Thanksgiving background with leaves and message
Thanksgiving is just around the corner, so there’s no better time to reflect on the people and things you’re grateful for as a business leader. As I think about my own entrepreneurial journey, I’m filled with appreciation for the team members who have dedicated themselves to helping our business reach its goals, often when the odds were stacked against us. I know I’m not the only grateful entrepreneur, and this month, I connected with 10 founders and executives to learn how they express their thanks to their teams.
1. David Lesniak, CEO, Personiv
Lesniak has noticed that employees do their best work when they feel appreciated. “Giving back to your team builds long-term loyalty, and showing them they are appreciated makes them brand ambassadors with a passion for the company,” he explains. “This inevitably leads to happy customers and overall business growth.” Recognizing team members in front of their peers and giving credit where it’s due are part of his ongoing initiative to invest in the people around him.
“As a business leader, I make employee investment a top priority and consider a strong focus on employees to be vital to the health of the business,” says Lesniak. “Part of that focus is giving back to my team with meaningful team-building experiences.” Each year, he takes his employees to the mountains to focus on camaraderie and teamwork — this year, the group summited Mount Kilimanjaro! The annual experience is just one component of Personiv’s focus on building a culture that employees truly want to be a part of.
2. Dhiraj Sharma, Founder and CEO, Simpplr
Employees know when gratitude is genuine and when it’s simply a display. That’s why Sharma believes authenticity is a vital part of expressing gratitude the right way, and he strives to be thoughtful in how he shows thanks. “Reward employees with experiences, not just gifts or money,” he says. “A fun thing I’ve had my managers do is drive their team to the mall, give them a gift card, and tell them they have an hour to spend it. The rush and memories of the experience last longer than the bonus.”
Sharma also believes in meeting employees where they are when it comes to showing appreciation. “Gratitude and rewards are taken differently,” he observes. “Some of my team members love public accolades, others want further development. Others just want to have dinner with their families.” Expressing thoughtful gratitude requires leaders to understand what drives their employees. He adds that this genuine thankfulness should be part of every leader’s ethos.
3. LaDonna Greiner, CEO and Gratitude Guide, LG Consulting & Training LLC
Greiner is a sole proprietor, which means her team looks a little different from the average corporate team. She partners with subcontractors — including graphic designers, printers, proofreaders, and others — and works hard to make sure they know how much she appreciates them. “After every job, I send an email letting them know what a great job they did and thanking them for the timely response to my order,” she says. “Also, I send them referrals, give shout-outs on social media, and publicly acknowledge them when appropriate.”
Greiner believes that treating people with grace and gratitude helps build the foundation for lasting, productive relationships. Not every professional partnership is going to be perfect, but she believes your perspective inevitably influences your results. As you notice good qualities in the people around you, call them out when you express gratitude. Being specific with your appreciation not only feels more genuine to recipients, but it also encourages them to keep adding value via their unique skill sets.
4. Anuj Shah, M.D., Founder and Director, Apex Heart and Vascular Care
As an interventional cardiologist, Shah works on some extremely challenging clinical cases. Business issues typically pale in comparison to the life-or-death scenarios he encounters daily while treating patients, and his experiences have reminded him to be grateful for the journey, not just outcomes. “People often focus on where they are and where they could be on the growth trajectory of their business — the ‘forward gap’ if you will, but they often forget to be grateful for where they are and where they started from — the ‘reverse gap,’” says Shah.
He records his gratitude in a journal, which serves both as a personal reminder to be grateful and a reminder of how far Shah and his team have come as caregivers. He makes sure team members express appreciation toward one another for even the smallest of accomplishments, believing that personal growth must always precede business growth. For Shah, creating a culture of support and gratitude results in more efficiency, better relationships with patients, a more confident workforce, and absolute transparency and ownership of every task.
5. Tommy Mayes, Partner, Blueprint Investment Partners
Mayes learned early in life the value of thanking people who may not normally receive thanks. As a young man working in a small-town grocery store, he developed an appreciation for engaging with team members and customers, no matter their role or status. He also believes gratitude is about more than just saying thanks. “I think the expression of genuine interest implies true gratitude for a colleague and improves relationship capacity significantly,” says Mayes.
