This Thanksgiving, Let’s Thank Our Team Members

This week is the very special time of Thanksgiving. The holiday calls to mind how we can be thankful at work.

We can all strive to be servant leaders. Servant leaders help others do great work to succeed, appreciate their team members, are thankful for the opportunity and responsibilities they have, and are likely very grateful for the good people who are their team members.

People want to do well, to succeed. The true problem team member is the exception, someone who we just cannot help. 

In addition, we can be thankful for bosses who are actually effective leaders, as they truly have a gift. Today, with the pressure to do more with fewer people and the acute accountability to meet financial targets, a great many bosses drive solely for financial results and do not invest the time to establish trusting and helpful relationships with their team members.

We want a boss focused on results, certainly, but also one who values those on her team and makes the time to have conversations with them, asking for their ideas and what they need to succeed.

Finally, we can be outwardly thankful for our coworkers in general. Many of us spend as much time with our coworkers as we do with our family and friends, so let’s recognize that appreciating our colleagues and team members matters – greatly!

Relationships are the foundation of enjoying our business and being successful as a leader. Let’s strive for an attitude of appreciation all year long, and then let’s express particular gratitude this week to those with whom we work, thanks for their dedication and good work.

And I would like to urge that our thanksgiving be expressed to all level of team members, from the people helping keep our offices clean, delivering our mail, and

our receptionist, right up to our CEO. Everyone is an important member of our team. Some of these people may not get the expression of thanks, the pats of the back, they deserve.

Our expressing our sincere thanks is a quality of common sense leadership.

I thank you for reading my weekly leadership posts and hope you find them helpful.