You know that when we are grateful, we feel better and have a better attitude and outlook. Because of that, we know that gratitude is good. But those experiences also leave us thinking about gratitude as a personal thing. While gratitude is a personal experience, we can share it with others. And when we do, amazing things can happen for groups, too. Thus, it is worth considering gratitude as a team sport.

The Personal is the Collective

Your experience tells you that when you experience gratitude, you feel better.  The research shows that as we practice gratitude our energy is higher, we are more resilient, happier, more forgiving and generous, and have lower stress and anxiety.

Look at that list.

If you had a team that had higher energy, greater resilience, less stress and anxiety, and was more forgiving, would you have a better team?

Would you have greater productivity, greater collaboration, higher retention, and less detrimental conflict?

Who wouldn’t want to lead or be a part of that team?

And while one individual practicing gratitude is lovely, when an entire team does it - when gratitude becomes a team sport - the benefits expand rapidly.

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Gratitude is Contagious

As team members see and share their gratitude, gratitude can spread – like wildfire. The more people see it in each other and their surroundings, the more the feeling of gratitude grows and the benefits compound.

The contagious nature of gratitude makes it a powerful practice for a team, and can create forward momentum, esprit de corps, and the relational glue that binds teams and creates high performance.

Gratitude As a Cultural Goal

With all the talk about the importance of culture, gratitude is seldom discussed as a feature, criteria, or goal for a desirable culture. When you consider the wide-ranging benefits for the individual and the team, it makes sense to consider gratitude in this way. Descriptions of great culture often include ideas like teamwork, collaboration, inclusion, and a positive atmosphere. Working to tangibly build greater team gratitude will create all of those (and more) as a natural side effect.

Gratitude as a team sport?

If you think of it that way, and build your team’s gratitude skills, you will have a better team by most any measure.

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Kevin Eikenberry is a recognized world expert on leadership development and learning and is the Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group. He has spent over 30 years helping organizations across North America, and leaders from around the world, on leadership, learning, teams and teamwork, communication and more.

Twice he has been named by Inc.com as one of the Top 100 Leadership and Management Experts in the World and 100 Great Leadership Speakers for Your Next Conference. The American Management Association named him a “Leaders to Watch” and he has been twice named as one of the World's Top 30 Leadership Professionals by Global Gurus. Top Sales World has named him a Top Sales & Marketing Influencer several times, and his blog has been named on many “best of” lists. LeadersHum has named him one of the 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership in 2023.

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