3 Ways to Spark Employee Passion

3 Ways to Spark Employee Passion

The key to passionate performance is found within the hearts and minds of employees where their basic human needs are fulfilled. It’s a simple but powerful formula: When their needs are fulfilled, they are engaged and perform at their peak ability. When their needs are not met, they are frustrated, out of control, unfocused, and disconnected. In a word, disengaged.

To meet these needs, leaders must first acknowledge and understand them. In order to do that, leaders must view their employees as people and not just workers. Once you do that, you will be able to identify their six basic needs--three of which are intellectual and the other three emotional. The goal of this post will be to highlight the three emotional needs: Purpose, Intimacy, and Appreciation.

Need #1:  Purpose
The need to contribute to something bigger than ourselves is a basic psychological need.  So,leaders must build a bridge between today’s tasks and brighter tomorrow. In essence, you need to create a compelling cause for your team to fight for. If your team’s “why” is strong enough, the “how” will take care of itself.

Need #2:  Intimacy
Nothing we achieve in this world is achieved alone. It is always achieved with others helping us along the way. We all want to--and need to--belong. As the leader, you can create connections with rituals.  Rituals create intimacy by making us feel special and unique from other teams. Ensure your rituals are natural to your leadership style and 100 percent reliable, whether it’s a Monday morning huddle up, a Friday birthday lunch, a quarterly community service day, or monthly performance recognition. The key is for them to be natural and reliable.

Need #3:  Appreciation
People do more for those who appreciate them. Although leaders widely recognize the need for appreciation, it tends to be a blind spot. That is, they generally believe they are much more appreciative of their teams than their teams think they are. The reason is that they do not convert their invisible thoughts of appreciation into visible acts of appreciation. With all of today’s technology options, it’s easy to find ourselves too busy for face-to-face interaction, but that’s one of the best ways to charge up our teams. Showing appreciation is not a matter of time and intention; rather, it’s a matter of priority and action.

This is basic psychology--reinforce those behaviors that you want to see more frequently. When you spot your team doing something right, praise them for it...and do it often. The key is to be sincere and specific. In other words, don’t fall into the trap of blurting out the robotic “Good job”. Take the time to thoughtfully explain why you appreciated the specific action taken by a team member.

In my next column I will highlight the three needs that drive performance. Put them together with the above needs and your will ignite passionate performance in your team!

By Lee Colan

Source: Inc.

What 16 Successful People Read in the Morning

What 16 Successful People Read in the Morning

Staying informed is a constant struggle for most of us, let alone people with high-profile, high-pressure jobs. There's usually not time to leisurely read a favorite paper over coffee. 

Yet catching up on news is an important part of what's often a very early morning for many of the world's most successful people.

Now we would like everyone to read Business Insider in the morning (or the afternoon), but it turns out some very important people have their own favorite sources of news. 

1. Warren Buffett starts his days with an assortment of national and local news.

The billionaire investor tells CNBC he reads the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, the New York Times, USA Today, the Omaha World-Herald, and the American Banker in the mornings. That's a hefty list to get through.

2. David Cush reads five newspapers and listens to sports radio on a bike at the gym.

The Virgin America CEO told the AP that he wakes up at 4:15 a.m. on the West Coast to send emails and call people on the East Coast. Then he heads to the gym, hops on an exercise bike, listens to Dallas sports radio, and reads his daily papers, which include the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, and Financial Times.

3. Bill Gates reads the national papers and gets a daily news digest.

The Microsoft co-founder gets a daily news digest with a wide array of topics, and he gets alerts for stories on Berkshire Hathaway, where he sits on the board of directors. Gates also reads the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Economist cover-to-cover, according to an interview with Fox Business.

