The power of saying “Thank you” (Tom Peters)

Before we respond to any opportunity or crisis, the first step of Inner Leadership is to centre and ground ourselves: to connect deeply with who we are and what matters most to us.

One very powerful way of practicing this is to get into the habit of saying “Thank you.”

In this short video, management guru Tom Peters explains why saying “Thank you” is still his number one top tip for leaders. It “gets you further and it also makes you a better human being.”

Saying “Thank you” matters because, as American psychologist William James discovered, “The deepest human need is the need to be appreciated.”

In a time of change, saying “Thank you” brings us three even more important benefits:

• It reminds us of what is important
• It reminds us of what is going well
• It builds stronger relationships

Then, when the next problem or opportunity arises, we start from a place of:

• stronger relationships with the people we will need to work with to make things happen
• stronger morale and motivation to make things happen, and
• greater clarity and connection with what matters most

In a time of change, this will be invaluable.

When was the last time you said thank you to someone? How often do you congratulate yourself on what is going well?

Adapted from Inner Leadership: tools for building inspiration in times of change.

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