The Fifth Core - Gratitude
A lot of you have heard me rave about The Speed of Trust and its powerful framing of the four cores to building trust of:
Integrity
Intentions
Capabilities
Results
Recently I was reflecting on past client-supplier relationships and it hit me that the really special relationships, the ones that rose to the level of partnership have a fifth core: Gratitude.
Not just gratitude on the part of the supplier / service provider. When there is a product or service delivered well, and that service provider is on the receiving end of just a little bit of gratitude from their client it is a key part of elevating the relationship.
A lot of us who are in the service sector are “pleasers” to begin with, and seeing a happy client is truly rewarding. A genuine expression of thanks from that happy client is…well it’s an awesome feeling. You know they don’t owe it to you, in fact the client owes you nothing except paying your bill.
The effect on the service provider is profound though the next time that client calls needing help on something. I’ve always found that for those clients that are in the special category of partner where there is mutual gratitude there is an energizing effect. I get a burst of energy ready to do what it takes to get the job done. This burst of energy is not a short lived thing either. When other clients call there is still a rise in energy level, but it is just not the same. Perhaps this is also one of the differences about working with employee owned organizations where there are employee – owners who are emotionally and financially invested in the partnership, and not just the work.
I’ve been on both sides of this relationship dynamic, and I can think immediately of some suppliers who have great products and / or services, who when there was a particularly interesting (ie: difficult) application I would look forward to calling them. I knew we would come up with something together and that I could count on them. In all of these relationships there was authentic mutual gratitude.
In my Leading to Energize course gratitude is woven throughout as an important part of one’s leadership practice, and life in general. I think I may not be emphasizing it enough.
One of the functions of organizational leaders is in the creation of real partnerships with clients AND with suppliers and service providers. These partnerships are built on trust as framed by Covey, and I think another necessary ingredient that takes it to another level is mutual gratitude.
Thank you for reading, and as always I love interacting with you going deeper on these topics.
Nik