4. Dave Girouard reads the New York Times and Wall Street Journal on his Nexus 7, and mixes in some Winston Churchill.

Girouard, CEO of Upstart and former president of Google Enterprise, told Business Insider that he's a big fan of Winston Churchill's speeches. He's currently reading "Never Give In! The Best of Winston Churchill's Speeches." For news, he scrolls through the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

5. David Heinemeier Hansson flicks through tech blogs.

The Danish programmer and creator of the programming language Ruby on Rails consumes a tech-filled fare each morning. He tells Business Insider that his daily round consists of Reddit, Hacker News, Engadget, the Economist, Boing Boing, and Twitter.

6. Jeffrey Immelt reads his papers in a very particular fashion. 

"I typically read the Wall Street Journal, from the center section out," the General Electric CEO told Fast Company. "Then I'll go to the Financial Times and scan the FTIndex and the second section. I'll read the New York Times business page and throw the rest away. I look at USA Today, the sports section first, business page second, and life third. I'll turn to Page Six of the New York Post and then a little bit on business."

7. Charlie Munger is devoted to the Economist. 

When Fox Business asked the Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman and right-hand man to Warren Buffett what he likes to read in the morning, Munger kept it simple. "The Economist," he said.

8. Gavin Newsom starts with Politico's Playbook email, and then reads each of California's major papers.

The California Attorney General told The Wire that he starts by rotating through the morning shows at 7 a.m., then moves to his iPad to read Playbook, the Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Los Angeles Times. Finally, he moves on to the news app Flipboard, through which he checks sites like Mashable and AllThingsD. 

9. Barack Obama reads the national papers, a blog or two, and some magazines.

The President of the United States told Rolling Stone he begins his day with the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post. He's a devoted reader of the Times' columnists, and also likes Andrew Sullivan, the New Yorker, and The Atlantic.

10. Jonah Peretti pulls out the business or sports section from the New York Times for the subway ride; his wife keeps the rest.

The Buzzfeed founder and CEO wakes up around 8:30 a.m. and heads into the office with the sports or business section of the New York Times, he tells The Wire. He also takes New York magazine; subscriptions to the New Yorker and Economist fell by the wayside after he had twins.

Still, like many younger leaders, the principle way he discovers information is through Twitter and Facebook. 

11. Steve Reinemund reads the Dallas Morning News and several national dailies.

The former PepsiCo CEO gets up promptly at 5:30 a.m. and heads downstairs with a stack of newspapers, Starwinar.com reports. He goes through the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Financial Times, as well as the Dallas Morning News.

12. Howard Schultz has kept his morning reading routine intact for 25 years.

In 2006, the Starbucks CEO told CNN Money that he gets up between 5 and 5:30 a.m., makes coffee, and then picks up three newspapers: the Seattle Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times. The habit must work, because he's stuck with it for more than two decades.

13. Nate Silver checks Twitter, Memeorandum, and Real Clear Politics pre-coffee in election years.

The FiveThirtyEight editor-in-chief shared his election-year reading habits with The Wire.

He starts with Twitter, Memeorandum, and Real Clear Politics before his coffee. He might hit the snooze button if nothing is breaking. Later come blogs like The Atlantic, Marginal Revolution, and Andrew Sullivan. 

14. Shepard Smith works on TV, but relies on the websites of the New York Post and New York Times.

The Fox News host tells AdWeek that he starts his day with the websites of The New York Post or New York Times. After that comes The Daily Beast, SportsGrid, and sometimes Buzzfeed. Then comes sites relevant to whatever is being covered that day, including lots of local newspapers.

It's a constant struggle to keep from being overwhelmed, he says. "If media were food, I would be obese," Smith says.

15. Chuck Todd catches up with at least one major newspaper from each state on Twitter.

Todd, NBC's Chief White House Correspondent, is up between 4:30 and 5 every morning, he tells AdWeek, and after catching up with dispatches and email updates, goes on Twitter to catch major news stories from local newspapers. 

"Twitter is the 21st century wire," Todd says. "I remember the first time I got access to the [Associated Press] 50-state wire in 1992, and at that time, there was nothing like it. Now Twitter is the same way. I’ve made my own powerful, worldwide newswire on politics and international affairs."

He also reads the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times on his iPad. 

