GRATITUDE AND LEADERSHIP SUCCESS

You may be wondering how gratitude has anything to do with success.  Robert Emmons, a professor at the University of California at Davis, suggests gratitude has a lot to do with success. According to Emmons, those that adopt an “attitude of gratitude” are likely to feel or experience many success-related benefits. Benefits such as:

• Improved mental alertness
• Better physical and mental personal care
• Increased feelings of optimism and happiness
• Stronger immune systems
• Better coping mechanisms to deal with stress and daily challenges

By adopting an “attitude of gratitude” you are consciously choosing to see situations, problems, and people in a more optimistic and thankful way.  Others may perceive you as friendlier and therefore want to be around you.  Think about it. Would you prefer to hang around someone who is optimistic, joyous and sees the world through a "glass half full" view or someone who is negative, grumpy and pessimistic?  Personally, I'd prefer to hang out with the first person.

A grateful perspective may boost your career by increasing your effectiveness at networking, improving your decision-making capabilities, and helping you develop worthwhile relationships - all of which are key success indicators.  Being grateful helps frame things in a more positive way and may decrease stress. When practicing gratitude, you appreciate the “little things in life” and keep things in perspective so that you are more apt to keep “the main thing, the main thing”.

So, as a school principal how can you practice gratitude, even on your busiest days? It's really quite easy....you choose to.  The following steps outline how you can begin fitting gratitude into your busy day.

1. Start your day with a 2-minute daily gratitude dash as soon as you wake up. Get out of bed and take 2 minutes to identify as many things that you are grateful for.  Say these out loud.    Taking a few minutes at the start of each day to focus on all you have as opposed to all you think you are lacking sets a positive tone for the start of your day.
2. Keep a daily gratitude journal. Take time each day (perhaps as part of your morning routine) to identify, in writing, at least 10 things you are grateful for.  This is a great way to capture all that you are thankful for.  There is power in writing down what you are grateful for so that you can reflect on these at a later time.
3. Be thankful for what you have. Don’t be tempted by what others have.  The grass is not always greener on the other side as the saying goes. Envy is the antithesis of gratitude.   A contented heart leads to a contented life.
4. Mindset matters. When situations arise that are frustrating, re-frame them by purposefully changing your perspective.  You have the power to choose your attitude in EVERY situation.  You can succumb to the negative thinking so often surrounding frustrating situations or you can consciously decide to frame it in a different manner.  Consider what good might come from the situation, what you might learn from it, and how you would lead or respond more effectively in a future, similar situation.

Choosing gratitude is exactly that - a CHOICE.  I challenge you to adopt just one of the gratitude strategies listed above and practice it everyday for 14 days.  Be consistent.  If you catch yourself falling back into old habits of thinking or responding (I like to refer to our old habits  as "stinkin' thinkin') simply re-frame your thoughts and attitude to reflect a more gratitude filled perspective.  Do this as many times as it takes for you to deliberately and purposefully begin replacing "stinkin' thinkin'" with "an attitude of gratitude."   I guarantee you will feel better and suspect you will begin to experience some of the success related benefits mentioned above. Don't waste another moment on negative "stinkin' thinkin'."  Start today by choosing to practice gratitude.  In all things be grateful.

BONUS SUGGESTION:  Want a quick and easy way to demonstrate gratitude toward your faculty and staff for all they do to serve the students of your school?  Schedule a 5 minute  GRATITUDE WALK at the start of a faculty meeting, PD day, or any time when teachers are expecting a work session or meeting without students. Instruct teachers to pick a partner and go for a walk around the building or outside and talk about what they are grateful for... nothing else.  You will be surprised at how teachers and staff will come back energized and ready to receive content or dive into meeting agenda items.