12/01/2025

The Most Overlooked Performance Hack: Gratitude

More leaders are turning to gratitude practices to boost morale

Gratitude may be the simplest, most underused performance-enhancing behavior in modern work. It costs nothing, takes seconds and yet produces measurable physiological and organizational benefits. The problem isn't that we don't believe in gratitude. It's that we underestimate its impact.

A national survey commissioned by the John Templeton Foundation found 80 percent of employees would work harder for a manager who shows appreciation, yet only 15 percent say they receive regular thanks at work. Even more striking, 35 percent report that their manager has never thanked them. For a behavior so universally recognized as positive, it is remarkably scarce in professional settings.

The absence of gratitude at work isn't a moral failure; it's a biological blind spot. Our brains are wired to detect threats faster than appreciation. In evolutionary terms, noticing danger kept us alive, while noticing good fortune was optional. Gratitude practices flip that bias by retraining the brain to focus on what's working rather than what's missing. The effects ripple through mood, motivation and even physiology.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Chief Executive.