16. Gary Whitehill supplements the Wall Street Journal with dozens of RSS feeds.

Sixty-three, to be precise. The Huffington Post reports that Whitehill, the founder of Entrepreneur Week, spends the first part of his day reading 40 pages in whatever his current book is, scanning through 63 RSS feeds, and perusing the Wall Street Journal.

By: Alison Griswold Maxnisen

Source: Inc.

How to Maximize the Benefits of Mentoring

How to Maximize the Benefits of Mentoring

I've been mentoring people and seeking mentoring myself for the past 12 years or so, mostly because I've decided that mentoring is not really an optional activity in business. People have an innate desire to pass on what they know. It's almost like the knowledge builds up in your head and needs to find a new host; and, the act of sharing strengthens what you know.

Here are a few things I've learned over the years to maximize the benefits:

1. Don't just seek a mentor--be one.

It's important to find a mentor for yourself and be a mentor to someone else at the same time. This means you receive and give at the same time. Not only do I seek out mentoring, but I usually have at least one person I'm pouring into. From my mentors over the years, I've learned about how to stay persistent in "selling" my freelance services, which pitfalls to avoid when it comes to my finances, and dealing with the dry periods in business that always come. I can't imagine not having someone who gives me counsel on a weekly basis.

2. Teach what you know.

You might think you are not a capable mentor yet. I like to spin the old adage "write about what you know" into "mentor about what you know" instead. A few years ago, I started mentoring a new writer, usually by email, and she blossomed quickly. Whenever there was a conflict with her work, I was there to offer tips from my own experience. The goal is to give just the right amount of advice and see if that person can take what they've learned and run with it. I'm not a "certified" instructor by any means; I just share what I know.

3. Avoid the trap of control.

One common mistake is to use mentoring as a form of coercion. In my corporate life, when I was much (ahem) younger, I sometimes mentored as a form of control. Someone on my team would need my advice, so I abused the privilege and offloaded my own work. "Oh, you want to learn about document management? Sure, here is a new project for you--get these documents managed by next Monday." Not good. Make sure your motives are pure--you just want to see the person flourish.

4. Seek mentoring for the right reason.

You can seek a mentor for the wrong reasons as well, usually as a way to get free advice you'd normally have to pay for. Under the ruse of seeking advice, I've picked the brain of someone to feed their ego but really had ulterior motives to pilfer information and advance my career. Not everyone has the best motives in seeking you as a mentor, and it's important to check your own motives. The goal is mutual learning.

5. Use your time wisely.

Mentoring takes time, so it's easy to burn cycles on the activity. One of my worst mentoring experiences took place about 10 years ago. I met with a guy who wanted to learn my profession and I shared what I knew. We met several times, and then he suddenly announced he had no interest in pursuing the field anymore. I should have looked for the signs: he didn't apply any of the practical tips, he was usually late to the meetings, and he had a few other irons in the fire besides. He was wasting my time.

6. Don't put it off too long.

If you are not mentoring anyone now, get with the program! Your lessons need a host. If you have started a new company and you're the one looking for the mentoring, don't waste any more time in finding a suitable advisor. As the old tech slogan goes, "information wants to be free," so what are you waiting for?

By John Brandon

Source: Inc.

The 6 Essential Characteristics People Look For in Leaders

The 6 Essential Characteristics People Look For in Leaders

More than half of leaders will fail. Some research, like a 2010 study by psychologists Joyce and Robert Hogan and Rob Kaiser, puts the base rate of failed leaders as high as 75 percent.

Yes, 75 percent – let that sink in.

With all of those failed supervisors, middle managers, and CEOs out there missing objectives, killing employee moral and decimating customer satisfaction levels, it’s no wonder our economy has been slow to recover. What’s more, there are overwhelming odds that, at some point, you’ll end up working for one of these jerks.

A leader is just someone others will follow

Leadership is one of the most written-about subjects in business, academic, and popular media, yet most organizations are clearly still unsure how to identify good leaders and, more importantly, how to prevent bad ones. Why? Part of the problem is that leadership is poorly defined.

