Antonia Hock of The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: How We Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness

Find an inspirational person and follow them: Like all things, having a coach or a source of inspiration can bring more focus to your own behavior. Gratitude is a contagious practice and surrounding yourself with people who are also practicing this mindset can reinforce your own gratitude.

As we all know, times are tough right now. In addition to the acute medical crisis caused by the Pandemic, in our post COVID world, we are also experiencing what some have called a “mental health pandemic”.

What can each of us do to get out of this “Pandemic Induced Mental and Emotional Funk”?

One tool that each of us has access to is the simple power of daily gratitude. As a part of our series about the “How Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness” I had the pleasure of interviewing Antonia Hock.

Antonia Hock is the Global Head of The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center where she leads a dynamic advisory business focused on innovating the Customer Experience (CX) and Talent Experience (TX) for clients worldwide. She is a sought-after, author, thought leader and frequent global keynote featured speaker. Antonia is considered a global expert on organizational transformation and building experience-based brands, creating a culture of customer-centricity, empowering employees and issues around diversity in the workforce, and innovating experiences for the future. She was recognized by Luxury Daily as one of the Top 25 Women to Watch — an annual list of women executives who show the potential to make a difference in the luxury business in the year ahead. Her passion for highly differentiated customer experiences grounded in employee excellence has created exceptional brand loyalty across segments and industries.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive into our discussion, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory about you and about what brought you to your specific career path?

I came to terms early in my career that I was by nature driven towards chaos, turn-arounds, new ideas, start-ups — anything that was a “build” vs. a stable, run-rate business that needed only incremental improvement to thrive. When I came out of college, I joined an early stage dot com and that fed my desire to build and create. It also allowed me to tap into my entrepreneurial spirit while simultaneously allowing me to experience the heavy lifting and long hours required to build a business.

I also love working with big brands that have resources and an appetite for being market-makers through innovation and calculated risk. This led me to work for fast-moving progressive companies like Microsoft, HP, and Siemens where I earned a reputation as a maverick: the one you call when you have a big challenge with high stakes attached. I also learned some important lessons about the value of culture, wellness, and genuine care in the workplace. Those are underserved areas that can break a business apart and destroy even the best financial performances.

After years of building successful business units centered on transformative technology, I was presented with the opportunity to work for The-Ritz-Carlton — but with the new twist of taking that legendary service, culture, and wellness focus to market as a methodology that can be implemented in Fortune 500 companies to drive business results. Much of what we do focuses on changing the lives of employees and customers with a strong focus on care, empowerment, and a personalized approach to connection.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?

I’d like to share a recent story that highlights the challenges that we still face in championing equality and placing women into positions of power. I was recently considered for a board seat at a publicly traded company, and my credentials placed me into the top three finalists. I interviewed for the seat and competed head-to-head with the other candidates. Shortly before the final decision was to be made, the board recruiter called me and told me that this conversation was “off-the-record”, and that I was being eliminated from consideration because the Chairman of the Board thought I was “too young and too pretty to be smart and capable”. Weeks later, I watched this company give this seat to another white, over-50, male who had identical credentials and demographics to every other member of the board. He was talented and capable, but this board signaled with their choice that they do not see a need to diversify the voices around that table. I was disappointed and saddened by the process and the outcome, but, as I shared my experience with this scenario, I was also uplifted by some incredible men in my life who universally expressed horror, anger, and disgust at this scenario. I have such unwavering optimism for a future that supports true equal opportunity. But there is still so much to do around accountability, transparency, bias, and measuring value.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Why do you think that resonates with you? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life?

“There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”- Aristotle

This quote reverberates with so many things that ground my point-of-view. First, achievement will always come with a price. Often that is criticism. Speaking out or having an opinion will come at a price. Often that is criticism. Following your own path will often come at a price. Often that is criticism. The world is full of critics, judgement, and naysayers, and we must all consider whether that will limit our choices. If we follow Aristotle’s meaning to the end point; fear of criticism will ultimately lead to a passive choice to be nothing. The faster we can all make peace with criticism as a component of our actions and choices, the faster we can move forward unfettered.

Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story about why that resonated with you?

Reading and studying Plato’s Allegory of the Cave changed my trajectory of thought when I was in my early 20s, and, like any watershed, it continues to influence my thought patterns today. I love this book because it challenges us to examine reality and how we experience and interpret the world around us. I think it’s important to constantly examine our thoughts and challenge our own biases as we move through the world. I was raised in a very humble academic environment, and my experience with this book opened my mind to an incredible world of philosophy, debate, and thinking that I had never accessed before. From that point forward, I actively sought opportunities to read, learn, and debate philosophy of all genres. Today, this book actively impacts my open-mindedness around the volume of changes that we all need to consume, and I challenge myself to refute anything that is put directly in front of me as “truth”.

Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?

