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Gratitude: Understanding the relationship between leadership, networking and teamwork:

There are a number of networks available on the internet these days which allow the people working in an organisation to express their gratitude to their peers, their seniors and their juniors.

Directional flow of gratitude messages:

Messages showing gratitude can flow in any of the following directions:

1. Vertical i.e. from peers to peers i.e. fellow workers of the same rank in the team:

People working at the same level in a team or department can show their appreciation of and express their gratitude to the other members of the team for the good work done by them which has enabled the team to achieve its goal or accomplish a project successfully.

Such messages at the peer level can be exchanged across teams as well. Members working in different teams can show their gratitude to the members of other teams than their own for any help received from them in executing a project or even for the good work done by them in their own team.

2. Downward i.e. from seniors to subordinates:

Managers or executives may convey their gratitude to the members of their team for their contribution to the success of the team in achieving its goal by way of appreciation.

3. Upward i.e. from subordinates to seniors:

Juniors can also express gratitude to the seniors for any favours or help received from them or for the leadership provided by them in executing a project successfully.

 

 

Advantages of showing gratitude

Usefulness of expressing gratitude for promoting team work

Gratitude messages on the network help in promoting the spirit of cooperation among the members of a team and make them improve their performance both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Given below is an account of the benefits that accrue from such messages to the team and its members:

1. Motivates the receiver

The receiver of the message feels happy as his good work is recognized and appreciated. He feels rewarded for the time and energy spent by him in doing the job. Even if this appreciation is not accompanied by any material reward, it is a great honour in itself. The recognition so received motivates the members of the team to work with even greater dedication in future.

2. Motivates other members of the team

Not only the member who is thanked but also the other members of the team and even those working in other teams feel encouraged and motivated. They also begin to cherish a desire to get similar recognition by performing as well as the man who has been appreciated.

3. Encourages team members to acquire new skills and improve the existing ones

An expression of gratitude encourages the receiver and even others to improve their existing skills and even acquire new skills to show even better results in future. Refinement of the already possessed skills as well as the acquisition of new skills by the workers benefits the organization as in it increases the efficiency of the workers, the productivity of the organization and improves the quality of the products which ultimately results in increasing the profit of the organization.

4. Improves work environment:

Exchange of gratitude messages generates an atmosphere in which all the people feel happy and have a desire to work with the greatest zeal as they feel that their dedication is appreciated and rewarded.

5. Brings people closer: 

Expression of gratitude by peers brings the members of the team closer to one another and gives rise to a family feeling. The strong bonds thus created promote greater coordination among the members which then leads to better results.

6. Generates a sense of belonging:

Not only the person who is thanked but also the others around him begin to feel that they belong to the organization and the organization belongs to them. Such a feeling impels them to work harder and with greater dedication to accomplish the tasks assigned to the team which ultimately benefits the organization.

7. Generates faith in the leader

When the leader of the team expresses his gratitude to a member of the team for the role played by him in achieving a team goal or the entire team for their valuable contribution to the successful completion of a task, the members begin to look upon him with love and respect and have in faith in him. The whole team becomes committed to dedicated team work that may be assigned to them in future.

8. Increases retention of workers:

When workers get the feeling that their good work is not appreciated, they begin to think of moving to another organization where their skills, hard work and dedication will get better recognition. Expression of gratitude encourages them to stick with the organization that acknowledges their contribution and rewards it. As a result, workforce turn-over is reduced to the minimum.

9. Feedback

Expression of gratitude by the leader or by the peers brings the skills, reliability and dedication of the receiver to the notice of the team. In future, the work is distributed among the workers keeping in view the particular skills they possess. When members are assigned duties which they are best suited to perform, efficiency of the individual works and the team as a whole increases resulting in increased output, higher profits and better image of the organization.

10. Democratisation of evaluation and minimization of favouritism and partiality:

Through the use of the gratitude networks, the responsibility for the evaluation of workers gets indirectly democratized. Gratitude messages are an expression of the good opinion of the peers about the skill and efficiency of those who receive them. So they begin to count as a vote of confidence in their dedication, competence and performance. Although these messages do not have any formal weightage in the assessment of the performance of workers, they cannot be completely ignored by those responsible for preparing the confidential reports about their performance. This reduces the scope of partiality and favouritism on the part of the managers whose judgment can be disproved by cting these messages.  

