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"The job of a leader is to look for every opportunity to say thank you."

– Andy Freed, CEO, Virtual, Inc.

In this episode of 5 Minutes with Andy, Virtual, Inc. CEO Andy Freed reflects on the power of gratitude in leadership and how making people feel seen and appreciated is essential to helping teams thrive.

Andy discusses:

• How simple - and profound - it is to say “thank you.”
• The importance of positive communication for fostering employee engagement and growth.
• Why showing appreciation should be a daily practice for every leader.

Tune in to discover how practicing gratitude can build stronger teams and help you lead with purpose.

Andy Freed (00:12 – 03:59)

Hello and welcome to Five Minutes with Andy. My name is Andy Freed. I'm the CEO of Virtual, Incorporated. For 25 years, Virtual has been helping associations, standards bodies and consortia as they form, change and grow. And this podcast will share some of the lessons that I've learned in doing so.

But I'll tell you, the lesson I'm going to share today doesn't come from the last 25 years. It comes in many ways from the first five. And those first five I spent with my mom, Judy Freed, my dad, Arthur Freed, and they were always really clear to tell me, make sure you say thank you for things. You know it was a good lesson then, it's a good lesson now.

Because it was 150 years ago that William James - who was a philosopher and psychologist in the 1850s - said that the deepest human need is the need to be appreciated. As leaders, that's something we need to make sure we're doing every day. Finding an opportunity to say thank you to people, finding an opportunity to make people feel appreciated.

So, I've said before and said many times on this podcast and other places how much I love Bruce Springsteen shows. One of the things I love about a Springsteen show is the very end of the show when the E Street Band files off the stage. And the E Street Band right now has grown to having a whole bunch of backup singers and backup musicians. There's 19 people on stage with Bruce. Believe me, I've sat there and counted them. As they file off the stage every night, Bruce stands at the top of the stairs, and he shakes their hands and thanks them for a good show. Every night, every member of the band. That's what it takes to be the boss. That's what a leader does.

I think back to the eighties, I watched Harvard hockey win a national title. Bill Cleary, their coach, did the same thing. Stood by the bench, shook every player's hand, win or loss, and told them they played a good game, thanked them for their participation. That little moment of saying thank you to people. Well, William James says the deepest need that people have is to be appreciated. It can make such a difference. Sending a note to somebody, dropping them a text, sending them an email, swinging by somebody's desk and just saying “thank you.” If every one of our leaders saw themselves as being the person who was supposed to be doing that every day, we would get a little bit closer to what I think is the purpose of every leader. And that is to see if we can make the people that we lead the very best version of themselves.

And I come to work every day trying to do that. How can we make the people around us the very best version of themselves? Well, you do that not by just standing and correcting the things that aren't right, but you do that by reinforcing and thanking people for the things that they're doing well. And that's something which is so important for every leader, is to spend that time thanking people for what they're doing.

And on that note, I want to thank all of you for joining us today and hope that you'll pay it forward by going out and thanking somebody else. Thank you. Talk again soon.

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