Right now, I am spending a lot of time thinking about the future of work — which is essentially the present time. This is such an important topic because it touches millions of lives across the globe. We are in such a critical time to reimagine how work will happen across so many industries, and the acceleration of change is causing us all to really innovate the employee experience. My top themes in this space are:

1. The rise of organizational culture as mission critical: Black Lives Matter and culture issues at companies like Pinterest, Uber, Away have brought this into focus. Then you layer in the pandemic and the remote work experience. Culture is now a mission critical imperative that all leaders are prioritizing.
2. The focus on employee well-being is no longer just relegated to HR: Amid all the uncertainties, one thing is abundantly clear: flexibility to determine how work gets done and where. But the corollary of employee choice and flexibility is that burnout is real — with some employees unable to establish that balance on their own. As a result, the overall focus on employee wellness has become imperative and discussing mental health has not only become normalized but essential.
3. Acceleration of real estate change: Companies are rethinking funding here, reconfiguring space, divesting of real estate, and moving to new concepts like pods. Maybe the concept of a physical headquarters is dead.
4. End-to-end employee experience vs. discreet services: This is a big change to how companies think about the life and work of an employee. Historically companies would offer “dining services” or “AV or conference room services”, “mail services”, “computing services”, but now we are seeing a rapid transformation to a fully integrated experience. We do “customer journey” mapping all the time in CX, but now it is time for “employee journey” mapping in TX/EX as well as a full reimagining of the services offered and how they are delivered and consumed.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I had an exceptional female leader early in my career who showed me that her road to success did not require her to change her personal narrative. She had a complicated family life and a complicated upbringing, and instead of hiding that from all of us, she invited us all into her world. We all came together for a team meeting where we all stayed the weekend at her home sleeping on the floors and sharing the bathroom, and we came out of that weekend much more connected to each other. She gave me the confidence that I could be my full self and not compromise my identity to succeed. She also gave me some of my most meaningful performance reviews where she invested in the coaching and insights to help me raise my game. She modeled how a selfless leader behaves, and it changed my trajectory.

Ok, thank you for all that. Now that we are on the topic of gratitude, let’s move to the main focus of our interview. As you know, the collective mental health of our country is facing extreme pressure. We would like to explore together how every one of us can use gratitude to improve our mental wellness. Let’s start with a basic definition of terms. How do you define the concept of Gratitude? Can you explain what you mean?

For me gratitude is simple: giving sincere thanks for what you have right now in this moment. That can be as simple as waking up one more morning, giving thanks for that first cup of coffee, or being grateful for the opportunity to have the strength to go for a run in the afternoon. There will always be someone on this planet who will not enjoy any of those things.

Gratitude is honoring your life by finding the best in what you currently have. It’s not about striving for more. It’s about meeting your world exactly where you are and finding strength and blessing in your own circumstance. It’s about the grace to enjoy what you have already been given and then use that for good. In my personal practice, it’s also about how I keep an open heart to constantly stay vulnerable, in the moment, and open to the best in others. The ability to meet others with the best I have to offer reinforces my usefulness and that also drives my gratitude.

Why do you think so many people do not feel gratitude? How would you articulate why a simple emotion can be so elusive?

We live in a world that drives us to constantly want “more” and to move away from the concept of satisfaction. We have cues around us 24/7 that tell us we should never be satisfied with our lives, our jobs, our material possessions, our bank accounts, how we look, and more. When we are constantly bombarded with these messages, it can produce anxiety and feelings that we are not good enough. When we are dissatisfied and have feelings of being “less”, it becomes very hard to feel gratitude. This type of spiral can make gratitude very elusive.

This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be constructive to help spell it out. Can you share with us a few ways that increased gratitude can benefit and enhance our life?

I believe that daily gratitude can change just about every part of your life if you make it a root metaphor for your world. If don’t already live this way, it can take discipline and work to integrate it into your mindset, but once you do, you will see some fundamental changes to your life:

1. Enhanced calm: In my experience, being grateful brings a sense of calm and peace. We live in such a fast-paced world that being grateful for things big and small all day long, grounds us and slows us down. The act to appreciate something is an act of control and choice, and I find that most people feel more collected and peaceful when they feel that sense of control over their choices. Gratitude is a positive choice we can all make at any time.
2. Improved relationships with others: Being grateful for your own life and the things in it often shifts your mindset in a more positive and optimistic direction. This, in turn, changes your attitude and that shows up in your approach to others. Bringing positivity into conversations, gestures, and actions makes people view their engagement with you differently. It may even change their perception of you — perhaps seeing you as a positive person, one they want to spend time with, or someone that can inspire others to see the best in a situation. Gratitude is contagious.
3. Positive trickle-down: When you find gratitude in your daily life, it starts to change other parts of your life. As an example, being grateful for your health, then thinking about why you have good health, and what would happen if you lost it, may change the way you think about eating, exercising, or inspiring others to care for their health. Being grateful can lead to inspiration, and inspiration can lead to actions that drive more opportunities to do good. That’s a virtuous process that can make a real positive and sustainable change in your life as well as the lives of others.

Let’s talk about mental wellness in particular. Can you share with us a few examples of how gratitude can help improve mental wellness?

