MAKE TIME FOR THIS OLD-FASHIONED PRACTICE
I read an article last week that reminded me of one of the most valuable leadership lessons. I’ve learned during the past several decades. Interestingly, this lesson has taken on more significance as time has passed.
When I was a young manager, an outside trainer once told me of the value of handwritten thank you notes. He was contrasting handwritten notes with typed notes. In those days, all documents were created on a typewriter and usually mailed to the appropriate recipients.
Yes – I am that old!
Then, of course, email entered the picture. What a wonderful resource for leaders and managers. It became so convenient to communicate with people around the country and the world in seconds. Email allowed all of us to be so much more productive, efficient and effective. Of course, used inappropriately, it could be a huge time waster!
Now, happily, we have made more significant strides in communication with texting, instant messaging, and sophisticated in-house communication systems.
With the advent of artificial intelligence, we do not even have to communicate with another human being to obtain answers to our questions and to solve challenging problems. We can even ask AI to send a short – or long – note of gratitude to a colleague, a direct report or our manager.
And that’s why handwritten thank you notes are even more valuable today than they were decades ago:
-People do not expect them
-People do not write them
-People do not receive them
It is common knowledge that one of the primary ways George H.W. Bush rose up the ranks in the federal government was because he believed in the power of handwritten thank you notes. He would find reasons to hand them out or mail them. He did it so frequently that people joked about his practice. But the fact that people joked about it meant that it affected them and made an impact on them.
Why are handwritten thank you notes so powerful in this new era of artificial intelligence?
As the article that I read said, handwritten notes can:
-Spell out what the other person did, and
-Explain the positive impact their actions had on you and your team.
People receive hundreds of emails or texts every day.
They rarely receive handwritten thank you notes.
The great majority of those emails will be forgotten by the end of the workday and certainly by the end of the week. The handwritten thank you note will not.
In fact, I know many people who actually save handwritten thank you notes because they consider them so precious. They keep them in a special place at home or in their office and pull them out to read when they are having a tough day.
One of the truisms about leadership is that people repeat what gets recognized. My older son reminded me of this fact recently after completing a leadership book written by author, speaker, podcaster and former Navy SEAL Jock Willink. Willink wrote that people improve behaviors that receive acknowledgment because they know those behaviors are valued.
As the author of the article I read article concluded, thank you notes do not just express gratitude: They slowly and quietly shape your organization’s culture. And isn’t that what we as leaders want to do all the time: Build a positive and meaningful work culture?
Please think about this significant leadership practice. Let people realize that you noticed them. That you value them. Every human being with whom we works craves that kind of appreciation and recognition. I guarantee you that a hand-written thank you note will make a more significant impact on your recipient than a text or an email.
Write a few this week, and make it a great week.
If you believe this content would resonate with a friend or colleague, please feel free to forward it along!
-Larry