Olivia: A study of 200,000 people found that the most grateful managers literally doubled their team's profitability. Yet, the number one reason people quit their jobs is a lack of appreciation. Jackson: Wait, what? So we have a tool that doubles profits, and instead of using it, we’re doing the exact opposite, to the point where it’s costing businesses billions in turnover? Olivia: Precisely. Jackson: That doesn't make any sense. It sounds less like a management problem and more like... a multi-billion dollar stupidity problem. Olivia: You’ve just hit on the central paradox of today’s book. This is exactly the issue at the heart of Leading with Gratitude by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. These guys are basically the 'apostles of appreciation' in the business world, and their work is built on research from over a million working adults. Jackson: A million people? Okay, so they have the data. Olivia: They have the data. And they found this massive 'gratitude gap'—this chasm between knowing appreciation works and leaders actually doing it. They set out to understand why we’re leaving this incredibly powerful tool just sitting on the table. Jackson: I’m already hooked. If it's so obvious, why are leaders so bad at this? Is there a real-world example of this going spectacularly wrong?

Olivia: Oh, is there ever. The authors point to one of the most dramatic implosions in sports history: the 1998 Chicago Bulls. Jackson: The Michael Jordan dynasty? Come on, they were unstoppable. What could gratitude possibly have to do with them? Olivia: Everything, it turns out. They had just won their sixth championship in eight years. They were on top of the world. And then, the general manager, Jerry Krause, gave an interview. He said, and this is a direct quote, "Players and coaches don’t win championships, organizations do." Jackson: Ouch. I can just imagine Michael Jordan reading that. Olivia: He did. And he was furious. His response was legendary. He said something like, "What in the heck is Jerry talking about? I didn't see ‘organizations’ playing with the flu in Utah." He felt completely devalued. The man who was the face of basketball, the hero, was just told he was a cog in a machine. Jackson: That’s not just a lack of gratitude; that’s a slap in the face. Olivia: It was the final straw. The resentment had been building, but that quote was the tipping point. Jordan retired. The coach, Phil Jackson, left. The team was dismantled. And in the two decades since, the Chicago Bulls have not won another championship. The entire dynasty crumbled, arguably, under the weight of ingratitude. Jackson: That's insane. All that talent, all that history, undone by ego and a failure to just say, "Thank you, you guys are incredible." It really does sound like a form of stupidity. Is there a flip side to this? Has anyone ever done the opposite and seen it work? Olivia: Absolutely. Let's look at the WD-40 Company during the 2008 financial crisis. The world is melting down, people are terrified of losing their jobs. The CEO, Garry Ridge, noticed the anxiety in his people. Jackson: I bet. Everyone was panicking. Olivia: But Ridge decided, in his words, "Let’s not waste a good crisis." He gathered his employees and made a promise: no layoffs. No benefit cuts. He said, "Everywhere else you go, you’ll hear about horror; when you come to work with us, you’re going to hear about hope." Jackson: That’s a bold move when other companies were slashing everything. Olivia: It was. And he went further. He instructed all his managers to lead with gratitude. To actively look for people living the company's values and to thank them for it, publicly and specifically. They weren't just saying "good job." They were saying, "I saw you help that new team member get up to speed, and that perfectly embodies our value of teamwork. Thank you." Jackson: So they were connecting the gratitude back to the company’s core principles. Olivia: Exactly. And the result? In 2010, two years into the crisis, WD-40 reported the best financial results in its 57-year history. Their market cap grew nearly 300% over the next decade. Employee engagement was at 99%. Jackson: Wow. So one guy, Jerry Krause, belittles his heroes and his empire collapses. The other guy, Garry Ridge, supports his everyday employees during a crisis, and his company thrives. The contrast couldn't be more stark. Olivia: It’s the perfect illustration of the gratitude gap. The difference between seeing people as assets to be appreciated versus cogs to be managed.

Jackson: Okay, so if the evidence is that clear, why do so many leaders act more like Krause than Ridge? It can't just be that they're all bad people. Olivia: The authors argue it's not about being a bad person. It's about being held captive by a set of powerful, deeply ingrained 'Ingratitude Myths.' And the biggest, most damaging myth of all is that fear is the best motivator. Jackson: Okay, but let's be real for a second. A little bit of fear works, doesn't it? The fear of a deadline, the fear of falling behind a competitor, the fear of letting your team down. Isn't that a powerful driver? Olivia: It can be, but only in the short term. The authors cite a Glassdoor survey that is just stunning. It found that 81% of people are motivated to work harder when their boss shows appreciation. Only 38% work harder when their boss is demanding, and just 37% work harder if they fear losing their job. Jackson: Eighty-one versus thirty-seven. That’s not even a contest. Appreciation is more than twice as effective as fear. Olivia: Exactly. Fear creates compliance, not commitment. It stifles creativity because no one wants to risk making a mistake. And the best story to bust this myth is the turnaround at Ford Motor Company under Alan Mulally. Jackson: Right, he came in when Ford was on the brink of collapse. Olivia: And he inherited a culture that was absolutely toxic with fear. Executives were pitted against each other. They would actively sabotage their colleagues' projects to make themselves look better. In the big weekly leadership meetings, everyone would present their projects as "green"—on track—even if they were secretly on fire. Jackson: Because admitting a problem was a sign of weakness, and you'd get shot down. Olivia: Precisely. So Mulally comes in and implements his 'working-together management system.' In one of the first meetings, they're going around the room, and it's all green, green, green. Then it gets to Mark Fields, the president of North America. He takes a deep breath and says his new vehicle launch is delayed. The project is "red." Jackson: Oh man, the whole room must have frozen. Olivia: Dead silence. Everyone was waiting for the execution. Instead, Alan Mulally started to applaud. He said, "Mark, thank you for the visibility. You have a problem; you are not the problem. Now, how can we help you?" Jackson: Wow. That one sentence probably changed the entire company. Olivia: It did. In that moment, he replaced a culture of fear with a culture of trust. He showed that vulnerability would be met with support, not punishment. And that unlocked everything. Ford went on to have one of the most incredible turnarounds in corporate history. Jackson: Mulally's applause was the anti-Krause moment. He made it safe to fail, which is the exact opposite of leading with fear. It’s about creating psychological safety. Olivia: And it busts another myth, which is "I don't have time for this soft stuff." Mulally saved billions and resurrected a global giant by focusing on this. The cost of turnover, of disengagement, of hidden problems—that’s what you don’t have time for. A little gratitude saves you a world of hurt down the line.

