Express gratitude to those people who are important to you, and find ways to make that a regular practice in your life and throughout your company.
I was blessed to have parents who taught me the importance of being grateful. Regardless of circumstances, when we find ways to be grateful, we are much happier and more pleasant when engaging with others. Author and radio talk show host Dennis Prager says to make a better world, we just have to increase the amount of gratitude we have. Author John Piper writes: “The feeling of gratitude is a humble feeling, not a proud one. It is other-exalting, not self-exalting. And it is glad-hearted, not angry or bitter.” So, being grateful makes us better able to love one another and work together productively.
At my house, we are thankful for our faith, family, health, abilities, provision, and many other things. But for this article, I want to focus on our people at Garver, our clients, and our industry.
At Garver, I’m thankful for how passionate our people are about excelling – every single one of them. They work hard, smart, and together to be our clients’ most trusted advisors. They are never satisfied with second place. And, that winning spirit is natural – no coercion needed. They are the reason we are successful. We demonstrate our gratitude by taking care of all of them, rewarding them, making time for them, and giving them a significant level of trust and autonomy to operate their business.
I’ll give you one of my favorite examples of how our leaders make time for people. As our COO and I (and many times other leaders) travel to our different offices, we schedule time for town-hall meetings with our people. For most of our offices, all of our people in that office come to the meeting. They get a chance to hear from us, and we get a chance to hear from them and invite them to ask questions or comment about anything on their minds. Our people appreciate learning more about our business and like the transparency, and our leaders enjoy getting to know our people better and staying connected.
Next, it should be easy for all of us to be grateful for our clients. Without our clients, we would have nothing and would all have to go home. None of them are required to hire us – ever. But we are thankful they do. And when they do hire us – particularly under QBS – we know they wanted us more than any other company. We are mindful of that as we deliver our best and earn their trust.
Finally, we can all be thankful for the strength of our industry. Our markets depend on our services for an acceptable quality of life. The public needs us for safe buildings, highways, airports, bridges, and drinking water, and we are passionate about providing our services to meet those needs. And, despite the division we are experiencing in our country, the need and demand for the services from our industry remain high.
Now, go express your gratitude to those people who are important to you, and find ways to make that a regular practice in your life and throughout your company.
Brock Hoskins is president and CEO of Garver. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