In most organizations, leadership is a quality bestowed on an individual by virtue of his or her title – being a leader is as simple as being in charge. That seems right, but take a moment to think about how people typically advance in the large corporations of the world.

In the best cases, people get promoted based on their demonstrating mastery of their current role. More commonly, people get to the top by betraying their peers and subordinates, appeasing their supervisors, and navigating organizational politics.

At best, organizations gain a mediocre leader at the cost of an excellent individual contributor (research shows that most high performers would struggle at the next organizational level). At worst, they end up with a psychopath on the fast track to the C-suite.

A simpler, and more useful, definition of a leader is someone others are willing to follow.

6 essential leadership qualities

For millions of years, humans lived in egalitarian hunter-gatherer societies, and there was constant warfare between them. Leadership probably evolved as a mechanism that allowed normally selfish individuals to pull together for a common purpose – to compete with neighboring groups to defend territory and resources.

The groups that won proliferated; the groups that lost were eliminated from the gene pool. Therefore, a good leader is someone who is able to form and maintain a team that can outperform the competition (if you’re reading this, it means that your ancient ancestors either were or had pretty good leaders).

Using this definition, we can identify six essential characteristics individuals look for in leaders:

1. Integrity – People need to know that the person in charge won’t take advantage of his or her position – that they won’t lie, steal, play favorites, and betray subordinates.
2. Judgment  — Most failure is the result of bad decisions that are compounded by an unwillingness to evaluate and change direction.
3. Competence — Subordinates see leaders who lack business acumen as empty suits and are unwilling to follow them.
4. Vision — Good leaders explain to their teams the significance of their missions and how it fits into the larger scheme of things. By adopting a vision, people can transcend their selfish interests and develop impersonal ends for their actions.
5. Persistence — History’s most recent example of a great leader, Nelson Mandela, spent more than 27 years in prison and emerged on the other side more determined than ever.
6. Humility — The primary function of a leader is to persuade groups of inherently selfish humans to set aside their personal agendas and work toward a common goal. Followers expect to see that sacrifice reciprocated.

People must honestly assess their leaders

These six characteristics aren’t anything new. Millennia of human evolution have programmed us to look for and identify these qualities in our leaders, and we are naturally drawn to individuals who consistently display them and naturally resistant to individuals who display their opposites.

Good leaders will have teams with high performance, high engagement, and low turnover. Conversely, bad leaders will have teams with higher than average turnover – human beings are pretty resistant to working for a crummy boss.

The problem with this model is that it depends on asking employees to honestly assess their leaders, a step that those leaders are typically unwilling to take. Until leaders are willing to cede power back to their followers, the rate of failed leadership is unlikely to change.

By Ryan Daly

Source: TLNT

8 Traits of Great Sales People

8 Traits of Great Sales People

I recently performed an audit for a mid-sized company in which I examinined their sales staff against a standardized assessment test as well as their performance data. The results may confirm some of the things you already know, but there were some surprises. Here is a brief recap of the analysis.

When you look at the qualities of the great sales representatives for non-transactional sales--those sales that are larger and more complex in nature--they tend to share the following traits:

