{"id":7242,"date":"2017-11-20T09:26:59","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T15:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=7242"},"modified":"2017-11-23T10:43:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-23T16:43:40","slug":"can-gratitude-improve-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2017\/11\/20\/can-gratitude-improve-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Gratitude Improve Your Leadership?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Zion
Zion Canyon, November 2017. Photo by Mark D. Roberts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Today is the Monday before Thanksgiving Day, a national holiday in the United States. According to Abraham Lincoln, who first established\u00a0this holiday on the last Thursday of November, it is to be \u201ca day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.\u201d In 1941, the U.S. Congress established the fourth Thursday of November as the official national holiday.\u00a0(For more on the history of Thanksgiving, see \u201cA Brief History of Thanksgiving\u201d in this article<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

For many years, I have taken time around Thanksgiving Day to reflect on gratitude. This morning, I did a Google search on \u201cgratitude\u201d to see what I might find. I was curious about\u00a0a recent article in Forbes<\/em> magazine, \u201cGreat Leaders Have an Attitude of Gratitude \u2013 Do You<\/a>?\u201d\u00a0 As the Executive Director of Fuller\u2019s Max De Pree Center for Leadership<\/a>, I\u2019m always interested in\u00a0new ways to think about how we might lead more effectively. So I checked out the Forbes<\/em> article.<\/p>\n

Written by Christine Comaford<\/a>, \u201cGreat Leaders Have an Attitude of Gratitude\u201d shows that \u201cThe combination of leadership and gratitude is extremely powerful.\u201d Comaford\u2019s main point is that gratitude helps us to feel positively about life and gives us \u201cpositive emotional reserve\u201d whenever we need it, such as in times of stress or disappointment. Moreover, according to Comaford, when we are regularly grateful, we are also empowered to express our gratitude to others.<\/p>\n

Comaford\u2019s version of gratitude does not explicitly include God. In her recommended \u201cGratitude Practice,\u201d she encourages us to \u201cOffer a silent \u2018thank you\u2019 to the person or object of your blessing.\u201d For those of us who believe our blessings come from God, it\u2019s not hard to move from thanking the objects<\/em> of our blessing to the source<\/em> of our blessing. In a recent trip to Zion National Park, I was overwhelmingly grateful for the beauty of Zion Canyon. But rather than thanking the canyon itself, I chose to thank the Artist who painted it so beautifully.<\/p>\n

Though I think of gratitude somewhat differently than Comaford, I am indeed grateful for her insight, for her connection between gratitude and leadership. I have experienced how much being thankful can make a difference in my own leadership. For example, when I\u2019ve had a frustrating day \u2013 And who doesn\u2019t have one of these sometimes? \u2013 I find it natural to get mired in negativity, to fret about what has gone wrong, and to focus on\u00a0my own failures. Yet, if I can\u00a0move into gratitude, my perspectives and my feelings change. I remind myself that, even on difficult days, I am blessed to do good work with good people. As I remember these simple\u00a0blessings, I can even being to feel grateful, rather than self-pitying or resentful. Thanks encourages me and empowers me to keep pressing on even when my work is difficult. It lightens my heart and my load.<\/p>\n

In this season of thanksgiving, let me add my voice to Comaford\u2019s, urging you to let gratitude shape your leadership.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have experienced how much being thankful can make a difference in my own leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10550,16607],"tags":[16608,5094,21655],"class_list":["post-7242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leaderhsip","category-thanksgiving","tag-gratitude","tag-leadership","tag-thanksgiving"],"yoast_head":"\nCan Gratitude Improve Your Leadership?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thanks encourages me and empowers me to keep pressing on even when my work is difficult. 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