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You know that amazing feeling when you got your first job?

You were so excited that they picked you and you’re thinking, Yes!  I am awesome, I can’t believe it, they picked me! Do you still have that feeling?

I’ve shared with you lots of studies and other VLOGS before, that probably indicates you’re not having that same loving feeling. But that’s such a shame! My gosh, if you are an employer or a leader, you are missing out by not having a recognition and gratitude workplace. So I want to share with you a couple of strategies that you can use whether you’re an employee or a peer or you’re the leader of a whole organization and it’s your business. It’s about having an attitude of gratitude.

And I’m going to start by giving you the very first strategy.

It comes from my book, with co-author Brenda Zalter-Minden, and it’s called, “What do you appreciate?” You can find it by clicking here.

Do you know what I’m grateful for?

Deri Latimer, 2016 President of the CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers) gave me permission to share this exercise with you. I’m not going to go into details because you can download it. But the point is, it allows you in a team meeting, orientation, in a retreat, to be able to focus on what you are grateful for and to learn new things about all the incredible things that other people that you work with are grateful for too.

Here’s a second thing you can do:

You can have a gratitude wall; why don’t you put a big whiteboard or Bristol board and share what you’re grateful for that particular day? And how cool would it be, if you’re in the bricks and mortar space, if your customers come in every day, why don’t you encourage them to share what they are grateful for too? And it doesn’t all have to be workplace stuff, because we are holistic beings, we’re human. So why not have people put anything that they’re grateful for? It shouldn’t just be something we do at Thanksgiving.

Here’s my last suggestion.

Find ways to acknowledge and be grateful in the moment. People talk about gratitude journals and gratitude meditation; you could make that very business-like. Why don’t you build that into an annual planning event to recognize and be grateful for specific accomplishments?  What are you so thrilled about; what has been a game changer in your business, who has just been a shining star that you didn’t even expect?  Find moments to build gratitude into your planning. Imagine the creativity that you’re going to have when you focus on what is already working versus always trying to be leery and mindful of the competitors.

My name is Sarah McVanel. I hope you subscribe to my YouTube channel because I have all kinds of other resources and insights I’d love to share with you.  In the meantime, I hope you come back time and time again because I want you consistently to be well and be great.