"Thanks" - Giving

Turkeys don’t look forward to Thanksgiving but pretty much everyone else does. For most people, it is a relaxing and reflective holiday filled with an abundance of good food, fellowship, and family time. The Thanksgiving break gives us a brief opportunity to catch our breath before Black Friday ushers in the commercial frenzy of the holiday season.

It is good to have a special day on the calendar that reminds us to take time to give thanks for the love, grace, favor, and blessings we have received over the past year. Even though these words are not the language of business, I like them because they remind me of the many good things I received but do not deserve. To me, that is the essence of true thanks-giving – to express heartfelt gratitude to my creator and to the many people who have contributed to my spiritual health, personal growth and professional success. They each gave something of great value to me and generally had to risk or sacrifice something in order to do it. Listed below are 12 “blessings,” one for each month of the year, that people have given me for which I am particularly thankful:

• Brilliant leadership ideas and concepts for me to build on.
• Powerful words of support and encouragement to lift me up.
• Generous referrals and credible references for establishing my client base.
• Challenging coaching for improving my perspectives, approaches and skills.
• Expert advice in areas like strategic planning, finance, marketing and information technology.
• Generous opportunities for partnership and collaboration.
• Willingness to engage my services and trust my ability to produce results.
• Acknowledgement and reinforcement of my strengths.
• Honest confrontation when I needed it for growth.
• Listening ears when I needed to process or vent my feelings.
• Non-judgmental attitudes when I needed to be accepted and understood.
• Forgiveness for my mistakes and personal failures.    

As I approach the end of the year, and begin setting my sights on the one ahead, I plan to be much more purposeful about giving thanks. I encourage you to do the same. Today’s leaders need to be models of humility and gratitude. We owe much of our success to the generosity and selflessness of others. To demonstrate genuine thankfulness, we need put something of value on the line as well. It is very doable since successful leaders are accustomed to the necessity of risk and sacrifice. And, the cost is not all that great. Most often, all that is required is a little bit more of our time and the willingness to show a little bit more of our hearts.