Gratitude in Leadership: Unlocking the Heart of Impactful Relationships

What if the secret to stronger relationships, more collaboration, and a thriving workplace culture was as simple as gratitude?

In this episode of the Entrusted to Lead podcast, Danita Cummins dives deep into the transformative power of gratitude in leadership. Whether you're leading a team, a family, or yourself, discover actionable tools to foster trust, collaboration, and a positive culture. Danita shares how acknowledging efforts, creating safe spaces, and celebrating wins can lead to resilience, innovation, and deeper connections. Tune in to embrace gratitude as a mindset and lead with heart.

Key Takeaways:

• Gratitude builds trust and strengthens team relationships.
• How positive energy impacts team culture and individual well-being.
• Practical tips for embedding gratitude into daily leadership practices.

Check out this article from Psychology Today about how the heart is your superpower:  https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/building-the-habit-of-hero/202011/the-hearts-electromagnetic-field-is-your-superpower

Transcript

Hey friends, welcome to the entrusted to lead podcast. I'm Danita Cummins. And today we're talking all about gratitude. I know it's one of those weird topics like transparency or authenticity or emotional intelligence, but I'm pretty sure that at the end of today's episode, you are going to get some tools and techniques that you can use to lead yourself and others as well.

So grab your cup of coffee and let's get started. 

In my leadership circles, I hear a lot about what is and what isn't effective leadership traits. I'm Danita Cummins. Probably you do too, but at the core of my heart and why I started this podcast two years ago was because of this one simple truth. Leadership isn't just about strategy or outcomes or results.

It's about the people at its heart. Leadership is rooted in relationships and one of the most powerful ways to strengthen those relationships is through gratitude.  Gratitude can transform how we connect with our teams or our communities, how we inspire trust and create a culture of collaboration. So today we're going to dive into the elements of gratitude, but the authentic ones, okay?

The ones that make our hearts pull and in person's direction, the ones that make us feel and believe that we are seen and valued and respected for the work that we do and the sacrifices that we make for those that we support and care about.  So today is kind of a behind the scenes reverse engineering look at gratitude for leaders.

What if you aren't currently leading a team or anyone more than maybe yourself or your family, then stay tuned because this rings true for every person, no matter the size of your field of influence.  First, gratitude starts with acknowledgement. When leaders take the time to recognize the efforts and contributions of their teams, it shows that their work matters, right?

We all know this, but sometimes it often gets overlooked and the question is why  the best times that I have seen genuine gratitude have a positive impact is when that leader or person offers a heartfelt thank you in a meeting or in a side conversation, a text, an email, something small, but it has to come from the heart.

And we know that it could be when the leader acknowledges that the team has put in that hard work to get the project completed. The time that they spent working hours over the weekend or evenings on a proposal or the extra time they worked or how far they went when they were volunteering or supporting someone in, in the community, a sincere thank you, or public recognition does help people feel valued.

I know it seems super simple, but that sense of appreciation builds trust and it creates deeper connection with the team. So when people feel seen and respected and they believe that their contribution is valued, then they're more likely to trust the team. But gratitude doesn't just strengthen trust. It also Fosters a positive culture, which is what we all really want, right?

How many YouTube videos or LinkedIn posts have you seen where it talks about how we create healthy culture? When leaders model gratitude, it becomes a habit that spreads throughout the organization. The culture of gratitude encourages collaboration, it boosts morale, and it makes the workplace an enjoyable space to grow and contribute. 

Employees who feel appreciated are more likely to be engaged, innovative, and committed to the organization's mission. So it's kind of like a litmus test for you. When you take a step back and say, what kind of culture are we creating in our organization? Do people feel seen and valued? Then you can look and you can ask these questions.

Do they collaborate on their own?  Do they have a boosted morale or do they seem like they genuinely enjoy the work that they're doing? And when they're asked to do daily tasks in meetings or projects, or when someone asks them for assistance, do they genuinely offer to say, sure, I'll help you. What do you need? 

Those are some of the key indicators that your team feels valued. You can look back as a leader and just do a quick assessment and say, does my team have a positive energy or are there people on the team that are potentially  overlooked or unappreciated?  So this is why it's so important as leaders and as parents for us to know and understand the people on our team.