1. They assume parity with their customers--There is an imaginary hierarchy that average and poor-performing sales people place between themselves and their prospects. It includes head-trash like, "The customer is always right," and "You're the customer so you're the boss." The data says that the top sales representatives see themselves as problem-solvers worthy of equal respect with their customers. Respect always, deference rarely.
2. They are comfortable talking about money--This quality often starts back in the home in which they were raised and the beliefs that were held there about money. If there was a belief that money was a rare and precious thing to be horded or feared, then it shows up with a fundamental discomfort in discussing large numbers. Individuals that look at money as a measure of value, not as a number outside of personal grasp, typically do better in sales.
3. They challenge the decision-maker--The best sales representatives have a strong confidence in their understanding of the customer's market and their own solution--enough so that they are comfortable challenging inaccurate statements made by the customer. See my blog, Best Type of Sales Pro to Hire, for the data analysis; it is irrefutable.
4. They are comfortable with silence--Confidence is demonstrated as much in silence as in what you say. Top sales people can allow for measurable periods of silence in conversations with prospects. This creates an opportunity for the prospect to give consideration to what has been said rather than having to process the next piece of data given to them by the sales rep.
5. They show up prepared--This seems so common sense and yet when I administer these types of assessments the statistical fact is that most sales people--greater than 70 percent--are not well prepared for sales calls and meetings. They lack research, pre-call planning, a complete agenda agreed upon by the contact, and a tailored presentation to the prospect. The best have all of these things.
6. They don't rush--A study was done about physical demonstrations of confidence and power some time ago. The external view of two people moving was observed by a cross-section of people and questions were asked about which one had greater confidence, was paid more, and had a position of greater authority. They both wore similar attire, and were of the same body shape and age. The only distinguishing characteristic was the speed in which they performed their actions. The one who looked rushed always scored lower. An appearance of confidence in part comes from an appearance of control.
7. They ask great questions--This has been written about by me and many others. The data confirms that the higher-performing sales representatives ask more questions--often more than twice as many--and their questions are more focused on implications than on data. Put another way, they ask questions about what something means rather than just what it is.
8. They are impeccable in following up--Just like preparedness, this quality seems so simple but is often overlooked by poor performers. The best cover the details.

One more note: Great sales people score over the 50 percent mark on every one of these traits. That means that they are not super-high in one area and failures in the other areas. They are above the halfway mark on everything. That's their foundation. Then they knock the ball out of the park in their areas of personal strength.

By Tom Searcy

Source: Inc.

The Surprising Truth About Workplace Happiness

Most bosses understand (if only in theory) that happy employees are more productive than miserable ones. However, it turns out that many of the things that make employees happier don't make them more productive.

For example, companies often try to make their employees happier by trying to make the workplace more fun, like by having an onsite video game parlor and or an in-house gym. Other companies host community-building exercises to build a greater sense of connection.

Unfortunately, while these approaches may make employees happier, they probably don't increase employee productivity and may end up having the opposite effect. Let me explain.

Over the past three years, Harvard University researcher Matthew A. Killingsworth has been compiling data from users of a smartphone app called Track Your Happiness, which lets people report, in real time, how they actually feel.

The most surprising result of this study is that we're most often the happiest when we're lost in what we're doing, aka being "in the zone." Conversely, we become less happy when our minds wander.

Surprisingly, it doesn't really matter what we're doing when we're "in the zone," as long as we're not being distracted or in a situation where we're bored.

In other words, employees aren't more productive when they're happy. They're happy when they're focused, which can make them more productive as an accidental byproduct.

Therefore, an onsite video game parlor (for instance) can increase employee happiness because video games are mentally absorbing, but that happiness isn't going to translate into more productivity.

The Surprising Truth About Workplace Happiness

On the contrary, if the work itself doesn't allow the employee to focus and get "in the zone," the activity will suffer by comparison to the "fun" part of the workplace.

Rather than trying to make employees happy by adding a sugarcoat of "fun" to a bitter pill of work, companies should make it easier for employees to become absorbed in their work, thereby making them more productive and happier at the same time.

With this in mind, there are four obvious strategies:

1. Don't give people too much work.  When people are overloaded to the point where they know they can't get everything done, they immediately focus on how much work they've got to do, rather than on actually doing it.

2. Don't give people too little work.  When people don't have enough to do, their minds wander and, with time on their hands, start finding other things to focus on, like workplace gossip or, yes, playing video games.

3. Remove distractions from the workplace. Provide private or doubled-up offices rather than bullpens or cubicle farms. Reduce the overall noise level. Set aside time during the day where corporate email is disabled.

4. Institute work/life balance policies. Flexible work hours, remote working policies, and generous paid sick leave allow employees to handle the distractions of their personal lives on their own time, so that they can focus on work when they're actually working.

By Geoffrey James

Source: Inc.

