Today’s Tuesday Reading is from Sean McDonald of MOR Associates. He may be reached at [email protected] or via LinkedIn.
It is easy for me to get caught into a downward spiral with news around us and the state of affairs in our country and around the world. Layoffs, burnout, us versus them. NO THANKS. Challenges are everywhere. The impact of the current context on my team. The impact of AI on the prospects of my kids’ future careers. Global conflict and suffering. NO THANKS.
These challenges surround us and are visible every day. Ignoring them is impossible. These are the thoughts in my mind as I was asked to pen this year’s Thanksgiving week Tuesday Reading. As the president of MOR, I too look to others for support. So I went back and read a number of Thanksgiving week Tuesday Readings from the past, most written by Jim Bruce, the originator of this Tuesday Reading practice. There were three themes that popped across these past Tuesday Readings about gratitude and giving thanks that got me thinking further, and I’ll share with you:
- Gratitude as a Transformative Mindset and Daily Practice
- The Necessity of Active Expression
- Profound Personal and Professional Benefits
Don’t get me wrong, I am a believer in the importance of gratitude. We all need reminders, so these themes were good inputs for me, and I hope for you as well. Perhaps we can collectively take a deep breath this week, and take back some control to finish the year with intentionality, toward a successful 2026. Here is a bit more on those three themes, in hopes you seek to put them in motion:
1. Gratitude as a Transformative Mindset and Daily Practice
The central theme across past Thanksgiving week Tuesday Readings is that gratitude is an attitude and a skill that must be consciously cultivated, rather than a passive emotion.
- Mindset Shift: Practicing gratitude serves as a fundamental reference point that shifts one’s perspective, helping individuals to focus on what they have rather than what they lack. This mindset helps to lessen panic, envy, and anxiety.
- Daily Routine: Authors recommend specific daily practices to internalize this attitude, such as keeping a gratitude journal and listing at least three things they are thankful for each day, often advising to write them down for a deeper imprint.
2. The Necessity of Active Expression
These past Tuesday Readings strongly assert that unexpressed gratitude is wasted, best summarized in this quote from Jim’s 2019 post, On Being Grateful, “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.”
- Direct Communication: The simplest yet most effective form is to proactively say “Thank you,” whether verbally, by making a special trip to a person’s workspace, or through a meaningful medium like a handwritten note (which is seen as more impactful than a casual email or text).
- Acknowledging Cost: True gratitude requires acknowledging what was received, but “what it has cost them” (the giver) to provide it, lending weight and sincerity to the appreciation.
- Showing Respect: Expression is broadened to include consistent respect for everyone, demonstrated through basic courtesy, patience, listening, and practices like the “ten-five” rule (acknowledging proximity by eye contact and a smile at ten feet and a verbal greeting at five feet).
3. Profound Personal and Professional Benefits
The collective readings also highlight the significant positive impacts of practicing and expressing gratitude on an individual’s life and environment.
- Improved Well-Being and Health: Gratitude is cited as a powerful tool for improving overall well-being, making people happier and more optimistic, increasing resilience, strengthening the immune system, and directly reducing feelings of stress, negativity, and depression.
- Enhanced Relationships and Leadership: In the workplace, showing appreciation is linked to a 50% increase in willingness to help among colleagues. For leaders, a gratitude mindset positively impacts leadership ability, builds better employee-manager relationships, boosts morale, and fosters a tone of cooperation within teams.
- Combating Negativity: Also known as the “no thanks” flipper. Gratitude acts as a counterbalance to negative behaviors, with the advice to actively work to not complain and instead seek the positive side of challenging events.
I hope this revisit on the focus and practice of gratitude can help you, as it did with me, to make the shift to a thankful week and holiday season so that we can shift from a mindset of “no thanks” to “no, thanks.”
From the MOR family to yours, Happy Thanksgiving.
Which do you feel holds the most promise to help you express appreciation more actively?
Last week, we asked which dimension of coaching would most help you better coach for a breakthrough:
- 31% said build sustainable commitment
- 27% said set a context
- 21% said create continuity
- 21% said insert a level of processing
Each of these dimensions provides support for effective coaching. The foundation is the individual’s commitment and seeing a pathway to achieving their goals. As a coach, this is aided by understanding their context and helping them process toward possibilities. Coaching is a catalyst for growth. What can you do to maximize that growth potential?