Usefulness for the leadership

1. Acts as a source of feedback:

Expression of gratitude acts as a two way channel of feedback. Gratitude messages by peers bring a member’s good work, dedication and skills to the notice of the people higher up in the hierarchy and lets them know what skills their workforce possesses. On the other hand, expression of gratitude by the higher ups tells the workers that their good work is taken notice of by the seniors and if anybody makes a spectacular achievement, he will ultimately be rewarded by the management in one form or the other.

2. Help in the evaluation of performance

Expression of gratitude by the peers in the team or across teams helps the leaders to assess the skills and competence of the members of their team. They know which ones among them are better skilled, more hard working and devoted to their duty. Such knowledge proves to be very useful to them in future. In several ways.

I – Helps in deciding rewards and promotions

It helps the management to identify the individuals who deserve to be rewarded and encouraged. It is an important source of reliable information for such purposes. The leaders can set an example for the others by reward excellence by giving them special increments, promotions, cash rewards or letters of appreciation.

II – Allocation of work according to skills

It helps the leaders in identifying the special talents and skills as well as the sense of responsibility of the different members of their teams. This enables them to utilize their skills and talents for better results in future. They keep their special skills in mind while allotting them work in future. This results in greater efficiency, higher productivity and improved quality. As a result, the reputation of the organization as well as the profits improve significantly.

III. Constitution of teams

These messages also bring to the notice of the leaders the relationships among the workers. They get to know who is close to whom. Such knowledge proves useful while constituting teams in future. They can put people who are closer to one another in one team as they are likely to work with greater cooperation and give better results.

IV. Identification of future leaders

When the special ability of the workers to secure the whole hearted cooperation of the team members gets highlighted by these messages of gratitude, the management is able to identify the future leaders. When these people assigned the role of leading a team, they prove to be a great asset to the organization.

Disadvantages

1. Gives rise to flattery:

Sometimes, workers at the lower level develop the feeling that by expressing gratitude frequently to the seniors, they can get into their good books and thus hope to get some benefits like promotions, prized postings or some kind of honours or rewards. They are ever on the look-out for an excuse to register their gratitude to their boss in the hope that it will help him earn the good opinion of the boss and raise his merit.

2. Jealousy:

Using networks for expressing gratitude sometimes gives rise to jealousies among the members. Those who fail to get recognition become jealous of those who are frequently appreciated. Instead of following their example, they begin to think of ways to bring them down and start indulging in speaking ill of them behind their back. Instead of raising their own merit, they start hatching conspiracies to bring these competent ones who earn the gratitude of the seniors through hard work and skilful handling of issues. 

3. Manipulation:

Sometimes, workers begin to manipulate gratitude messages in the hope that these messages will be taken notice of by the seniors and thus help them to sneak into their good books. Friends begin to post gratitude messages to their friends hoping that these will raise their merit in the eyes of the leaders and thus help them to reap some kind of benefit. The management may thus be misled by this purposive show of gratitude and shower favours on the wrong people. If this happens, the deserving ones get demoralized.

4. Spoiling work environment:

Those workers who fail to get appreciation begin to feel bitter. Instead of feeling motivated by their example, they begin to nurse a grudge against the management as well as those who are appreciated. This has an adverse effect on the cooperation and coordination in the team resulting in lower efficiency.

5. Generating over-confidence:

In some cases, the person who often receives gratitude messages gets a feeling of over-confidence. As a result, he grows lax and stops paying attention to his growth as a professional. He may also become proud and start treating others with disdain. This brings down his personal reputation and spoils the overall work environment in the organization.    

6. Wastage of time

Workers begin to waste a lot of time on posting and reading these messages. As a result, a good amount of valuable time is lost work suffers.

Weaknesses observed

Although gratitude and appreciation networks can be very useful in promoting team work and raising the morale of the workforce, they have not been used in an ideal manner even in the organisations which have adopted them.

1. They are used mostly by the peers (co-wokers) to convey their sense of gratitude to their fellow team workers. They flow mostly in the horizontal direction.

2. They are also used by team members to convey their thankfulness to their seniors for any help provided by them or any favours received.

3. They are also sometimes used by workers to express gratitude to peer across teams i.e. to the members of other teams than one’s own.

4. They are rarely used by the team leaders to convey their sense of gratitude to the members of the team. The downward flow of such messages is almost negligible. The reason may be the status conscious of the team leaders who consider themselves to be superior to their team members.

Leaders do, however, use them to convey their gratitude to the leaders of other teams.