At Blueprint, Mayes and his team begin every week by gathering together to share one thing that each of them is grateful for. The exercise is part of an effort to develop the team’s collective emotional intelligence. “Much has been written about emotional intelligence at the individual level,” he notes. “I believe that increased EQ also happens at the team level.” By regularly expressing gratitude in a group setting, Mayes and his team cultivate empathy and are able to create a more trusting work environment.
6. Sara Dahan, Community Strategist, Founder and CEO, Catalyst
Dahan, too, has worked hard to make gratitude a pillar of her company’s culture. She knows that regularly showing her gratitude to employees keeps them passionate and motivated, and she appreciates when they do the same, as it helps her understand which flavors of leadership resonate with them.
At Catalyst, gratitude isn’t just an internal initiative; it guides customer interactions, too. “As a community strategist, I often discuss how a key tactic for building brand loyalty among consumers is frequently practicing gratitude toward your audience — both in a broad sense and toward specific people,” says Dahan. “These two ‘communities’ — internal and external — operate in similar ways and even support each other.” For Dahan and her team, building marketing strategies around empathy, gratitude, and connection reinforce the importance of those values internally and contribute to a thriving company culture.
7. Erica Douglass, Co-Owner, 1Up Repairs
Douglass believes that a culture of gratitude depends on a workforce of quality people, which is why she makes recruiting and retention a top company priority. Douglass and her operations team work hard to accommodate employees when schedules change and to help out when challenges arise. When one employee suddenly needed major car repairs, for instance, executives steered him to a shop run by a trusted friend, who gave him a great deal on the repair. They also loaned him a vehicle to use while his was in the shop.
Looking out for employees both professionally and personally shows the type of authentic gratitude other leaders on this list have stressed. For Douglass, it’s also about retention. Good people want to work for companies that care about them, and regularly expressing your appreciation — in words and actions — reminds them why they chose to work for you.
8. Penny Soo, Brand Strategist and Founder, Penny Soo Branding
As the leader of a small team consisting of members working remotely from various time zones, Soo strives to turn challenges into strengths. Rather than causing communication issues, her team’s remote setup allows for flexibility that other companies can’t provide. Offering employees scheduling flexibility is also one way she demonstrates gratitude, compassion, and trust, which her team rewards by doing great work.
The team keeps a Positivity Log on Google Docs, where members track daily and monthly successes to help build team confidence and morale. Soo also strives to ensure the language she uses is inclusive and encouraging. “‘We’ is used in our communication a lot because the business is not about me. Everyone is equally important to make it work,” she says. Seemingly small linguistic nuances can actually play a big role in how your communications as a leader are received.
9. Victoria Brodsky, Co-Founder, BlockchainBTM
Brodsky also leads a team that is mostly remote, and she strives to make the most of the limited face-to-face time she gets with employees each week via video calls or in-person meetings. For Brodsky and her team, ensuring that each individual feels his or her voice is heard is a big part of expressing gratitude, and consistency is vital. “We always follow up every call, meeting, or event with a ‘thank you,’ even though there may not be a specific action item,” she says.
In Brodsky’s experience, practicing good leadership is inseparable from practicing gratitude. “When you express gratitude towards your team members and business partners, you are showing them that you want them to be there and you desire the good work they do,” she says. By highlighting their importance and purpose in your organization, you are empowering them to lead in turn.
10. Dan Lucas, President, Credo CFOs and CPAs
Lucas believes that practicing gratitude is a spiritual imperative, which is why he makes it a point to pray for his team regularly. He’ll also identify one team member each month to place extra focus on, ensuring that individual knows he or she is valued and appreciated. “I habitually check in with everyone to make sure they feel like they are contributing, and I do my best to show them the terrible butterfly effect the company would have without them. A conversation about why they are critical to the company naturally leads to gratefulness conversation,” Lucas says.
Lucas understands that everyone has different skills and contributes in different ways, and he believes that leaders must remain humble when they reflect on their achievements and goals. “In my quiet time, I always praise my team and get very specific, as a reminder of how unsuccessful ‘I’ would be without them,” he notes. “Keeping my heart in the right place is a practice in gratitude that can ooze out into the office in various ways.”
