Acknowledge supporters in season of gratitude

Around the end of the year, we may tend to be a little more thoughtful and reflective. Plants and animals are hunkering down for the winter. You may be looking back at what happened in 2014 and feeling a bit depressed about the goals you haven’t met.

But it’s also a time of joy and appreciation. To look at all the great progress you’ve made, and opportunities which lie ahead.

None of our businesses succeeds without the support of those around it: partners, employees, suppliers, investors, and customers. This is a great time to convey gratitude for everyone’s contribution.

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It seems that fewer companies are sending out holiday cards recently. Perhaps that’s due to the recession, or changing social conventions around snail mail.

No matter. That’s not the only way to thank people.

Start out by just recognizing how important others are to the success of your business. Perhaps your employees make fun of customer behavior or get stressed because of year-end sales. But how deeply do they really understand that customers represent the revenue which lets you keep them employed?  It may be time to change attitudes and be grateful for those customers.

How deeply do you, personally, recognize the great gift that your employees are giving you every day?  Yes, some days it seems like there’s nothing but problems. But you couldn’t do this all by yourself, right?  Even if you had 100 hours every day? Your workers bring great talent, skills and diversity to let you keep customers satisfied.

Any company relies on external partners too, both formal and informal. Whether it’s to keep the books clean, give you legal advice, create a more compelling offer to the market, or help build a product, these people and businesses are as vital to your success as your workforce is. How wonderful to be able to maintain these win-win relationships!

Obviously I could go on and on. My point is that this is probably a much larger set of people than you typically think about.

And you’re thinking about them in a different way. Rather than focusing on the problems that people represent, it’s good to remind yourself that you really do receive a great deal of value.

It’s why your business can continue to do what it’s doing.

Next, you want to figure out great ways to express your gratitude to these people. There’s a lot of ways to do this, but I encourage you to think about what will spread the most goodwill.

When you receive a thank-you via email, how much impact does it have?  Even if it’s nicely formatted and fancy, chances are you look at it a few seconds and then discard it. An hour later, you probably don’t remember you received it.

A physical card through the postal service may make a deeper impression; you might even hang it up on the wall for awhile. But the cards with a personal handwritten message will be remembered, while the preprinted “Season’s Greetings from all of us at Acme Anvils” will just be a decoration.

What about a gift basket or similar token? Well, it again depends on how personal it is, and whether it feels like there’s any emotional connection behind it.

Perhaps you could buy someone lunch and have a real, personal, honest conversation – not to discuss issues, just to connect as human beings and be appreciative. Don’t you think someone’s going to remember that for awhile and be more inclined to want to continue contributing to your success?

I certainly understand that you need to be practical about this. It may not be possible for you to have lunch with each of 300 employees during the busiest season of the year. What if each manager, supervisor and team leader felt the need to connect with employees at this level? What if you spent some time in January when things aren’t quite as crazy?

It’s your role to be the leader of your company or organization. It’s time to inject some inspiration, humanity and gratitude into the way people work together.

Otherwise, it’s … just a job.

Carl Dierschow is a Small Fish Business Coach based in Fort Collins. His website is www.smallfish.us.