The Power of Gratitude in Business

“Thank you” are two powerful words that can uplift someone, build bridges and strengthen relationships. It is a significant aspect of life, even in business and in the workplace. 

Gratitude and appreciation are types of affirmation of something that is good, magnifying positivity and encouraging people to perform better. With this, entrepreneurs and business owners see the value of thanking their staff members, partners, and clients and putting effort into expressing it in various ways.

For Hayden Brass, Founder and Managing Director of Zea, “This is an aspect that we find so important, particularly for our staff and customers. With our staff, we are a fully remote team even before COVID, so it is vital for us to continue to connect with them and remind them they are part of a team with a great purpose.”

There are so many ways to show gratitude towards others. David Fastuca, CMO and Co-Founder of Locomote, shared his personal take on this. “I take a really simplistic approach to this and just think, how do I want to be thanked?”

David cited some examples. “I do a role reversal. If I'm a customer of someone else's, how do I want to be thanked? There are a couple of ways. I just try to be really genuine and thank them, where I send a little video message thanking them for working with us. I don't do any of the gifts or sorts of stuff because they probably get 100 different gifts. If I gift them, it's based on me really knowing them. They might love arts and crafts, so I may send them something that's relatable to that. Otherwise, I try and help them in their role. If I know that they're in sales I try and refer customers to them. If they're a founder of a business and we've done some work together or they're a customer of mine, I'll try and reciprocate and then recommend someone to them. If they're looking for a particular type of service, I really think about it and put myself in their shoes – what would I like and how would I like to be treated, and then I try and do more of that to my customers and try and help them succeed in their roles even if it's got nothing to do with what we provide,” he said.

Studies have shown that gratitude evokes a feeling of positivity, happiness and satisfaction. It also helps in improving health and decreasing stress levels. This is why gratitude, when expressed sincerely, can be a significant factor in strengthening relationships in business and in the workplace.

Hayden also shared how they extend gratitude to their team members, partners and customers. Within their organisation, “We conduct 1-2 retreats per year, try and have a team-building exercise of some kind at least once a quarter, and regularly celebrate birthdays and other occasions in their personal life. It’s to remind them that we are human and to show that we care about them in both their work and personal lives.”

With regards to their clientele, Hayden noted, “For our customers, we are always trying to go above and beyond with their experience so that it will be memorable and will hopefully see them come back to us in the future. This is why we place such a key focus on customer service and making sure we not only answer their questions but try and give them an experience that is beyond the norm.”

When it comes to those they do business with, this is what they do as a sign of gratitude. “And finally, with our partners, such as manufacturers and suppliers, we try and treat them with respect and loyalty. We understand how difficult it can be to run a business, particularly an SME, so we are always trying to be professional but also respectful of the challenges we are both facing and coming to a solution together. When we are establishing a relationship with a key partner for the first time, it has been important for me to build trust in the relationship from the outset. Some of our longest and strongest relationships in business have been with us for the whole journey, and it all started from making a bit of extra effort and understanding from the beginning,” Hayden revealed.

There are so many ways to express how thankful we are to people who have helped us along our entrepreneurial journey. No special occasion is needed to say “thank you” to someone because every day you’ll find a reason to be thankful for something good done to you. People will remember your good gesture of thanking them and appreciating their work, help or loyalty. It will create a positive ripple effect that will later come back to you a thousandfold.

How do you express gratitude to your stakeholders? How does it help you in your business? We’d like to hear your stories through our comment section below.

Corporate values and nurturing them in your business

Corporate values are important in every organisation because they provide a strong foundation for decision-making, team building, customer relations and driving your business forward. It is your company’s compass that directs you which way to go and the backbone on how to run your business successfully.

Every organisation has their respective corporate values, depending on the preference of the owners or board of directors or the purpose of the business for operating. Nurturing your corporate values strengthens your team and enables you to achieve your mission and goals. Here are some corporate values that entrepreneurs have in their businesses and how they ensure that these values are upheld in their organisations.

Integrity and accountability

Integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness,” while accountability is “the fact or condition of being accountable; responsibility.”

For Nitasha Badhwar, Founder and CEO of Immersify and Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Sunpower Renewables, “Integrity and accountability are the most important values for us. In an organisation that values innovation, having integrity in what you believe in, what can be seen through to completion, and where time and resources need to be prioritised, is a crucial success factor.”

These two values are also often found in other organisations as they build trust within the team and from customers and third-party partners. Nitasha added, “We strongly believe that integrity in the workplace promotes an open and positive working environment that helps in developing happy, resilient, and successful teams with a strong moral, ethical and fair code of conduct.”

Diversity

John Bevitt, Managing Director at Honeycomb Strategy, revealed one of their core values that resonate well with their team. “Of our three core values, I think one of the most powerful ones is ‘Celebrate our Superpowers’. I love this one as it helps to celebrate our diversity – no matter the role or level of seniority, everyone has a ‘superpower’ that helps make them unique from everyone else. It’s the one thing that, if focused on, trained and nurtured, makes everything else easier or unnecessary,” he stated.

It’s not a common corporate value, but it is something that can stick to everyone’s mind. John further explained, “Every team member has an idea of what their superpower is and we create a development plan homing in on it and using it to help achieve their personal objectives, share learnings with the team and create an environment focused on strengths, not on weaknesses. Having clarity on these superpowers and knowing how these can be combined across the team creates a multiplier effect and is what has helped to take our business to the next level.”

Drive for results

With the end of sight, Canopy Managing Director Karl Simity shared that “Canopy was founded with the vision to create inspiring workplaces that encourage and enrich the lives of workplace inhabitants to build and grow successful organisations.”

Corporate values are often anchored on the vision of the business and its owner. A corporate value aims to help achieve this vision. Karl cited an example, “One of our values is to ‘Drive for outcomes’, and this value is something I see all our employees live by in their day-to-day activities. What helps us create these inspiring workplaces is the drive our people have to make it happen, to always push for success, and their persistence over resistance to solve problems.”

People first

Businesses are made for people, with the aim of providing solutions to concerns and challenges affecting our society. Corporate values are also people-centric because they are to be lived out by people for the people that the business serves, whether they are internal or external stakeholders.

This is why for Nick Clift, Co-founder at Otto and Founder of DWM Solutions, people are significant pillars of their corporate values. He expounded, “At Otto, our key corporate value would have to be People First. We are redefining the industry and Humanising Technology. Otto, as a brand, represents the humans behind the technology — the human hands that make the tech work. Essentially, we are a human-led, tech company, so I guess you could say that technically, we are anti-tech.”

If you look through other companies, businesses and organisations, you will find varying corporate values, yet these values define who they are as an institution. Values put a soul to your brand, especially on how you and your people act and conduct business accordingly.

What are your corporate values and why have you chosen them as your values? How do you ensure that your people live up to them? We’d like to hear your thoughts.