Harness the Amazing Power of Gratitude in Your Personal and Professional Life
In a Thanksgiving episode, Paul looks at research on gratitude and offers simple ways PT business owners can build a culture of gratitude with their staff, their patients, and their families.
Full transcript
Generated from the episode audio and lightly edited for readability.
Hello, this is Paul Martin, founder and president of Martin Healthcare Advisors and Martin ABA Advisors. I'd like to welcome all of you to another episode and a special episode of the Martin Rehab M&A advisory and Paul Martin's crucial conversations. As we approach Thanksgiving, we're very typically reminded of great food, great football, and certainly family time. But in our Thanksgiving special, it's also a time that brings challenges like sadness, anxiety, or even depression for a lot of people in the United States. And what I would like to discuss today as it relates to our families, both our families at home and our families at work, one key aspect of Thanksgiving, gratitude.
And gratitude has the potential to uplift spirits and that includes your spirit. So let me give you a little background on gratitude. The word gratitude comes from Latin and it has the meaning grace, graciousness or gratefulness. It's actually a multiaceted concept, believe it or not, that involves an appreciation for both tangible and intangible things. And gratitude allows us to recognize the goodness in our lives, the goodness in people. And it actually originates from sources beyond ourselves which connects us to a larger existence. So does gratitude actually link to happiness?
Gratitude is actually very closely linked with greater happiness. In fact, studies have been done on this topic. Harvard Business Review claims it encourages positive emotions. It enhances enjoyment of good experiences. It improves health. It aids in adversity and strengthens relationships. Gratitude can also be expressed for past blessings, for present goodness, and for future optimism. You know Harvard Business Review in addition has done research a psychologist named Dr. Robert Emmens and Michael McCulla and it shows significant benefits of gratitude. Their stat their studies actually reveal that those who practice gratitude exhibit more optimism, better health, and a decreased need for medical care compared to those who don't practice gratitude.
Now, you don't have anything to be concerned of. There is no studies that are linking that gratitude will decrease the need for physical therapy services. But there are studies that will reveal that you can have an improved performance of your staff by expressing gratitude. So let's talk about how it helps us in our business. Well, your role as a PT business owner, gratitude plays an enormous role. Again, studies now by the University of Pennsylvania have revealed that managers who expressed thanks to their employees will result in increased motivation and productivity.
Now, we are talking to PT business owners. Again, the University of Pennsylvania did research that revealed that expressions of consistent gratitude from managers resulted in a substantial boost in employee performance. So, let's take this to another level. How can we going forward cultivate a culture of gratitude? Well, actually creating a culture of gratitude can be very simple. It's expressing your gratitude in many ways to your employees as well as to your patients. That can be verbal expression of gratitude. That can also be handwritten, not texts, not emails.
Handwritten notes to your employees and your patients, which gives verbal acknowledgements of gratitude can be really powerful. Many of you have weekly meetings. Reflecting on positive impact behaviors in the prior week and the successes can have an enormous impact on gratitude and on a performance in your company. And for you personally, a mindful meditation focusing on grateful thoughts can significantly enhance your sense of gratitude. So, in conclusion, as we are getting close to Thanksgiving and we're going to be celebrating Thanksgiving, let's look to Thanksgiving and beyond to embrace gratitude in both our personal and our professional lives.
It's more than just a feeling. It's a practice. It's a discipline that can enrich our lives as well as those around us. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Thanksgiving. And I would like to tell you from my heart, I am grateful for the opportunity for all of you and to be able to talk to you every week in this forum. Happy Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you all on the other side of this incredible holiday to hear how your grateful thoughts were powerful over this Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you. And if you'd like to discuss topics from today or any of our other topics, click below and let's talk.
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