I see gratitude as a practice that supports many other parts of mental wellness. Gratitude is strongly linked to positive thoughts, sense of control and choice, and peacefulness. Gratitude can also empower us to take better care of those things that we value. All of these have a cascade effect that can change our perceptions of ourselves as well as the way we see the world around us.

Ok wonderful. Now here is the main question of our discussion. From your experience or research, what are “Five Ways That Each Of Us Can Leverage The Power Of Gratitude To Improve Our Overall Mental Wellness”. Can you please share a story or example for each?

I believe that gratitude is the single most powerful force we have to make a daily impact on our own happiness and mental health, but very few people actually leverage this capability with intentionality each day. Our lives are busy and rushed. We may become overwhelmed with anxiety, pressure, or the demands of our day. To integrate gratitude into your life, I recommend the following:

1. Be intentional about making gratitude a daily practice. The best way to make maximum impact in your life with gratitude is to weave it into your mindset every day. Before you get out of bed, think about one thing that drives gratitude for you, and give thanks. During the day take moments to be grateful for your lunch, for a good laugh with a co-worker, for the opportunity to be of service to others. Gratitude is a mindset; best practiced continually.
2. Demonstrate gratitude all day, every day: Weave the word “thank you” into as much of your day as you can — acknowledge the small things, and when someone does something big, make your gratitude proportionally big. I love to write thank you notes, and when I am grateful for support, leadership, effort, or comradery, I make it a point to acknowledge it.
3. Contemplate “what-if” to work for you: Take time to think about the things in your life that make you specifically grateful, and then think about what would happen if they were taken away from you. This practice reinforces gratitude which can deepen your sense of thankfulness. For me, part of gratitude resides in acknowledging how easy it can be for circumstances to change quickly. I become even more grateful when I examine the prospect of loss.
4. Leverage the power of music: I have a playlist that purposefully emphasizes gratitude. This makes a great tool for days when I am distracted, overwhelmed, or lacking perspective. Music has been widely studied for the ability to provide focus, motivation, and uplift, so use that power to your advantage.
5. Find an inspirational person and follow them: Like all things, having a coach or a source of inspiration can bring more focus to your own behavior. Gratitude is a contagious practice and surrounding yourself with people who are also practicing this mindset can reinforce your own gratitude.

Is there a particular practice that can be used during a time when one is feeling really down, really vulnerable, or really sensitive?

We all have times when we feel down, and it is important to have strategies for coping in place. I recommend a couple of things:

1. Reach out to someone you trust, and ask them two key questions: When you look at my life, what are those things that I should be most grateful for? Sometimes we all need to be reminded when we can’t see it on our own. When you think of me, what is one thing that you are grateful for in our relationship? Both questions give you an important opportunity for context, reframing, and reminders that are always needed when you are struggling on your own.
2. Listen to your gratitude playlist and browse Pinterest quotes on gratitude: Use these tools to remind yourself what inspires you to be grateful. Sometimes each of us needs cues to restart our focus on gratitude, and hearing or reading someone else’s perspective on gratitude can ignite our own. Part of being intentional about using gratitude as a tool in our lives is about preparing for those times when we really need it, and re-aligning our minds and feelings by using those tools we have in place.

Do you have any favorite books, podcasts, or resources that you would recommend to our readers to help them to live with gratitude?

I am sure that many people will have a long list of resources. For me, I need simple straightforward things that I can execute every day. These include:

1. Read through a gratitude board on Pinterest: I have a board full of things that I am deeply grateful for. This includes places, people, quotes, literature, ideas, food, health, activities, and experiences. I also have a separate board with quotes. I love to read that board when I need some inspiration to remember why I should be grateful.
2. Do a little meditation: Apps like Calm and Headspace have plenty of options for doing guided meditation that can focus your mind on gratitude and quiet your inner dialog, so you can redirect your energy towards your positive gifts and blessings.
3. Nourish your body: I love the connection between caring for myself and gratitude. One of the small things that I give thanks for every day is the ability to care for my body by what I put in it. I am grateful for the opportunity to control the way that I nourish myself, and that intentionality gives me a sense of power, control, peace. I also have the opportunity to be grateful for the farmers, nature, and agriculture that give me that opportunity. And I get to honor and be grateful for the life I enjoy by caring for myself carefully and thoughtfully.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I’ve been passionate about prison reform for non-violent offenders for a long time. In my experience, it’s a cause that most people don’t stop and think about very often. The impact of our policies, lack of re-entry programs, and support for non-recidivism are far reaching for families, taxpayers, and society. I wish for more focus on end-to-end solutions starting with conviction policies and mandatory sentencing, then through to how we support re-entry into society. If you are a non-violent felon coming out of prison, your job opportunities, your interpersonal skills, and your housing and personal care environment can be huge impediments to getting back on your feet. The stigma and the lack of opportunity is staggering and can create a vicious cycle that indirectly impacts all of us. One company that I admire in this space is www.cornbreadhustle.com. Cherie Garcia has done a great job of providing opportunities and making meaningful connections possible.

What is the best way our readers can further follow your work online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonia-hock/

https://www.instagram.com/antoniahock/

Thank you for the time you spent sharing these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!