We have all known the type of individual who cannot bear to thank anyone, particularly a subordinate, for the help that they are given or for a job well done. This can have lasting psychological consequences on your employees, because bitterness grows easily in fertile ground and it is necessary to make sure that people, particularly people who work in or for your company, feel that they have respect and do not have a need to grow resentment or bitterness within themselves. In order to foster this continually healthy type of environment, you must learn how to thank someone properly.
To begin, determine what causes you to refrain from thanking someone in the first place. Typically, this is a result of someone who values power but is not receiving enough of it. Thanks, in this case, seems like a further loss of power or opening themselves up to loss of power. Let me be clear! Once an individual is receiving enough power, they tend to back off and feel satisfied and then take on normal social interactions as per usual. However, until that happens or right after it starts to happen, a person can feel as if they are bleeding from a thousand cuts, so to speak. Thanking someone becomes very real and very easily done when they are satisfied in that.
The second most likely problem is that you are hardly ever thanked yourself, even if other people have high expectations of you. When this occurs, it becomes necessary to demand thanks prior to fulfilling those high expectations. How does one go about doing that? By telling the other person that you expect such treatment, and then by showing how it is done by passing it on to someone else. It is the principal of the golden rule, as always, but it is in practical application here. Gratitude is a two way street, so you must demand or expect thankfulness, but you must also give it, so that you are practiced on both sides of the equation.
Mediscreen provides onsite drug and alcohol screening throughout Australia, and we always thank our customers for doing business with us. Call us today: (+61) 1300 79 70 40.