10 Phrases Great Speakers Never Say

10 Phrases Great Speakers Never Say

While it's really hard to immediately win over a crowd, it's really easy for a speaker to lose the room within the first few minutes of a presentation.

To make sure you don't lose your audience, here's Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, serial entrepreneur and founder of TwitterCounter and The Next Web, with ten things you should never say during your presentations:

1. "I'm jet-lagged/tired/hungover."

Not sure where this comes from, but one in five presentations at any conference starts with an excuse: "They only invited me yesterday," or, "I'm really tired from my trip," or some other lame excuse the audience really doesn't want to hear.

We, the audience, just want to see you give it your best. If you feel like crap and can't give it your best, maybe you should have cancelled. Take a pill, drink an espresso and kill it!

2. "Can you hear me? Yes you can!"

This is how many people start their talks. They tap a microphone three times, shout, "Can you all hear me in the back?" and then smile apologetically when it becomes clear that, yes everybody can hear them, but no one raised their hand.

It isn't your responsibility to check the audio. There are people for that. (And if there aren't, test the volume ahead of time.)

But if you do speak into the microphone and get the impression it's not working, just relax, count to three, and try again. If you still think the sound isn't working, calmly walk to the edge of the stage and discreetly ask the moderator to check for you.

Throughout, smile at the audience and look confident. Assume everything works until proven otherwise, then stay calm and wait for a fix.

3. "I can't see you because the lights are too bright."

Yes, when you are on stage the lights are bright and hot and it will be difficult to see the audience. But they don't have to know about all that.

Just stare into the dark, smile often, and act like you feel right at home. Feel free to walk into the audience if you want to see them up close.

And don't cover your eyes to see people but politely ask the lights person to turn up the lights in the room if you want to count hands or ask the audience a question. Even better, talk to the lights people in advance so they know when you will ask them to raise the lights.

4. "I'll get back to that later."

If you happen to stumble on an audience eager to learn and interact, grab that chance and enjoy it. If someone has a question you will address in a later slide just skip to it right away.

If someone is brave enough to raise their hand and ask you a question, compliment them and invite the rest of the audience to do the same. Never delay anything.

5. "Can you read this?"

The common rule is to make the font size on your slides twice the size of the average age of the audience. Yes, that means that if you expect the audience to be 40 then on average you are stuck with a font size of 80 points.

You won't be able to fit a lot of text on the slide, which is a good thing and brings us to the next point.

6. "Let me read this out loud for you."

Never ever, ever, ever in a million years add so much text to a slide that people will spend time reading it. And if you do, make damn sure you don't read it out loud for them.

The best way to lose your audience's attention is to add text to a slide. Here's what happens when you have more than four words on a slide: people start reading it. And what happens when start reading? They stop listening to you.

Only use short titles on slides, and memorize any text you want the audience to read. Or, if you must include an awesome three-sentence quote, announce that everyone should read the quote and then be quiet for six to ten seconds so they can actually read it.

7. "Shut off your phone/laptop/tablet."

Once upon a time you could ask an audience to shut off their devices. Not anymore. Now people tweet the awesome quotes you produce or take notes on their iPads. Or they play solitaire or check Facebook.

You can ask for the audience to turn their phones to silent mode, but apart from that you just have to make sure that your talk is so incredibly inspiring they will close their laptops because they don't want to miss a second.

Demanding attention doesn't work. Earn attention instead.

8. "You don't need to write anything down or take photos; the presentation will be online later."

It is really cool that you will upload your presentation later. But if it's a good presentation it won't contain too many words (see point 4) and won't be of much use to the audience.

For many people the act of writing is an easy way to memorize something they've heard. In short, allow people to do whatever they want during your presentations.

9. "Let me answer that question."

Of course it is awesome if you answer a question right away, but you need to do something else first. Often the question from an audience member will be clear to you but not to the rest of the audience.

So please say, "I'll repeat that question first so everybody can hear it," and then answer it.

Plus, when you make a habit of repeating questions, that gives you a little more time to think of an awesome answer.

