said, “Thank You”?

If you have been fortunate enough to have that happen, how did you react to that? How did that make you feel? How did that improve your day?

My Journey

Many years ago, I was reading a blog post on JamesClear.com and he talked about the importance of saying “Thank You”. We have all heard the value and benefit of saying thank you our entire lives, but for whatever reason, it struck a chord with me that day while reading the blog post.

Around the same time, I had a process where I would set personal development goals each quarter. After reading the post, I decided my next personal development goal was going to be the following, “say ‘thank you’ to one colleague each day”.

The Snowball Begins

It was November 2015, and this was going to be my goal for the 1st quarter of 2016. I ended up doing it for an entire year, from November 2015 through December 2016. To track my progress on this goal, I created a chart that had 52 weeks with 5 boxes for each week. I would then mark an X in each box for each day of the week that I said, “Thank you.”

When I first started this, as expected, it felt a little overwhelming and awkward. I found it challenging to identify a “thank you” situation each day and then further challenging to find the time to say the “thank you”.

Like anything new, it took a little bit of time to get into a rhythm with the new habit, but soon it was no longer overwhelming. Once the new habit became more of a routine, I then began to see the benefit and power of saying thank you.

The Positive Ripple Effect

The first benefit I found through this development goal was that it was forcing my brain to look for something positive each day. As I went through each workday, I was training my brain to open up more and recognize positive interactions and/or results as well as think about who helped or influenced the situations.

We have all heard the term “misery loves company” and it is very easy, as you go through the whirlwind of the day to only pay attention to the negative things. This new process helped break through that negative pattern. On bad days, and we all have them, this helped shift my mindset towards the positive. It wouldn’t always put me in the best mood, but it would help raise my level of positivity.

The second, and probably the biggest benefit I learned during this process, was the power of thank you. The reactions that I would receive to my “thank you” were unbelievable. I always tried to say thank you in person or over the phone and in those situations, I would instantly see a smile and warm response back. If I couldn’t deliver the thank you in person or via phone, I would use email. Again, the email replies had a warm tone to them.

However, the most surprising thing to me was how caught off guard or surprised people were to hear those words. I soon realized that people do not hear the term “thank you” enough. Before long, I found myself looking forward to the “thank you” and you could even say I was motivated to look for opportunities. The thank you lifted people or gave them a boost and confidence, and other times it helped cut through the ice or break down barriers. There was NO downside.

As the year went on, I began to enjoy saying thank you and seeing the impact that it had on the individual or the working relationship with the individual.

I started to push myself to scan a larger set of colleagues that possibly warranted a thank you. The benefits and improved working relationships opened my eyes to the idea that saying thank you was a gateway to opportunities and making an impact. It was a powerful and useful leadership tool.

The last thing I learned through this was that every time I said thank you, I felt good. I felt more positive, and it lifted me and improved my day. This was a great ripple effect that I never expected or intended to have happen.

Drive Change

As a leader or a colleague, the simple act of saying thank you can have a powerful impact.

Now, the question is:

When was the last time you said "Thank You?"

For your enjoyment, here is a picture of my old habit tracker.