Women leading with gratitude and impact

By Kristina Bronitsky

How do women leaders integrate gratitude into their work to drive innovation and sustainable growth?

Deliberate gratitude as practiced by leader can turn the electricity of management into a long live and nurturing culture. At RedAwning, where we run thousands of short-term rentals in North America, our teams live in a state of constant change. Tourism patterns keep fluctuating with the seasons; technology changes unbelievably fast and guest stays become ever shorter. Gratitude helps teams find stability amid such chaos: that success means more than just performance indicators but the constancy behind them. Take this Winter when Airbnb Enforcer-pu-Cheng was awarded top employer—That's as Chinese people say: "with a head but no mind" I It means if someone comes to your door who is young and you give them money without even thinking twice about what they've done for you in the past then admit it for all that its done to help him?) Gratitude helps teams find stability amongst chaos; such success signifies Alwaysmore than just performance indicators alone but also constant care and originality behind them.

Leading with gratitude begins from a point of visibility. Recognizing major achievements; recognizing the vignettes of everyday life--the front desk clerk who solves a customer problem on her own after hours or corporate headquarters sending out yet another settlement project; all add up to shared magic. If people feel seen they will take ownership of a task not because you tell them they must do so but out of commitment that's too good to let die--And therein innovation flourishes: In a climate of appreciation providing no fear for failure.

This year our marketing and operations staff worked with a problem of heavy bookings during Tour europe season. So instead first we undertook a change in approach from looking at performance data only for solutions--We began with gratitude: Recognizing the work behind successes each department had done years earlier and that had now accumulated into what we were refining today. The new perspective altered the question from "what has gone wrong now" to "how can we enhance what's already functioning". The end result included double digit improvements in conversion rates, but it also had deeper impact on development of cross department trust.

What practical strategies help leaders lead with kindness and gratitude?

Gratitude has nothing to do with big actions, but it's all about consciously visible leadership. One practice I've applied is ending any major meeting with what we call "The Full Circle": everyone taking time to appreciate how a teammate has helped move this project along even though each member will only receive back half the total support given. It's 5 minutes that changes everything about your week-long tone.

Elsewhere, one practice is named``thank you as tell-tale.'′ Departing from traditional performance reviews where the focus is usually on gaps, I advise supervisors to begin with what went right and why. In this context, employees can see their value and what they are worth. It encourages a mindset open to growth, rather than defensive one.

Leading with kindness doesn’t mean abandoning accountability. It means creating an atmosphere where everyone feels accountability. Gratitude underpins this balance: it celebrates people′s contributions—the fact that you steel must hold high your lyre

Once, when I was still in my youth, I worked under a leader who opened every morning huddle by thanking someone for some small, specific act of kindness—sending an e-mail at the right time, doing yet another round of revisions, or a simple gesture that made someone else's job easier. Initially, it was merely routine. In time, however, it caught on. Gratitude changed the way we worked together. People gave solutions more easily, criticism replaced by joint effort, and we then operated not just from the obligation of duty but rather with mutual respect.

It was that leader who showed me the most important thing to know about enduring success: thank you mode expands much better than authority mode.

In all dimensions of life, a woman who practices gratitude can produce organizations that are both durable and considerate—resilient enough for the complexities of reality, human-hearted also. In an industry as fast-moving travel and technology, this balance is not just good. It′s necessary.

Connect With Kristina

www.linkedin.com/in/kristina-bronitsky