10. "I'll keep it short."

This is a promise no one keeps. But a lot of presentations start that way!

The audience really doesn't care if you keep it short or not. They've invested their time and just want to be informed and inspired. So say, "This presentation is going to change your life," or, "This presentation is scheduled to take 30 minutes, but I'll do it in 25 minutes so you can go out and have a coffee earlier than expected."

Then all you have to do is keep that promise, which brings me to the last point.

Bonus tip: "What, I'm out of time? But I have 23 more slides!"

If you come unprepared and need more time than allowed, you've screwed up. You must practice your presentation and make it fit within the allotted time.

Better yet, end five minutes early and ask if anyone has questions. If they don't, invite them for a coffee to talk one-on-one. Giving an audience five minutes back earns their respect and gratitude. Taking an extra five annoys and alienates them.

Conclusion: come prepared, be yourself and be professional. The audience will love you for being clear, for being serious, and for not wasting their time.

By: Jeff Haden

Source: Inc.

A Gratitude Guide for 2014

A Gratitude Guide for 2014

As we jump into another year, it's important to set aside time to consider the people who make a difference in our lives and in our businesses, to be grateful for the roles they play, and to let them know how much we value them. It only takes a minute (and often less) to express our gratitude, but the impact can be very powerful.

So, to kick the year off on a happy note (maybe even a handwritten one) make sure you acknowledge:

Your People

Always remember that it's your employees who either make or break your business, and your business can only be as good as they are. Be grateful to your people, and regularly take time out of your busy day to thank them for their good work. Follow the example of the CEO of Paragon Steakhouse, who keeps a stack of notecards on his desk to write personal notes of thanks to employees at the end of each workday.

Your Customers

Without customers, of course, you don't have a business. Sure, they can sometimes be demanding, unreasonable, and a pain to deal with, but if you want your business to grow and thrive, you need them (perhaps more than they need you). Be grateful for your customers, and be sure they know you care about them. The fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies given out by DoubleTree hotels to guests upon check-in (60,000 a day!) is just one way the company shows it cares about its customers.

Your Vendors

It's easy to forget to be grateful to the vendors and other business partners that provide you with the materials, supplies, and services that your business needs to operate. But they are a vital and long-term part of your ability to serve your own customers, and you should be grateful to have them on your team. One South Carolina furniture retailer holds an annual Vendor Appreciation Day, where representatives of the company’s more than 30 vendors are offered breakfast, lunch, and cocktails, hourly door prizes, and jars of company owner Dana McQueen’s popular homemade pepper jelly.

Your Colleagues

Your colleagues are the people you turn to when you’ve got questions about how things work, how best to navigate a particular company policy or procedure, how to make a connection with a member of their business or other networks, and much more. Ten team members at Burlington Massachusetts-based PR firm Davies Murphy Group were invited to attend a business meeting by a colleague, which turned out to be a complementary lunch at a local restaurant.

Your Mentors

Many of us have mentors at work: the people who helped show us the ropes as we became acclimated to a new organization or as we worked our way up the ladder. Thank your mentors with a personal thank-you note, or consider posting a tribute to your mentors on the Harvard Mentoring Project website during January, which just happens to be National Mentoring Month.

Your Community

Businesses naturally become an integral part of the communities in which they do business--they hire its people, contribute to the tax base, become points of local pride, and much more. Show gratitude to your community by regularly giving back in any way you can. Instead of writing checks, Angela Massaro-Fain, president of Grapevine Communications in Sarasota, Florida, offers free strategic marketing, PR, and design services to local nonprofits.

Your Friends and Family

They are the ultimate bottom line: the family and friends who love and sustain us through good times and bad. It’s for them that we work so hard to succeed. Show your gratitude every day by being there for them, taking time to listen to them, giving them a warm hug, and by telling them you love and appreciate them. Remember to spend quality time with family and friends. As the old saying goes, no one on their deathbed ever wished they had spent more time at work.

By Peter Economy

Source: Inc.