It is so hard to get right and yet there is no framework for how to build a ‘great’ company culture. As a CEO, I often felt that there was a lack of tangible and tactical advice on what I could do every day to contribute to the company’s culture.

Authentic, genuinely thriving workplace culture is really hard. The work that goes into crafting and maintaining culture never stops, and it's something that must affect almost every decision you make.

While the list of things a CEO must do is long, as it relates to culture, I have found that focusing on just a few things is the most manageable and best way to impact culture. One of the simplest but most effective is sharing thanks and recognition.

Why Does Gratitude Matter to Your Culture? 

As research shows, gratitude has a positive impact on the brain that includes improved sleep, better relationships, better physical health, and happiness. When employees flourish in these areas of their lives, it reflects in their enhanced productivity.

At a high level, when feeling grateful, the our brain activity is triggered to understand others' perspectives, empathy, and relief. The region of the brain that is activated is also associated with emotional regulation and stress relief. Receiving thanks releases dopamine and serotonin making us feel happier.

To help plant the seeds of gratitude within your company’s culture, practice what you preach. As a CEO, here are a few ways to put this into action:

1.     Keep a Journal:

Studies show that even just the act of writing down what you are grateful for has immense impact (regardless of sharing those feelings with others). If a journal works for you, keep a gratitude journal to note some of the things you are grateful for on a daily basis. This can be a great way to stay balanced during the inevitable ups and downs of a startup journey.

2.     Create Dedicated Time to Compliment

Most companies have all hands meetings or department meetings on a regular basis. Consider creating a standing agenda item for anyone in the meeting to share recognition. Some companies even start meetings this way to unlock the positive emotions that come with giving and receiving gratitude. At NatureBox, we created a “Weekly Wins” meeting that was held at the end of each Friday to celebrate individual and team accomplishments which allowed employees to recognize each other in front of the company.

3.     Balance Shortcoming with Positives:

At all startups, not all projects, pitches, and initiatives will be a home run. Some companies get into the habit of focusing on what went wrong. Instead of focusing on failure, start these recap sessions by listing out the positives and what the company did well or learned in the process. We became users of the “good, better, how” system. You start by listing out what went well, then what could have been better and finally how you can bridge the gap in the future. This system forces us to recognize the good before the bad and can be very powerful.

4.     Writing Thank You Notes:

Personalizing gratitude displays an attention to detail and gives the rest of the company a powerful example to follow. These thank you notes can be written, emailed, or even shared using slack. We created a recognition channel in slack where everyone in the company could share and see gratitude in real time.

5.     Meditate Over Moments that Made You Grateful:

Reinforcing gratitude with meditation allows you to understand these feelings and dig deeper into their 'how' and 'why’. If you struggle with meditation, consider a gratitude walk. This is a practice similar to a walking mediation. There are a few formats you can follow but simply take a walk, ideally without any distractions, where you think about the things you are grateful for and perhaps hold focus on whatever comes to mind to delve deeper into the feelings that connect you with that idea.

Focus on what comes naturally and just start!

Choose the practices that come naturally and try to make the exercise of recognition a daily habit. Letting your team know that you’re working to improve gratitude / recognition within the company is a great step. You may notice that team members start to find their own way to express thanks and you can build off those ideas with some of the practices above. The sooner you start to put this into practice, the sooner the company’s culture will start to coalesce around it.

If you’ve found other ideas on this topic, I would love to hear about them. Please reach out to me (Gautam at M13.co).