[Intro music plays in the background.]

Janet Pilcher: 350 episodes of the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. Can you believe it? I’m your host, Janet Pilcher, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you for tuning in every week to grow, learn, and be your best. It also gives me an opportunity to reintroduce the value of gratitude. As we’re celebrating the release of our 350th episode, it feels like a really good time to thank you for sharing your stories with me and for the difference you make every single day in the lives of others. You are the reason for this podcast.

It feels like a really good time to talk about the value of a handwritten thank you note. Although I cannot write all of you a separate handwritten thank you note, I’ve written one to our loyal listeners that I will share as I close today.

I found myself saying in the past few months, “I’m old fashioned.” Shoot, I still like going into the office and being around people. I so enjoy being on site with leaders and our partner organizations to facilitate executive strategy and just engage in social time together.

So with being old fashioned, I still believe in the value of handwritten thank you notes and mailed to people’s homes. Think about it. While most people consider showing an expression of gratitude as a nice gesture, many people struggle to appreciate people, not because they don’t want to, they just don’t think about it or do it with intention.

Remember, good recognition is sending a note that is specific, timely, and genuine. We want to do more than send a generic thank you note to someone. We want to take time to describe the value a person adds to our work and team. It’s more than about me being old fashioned, writing handwritten thank you notes, contributing value to the workplace is grounded in research. And here’s a common study that is cited. This study, Undervaluing Gratitude: Expressers Misunderstand the Consequences of Showing Appreciation, was published in the Journal of Psychological Science and authored by Kumar and Epley from the University of Texas and University of Chicago respectively.

They conducted three different experiments in which study participants wrote various letters expressing gratitude and then predicted how surprised, happy, or potentially awkward they thought the recipients would feel when they received a handwritten note. They studied the giver of the thank you note and the receiver. They compared how the giver perceived the thank you note would be perceived to how it was actually received by the person being thanked.

Here’s what they found. People who wrote the thank you notes underestimated how pleasantly surprised recipients would be to receive a handwritten thank you note. People who wrote the thank you notes underestimated how positive the expression of gratitude made recipients feel. And people who wrote the thank you notes overestimated the potential awkwardness that someone receiving the heartfelt thank you note would experience. Additionally, the researchers found that the pro-social gesture of expressing gratitude in a handwritten note boosts positive emotions and wellbeing for both the letter writer, the expresser, and the recipient of the stated appreciation.

Kumar and Epley speculated that expressers of gratitude systematically undervalue the positive impact that expressing appreciation through thank you notes has on recipients. The inaccurate assessment of the expected value of the action of thanking people with thank you notes may keep people from doing that behavior, a behavior that would maximize their own and others’ wellbeing.

In the Nine Principles Framework, our last principle, Principle Nine, is focused on recognition. It’s the last principle because it’s one principle that supports all others to support people in organizations to be their best at work. That’s why I focus on this principle in our 350th episode. It’s one of the most important actions we take as team members and leaders in our organizations. In fact, it’s one of the most important life lessons, showing our gratitude with a handwritten thank you note.

Going into this year, make a habit of asking, “who can I thank today?” And write them a handwritten thank you note and mail it to their home. Here’s mine to all of you:

Dear listeners, thank you for celebrating a huge milestone with us on the Accelerate Your Performance podcast, episode 350. The fact that we’ve been able to go on all these years is a testament to the fact that you keep listening. So thank you.

I get the opportunity to make a connection with you every week in the Accelerate Your Performance podcast. It means so much to me to think about the ways that I can make just a small difference to the start of your week. You listen to learn and better yourselves to be your best self and leader. You enter your professional jobs to serve others to the best of your ability. I’m grateful that you take time out of your valuable schedule to listen and learn about how you can start your week off with a leadership tip and listen to the experiences of your colleagues.

Thank you for the difference you make in the lives of our students, families, employees, and communities.

Janet.

Have a great week, everyone.