Right? Not everyone seeks positive affirmation. Not everyone seeks this public post it notes or signs on their door or big parties in the boardroom, but the energy that that positive affirmation creates can resonate around the room, and it can actually resonate around a zoom screen, too. We've seen it.

Where that kind of ripple of energy floats through the computer screen and those non verbals are fully present where we are. And we can still feel the energy of the other person on the other side of the screen, even if we're not directly sitting in the room with them. Recently on a podcast, a guest shared that the electromagnetic energy field of the heart radiates three feet from the body.

So after she and I had this really great conversation, I decided I needed to do some research. And sure enough, I found an article in Psychology Today written by Raja Paran in 2020 that I'll post in the show notes that explains how the heart's electromagnetic field is your superpower, which of course I love. 

So here are the three points that this article says.  First, it's that positive emotions such as love generate a harmonious pattern in the heart's rhythm, leading to coherence and greater emotional regulation. So there's definitely this heart brain connection, which we all know, and there's a ton more research out there, which we definitely know as well.

But right now we're just going to say and understand that these positive emotions generate and regulate. A harmonious pattern in your heart rhythm and that will lead to this synergy So  if you're doing something that you really love right or if you're in your flow You tend to have a better attitude.

All of your endorphins are being released and there's a positive energy We're going to talk a little bit more about this later this month with my guest diane allen. So stay tuned for that  But the important part for the conversation that we're talking about today is how this positive energy radiates from our heart to the world.

The second point in the article said that the heart's energy is said to reach about three feet outside the physical body, which again, I think is phenomenal. We can study that more later.  And then number three, it says that it's possible to train the heart using positive emotions. So that the brain more consistently releases these chemicals that support healing and wellbeing.

So these are the three powerful points from the article that I'm referencing today. But the bottom line really is that gratitude is a positive emotion, right? It's rooted in that servant leadership model where we love others as we love ourselves, which is so super important. And when we live in a posture of humility and gratitude, your behaviors and your actions do radiate like rings in a pond.

Into others, right? Just imagine it close your eyes and imagine it and I know that we all know this But I think sometimes we need to be reminded how much of an impact we can have on others around us Just by the feelings we feel and the gratitude or grace that we show others It's so important  in this last season of my life And as I reflected over the thanksgiving holiday about the people that are no longer in my life.

I realized how much space You One person holds in the world. I'm sure you can imagine your dinner table with someone missing or a particular special moment in your life where you don't get to share that amazing, beautiful, wonderful, hard thing with someone that you love. And I just think about how much our hearts matter  to ourselves, to the work that we do, to the community where we live and serve, to our families.

Like our hearts truly do matter. And just from a physical electromagnetic fields of force energy perspective, I think there's so much more there that we don't fully understand. And so my offering or encouragement would be for you today to just really take a moment and think about the people that you love.

Are surrounding you every day, the people that are on your teams, the people that are in your homes, the people that you serve with the people that you  have conflict with and just really take a step back and and think about that from the place of like, am I showing gratitude? In these spaces, am I genuinely leading them from a place of positive emotions and positive affirmations, or am I so head down, so focused on the task in front of me, so checklist minded that I miss the people?

And their hearts that are sitting right in front of me every single day.  Gratitude is a powerful tool for navigating challenges  and change. And leadership often comes with adversity. Let's face it. We're continuously trying to balance work, life, teams, deadlines, profit margins, layoffs, etc. I get it. I get it. 

But gratitude helps us maintain perspective during all those difficult times. My husband's new favorite term is don't try to bowl the ocean. I don't really know why he's decided to use it recently, but it's becoming a normal conversation and statement in our home.  So there's this natural tension that we're all going to live in,  and we often get discouraged by all the things that we don't have or all the things that we didn't get to do. 

It's this scarcity mindset where our mind gets super focused on the tunnel and we can only see the thing that's right in front of us. And that's good for a period of time.  Scarcity and tunneling are good for a moment. It gets us through the storm. It gets us through the hard thing. It gets us the ability to like buckle down and knock out the thing that's in front of us, but that's not a long term mode of operation.