Jackson: Okay, so we get the 'why'—it's not stupid. And we get the 'what'—we have to bust these myths in our own heads. But let's get to the how. How do you actually do this in a way that doesn't feel awkward or forced, especially if you're not a naturally gushy person? Olivia: This is where the book gets really practical. The authors lay out eight practices, but they group them into two simple categories: 'seeing' and 'expressing.' Seeing is about actively looking for the good. Expressing is about vocalizing it. And some of the practices are really counter-intuitive and powerful. Jackson: Give me one that’s not just "say thank you more." Olivia: My favorite is "Walk in Their Shoes." It’s about developing real empathy. The authors tell this fantastic story about the Fairmont Hotels in California. They have a leadership program where every year, executives have to spend a full day working alongside a front-line employee. Jackson: So the VP of Operations might be a bellhop for a day? Olivia: Exactly. The regional VP, Tom Klein, spent a day in housekeeping. He put on the uniform, punched the clock, and cleaned rooms. He said afterwards, "I had a whole new understanding of what it means to do that job." They discovered all these small inefficiencies and challenges that you would never see from an office. It generated real, practical ideas to make the jobs easier. Jackson: I love that. It’s not just observing, it’s doing. You can't fake empathy when you're actually scrubbing a toilet or making a dozen beds against a tight deadline. You feel it in your bones. Olivia: And your gratitude becomes so much more specific and authentic. You’re not just saying, "Thanks for your hard work." You’re saying, "I now understand how physically demanding it is to flip all those mattresses. Thank you for your stamina and attention to detail." Jackson: That lands completely differently. What's another one? Olivia: "Look for Small Wins." This is huge. We tend to save our praise for the big, flashy finish-line moments. But the authors argue that progress in meaningful work is the single most important motivator. Alan Mulally did this at Ford with his color-coded charts. The team would literally celebrate when a project moved from "red" to "yellow." Jackson: They celebrated partial progress? Olivia: Yes! Because it showed they were moving in the right direction. It kept the momentum going. There's another great story from Singularity University, where an employee started leaving anonymous notes on the CEO's desk, thanking him for small things he did in meetings. It was just one person, but it lifted the entire team's morale because they felt someone was paying attention to the small, everyday efforts. Jackson: So it’s not about grand gestures or big bonuses. It’s about paying attention to the process, not just the final result. It’s about seeing the daily grind and acknowledging the effort. Olivia: That's the core of it. It’s about making people feel seen.

Jackson: When you put all this together—the Bulls' collapse, WD-40's triumph, Mulally's turnaround—it feels like the book is arguing that gratitude isn't a soft skill. It's a hard, strategic imperative. It’s the operating system for a high-performing, resilient culture. Olivia: I think that's a perfect way to put it. It’s about making human connections. The authors close with a powerful insight from the researcher Brené Brown. After twelve years of research, she found that she never interviewed a single person who described themselves as joyful who did not actively practice gratitude. Jackson: Wow. Olivia: And she says, "It’s not joy that makes us grateful, it’s gratitude that makes us joyful." That simple flip is everything. For leaders, it means you don't wait for a big win to feel grateful. You practice gratitude to create the conditions for joy and success. Jackson: That’s a profound shift in thinking. So maybe the challenge for everyone listening is to find one small win to acknowledge this week. Not a huge achievement, just one person doing something right, and take a moment to say thank you for it, specifically. Olivia: Exactly. It could be a colleague who ran a smooth meeting, or your partner who handled a chaotic morning with grace. Just one specific, authentic "thank you." Jackson: I love that. And we'd love to hear how it goes. Find us on our socials and share one small act of gratitude you witnessed or gave this week. Let's see if we can start a ripple effect. Olivia: A fantastic idea. Because as this book makes so clear, those small ripples can create a tidal wave of positive change. Jackson: Absolutely. This has been incredibly insightful. Olivia: This is Aibrary, signing off.