Right. That's not a sustainable mindset. That's not something that's going to really energize and bring life into our teams, our organizations, and into our hearts.  So when we're in the state of overwhelm or frustration, and we get that close minded survival, fight or flight instinct, we just don't see the other things that are going on, right?

We might not be able to read other people's emotions as well, because we're trying to get through the day. And teams and CEOs and leaders of organizations. Are no different  by focusing on what's working or celebrating small wins. Leaders can inspire resilience and optimism, and we need both of those things, right?

If there's anything that we've learned in the last few years, we need both. We need resilience because we don't know what tomorrow is going to bring and we need optimism because we're going to get through this despite whatever storm is in front of us. That's called hope.  So expressing gratitude in the tough moments reminds us that our efforts do matter  and that they're noticed by others  and that they are and do make an impact even when the results aren't perfect. 

This perspective helps us to find joy in the journey, which I always like to say. It's like when we're striving to reach for perfection, but secretly we know that that might not ever actually be possible. And that's okay, too.  Another element is that gratitude nurtures growth and innovation. People are more likely to take risks and share new ideas when they feel safe.

And safety implies trust. Trust contains credibility and respect and intimacy. And I talk about this along with the scarcity mindset in my book, Promise Over Purpose. But where trust is the core of many of our issues, it is also the catalyst of our greatest successes. Gratitude creates a sense of safety when team members know that their efforts and inputs are valued, even if things don't go as planned. 

So by focusing on progress rather than just the results, leaders can encourage their teams to strive for excellence, but also give them the space to be authentic and vulnerable when new challenges arise, because they will arise, right? Right.  In my role as a business strategist and nonprofit leader, I think that gratitude, trust, empathy and humility are some of the most important elements that we can demonstrate to our teams and the world. 

You only need to turn on the news to see the fear and the distrust in the marketplace, in ministry and on the mission field, and each of us can incorporate gratitude at some level of our leadership journey. And while it isn't complicated, it does require intentionality, friend. Some actions like thanking a colleague or highlighting achievements in a team meeting or sending a personal note of gratitude or appreciation can make a significant impact.

Gratitude transforms relationships and it creates a foundation of trust, connection, and collaboration. As leaders, it's essential to remember that gratitude isn't just a moment. It's a mindset. The more transparent we become as leaders, the more our teams can thrive. I truly believe that. So by embracing gratitude as a core part of how we lead, we can inspire others, we can strengthen our teams and we can create a positive lasting impact, which at the end of the day is actually really what we want.

We want to know that our time, talents and treasures matter. We want to know that we are being a good steward of the things that we put our hand to. And we want that thing, whatever it is, business, ministry, government, nonprofit, to be successful. We want to make the impact that we believe we are uniquely called and designed to make.

It's a deep core element about who we are as humans. And so I challenge you this week to find three ways to display gratitude to your team or your family or both Both would be so much better  and you can leave a comment about what works for you Or when you felt authentically valued by your team, so I encourage you to share your thoughts with others  You might not be able to tell your boss at work that I feel valued when you do xyz But I would encourage you to try  But you can definitely strengthen and encourage the relationship that you have with your team. 

And as we close, I just want to say that I'm eternally grateful for you. And I'm not saying that just because we're doing a podcast today about gratitude. I am super thankful for you. I've been humbly blessed by this podcast for the last two years. We're getting to the end of 2024, which I know you all know,  and we're working on some 2025 strategies and things that we're going to be launching in the spring.

So I'm super excited to share that with you. Over the next few weeks as we close out 2024, but I just wanted to say thank you again so much for supporting me on my writing journey this year. If you haven't had a chance to jump over to promiseoverpurpose.  com, you can check out the details about the book.

The audio book will be coming out in a few weeks. So stay tuned for that  and don't forget to jump over to the entrusted to lead newsletters. Sign up for that. If you want to be a part of the community to get the latest updates on what's going on in my world. 

Okay, friends, I hope that you have an amazing day. Keep showing up every day, even when it hurts because you matter, I'll see you later.