Who is Thanking Your Giving?

It’s Thanksgiving week, and everyone is reflecting on what they are thankful for. You may have even changed your Facebook profile picture to display the banner “thankful for us.” It’s all warm and cozy this week, absent from the recent hostility. I’m very grateful for that!

As a business owner, wife, and dog-mom, there are lots of things to be grateful for. I can easily reflect on and create a laundry list (the only kind of laundry I enjoy BTW) of things, from my clients to the beautiful Carolina weather. Yet, I realized, that was the easy way. Let’s be honest. I’m not one to take the easy route.

I brewed a cup of coffee this morning and dug a little deeper into my thoughts and Thanksgiving and realized there is a great measurement of gratitude most people miss. I began writing this piece to ask you this one glaring question of clarity: How many people are thanking you?

That’s right. How often are you receiving a quality thank you? Ponder that for a few seconds. If you’re lacking in hearing thank you, it may be a sign it’s time to up the value you are bringing to the table.

How to deliver value that will make people say thank you:

1. Listen. The key to any relationship is communication. The key to communication is listening. The basis for delivering value begins with listening. If you want to build solid and loyal relationships, it starts with you being willing to actively listen to what you are being told. Wikipedia states that active listening “requires that the listener fully concentrate, understand, respond, and then remember what is being said.” This type of listening means being present and engaged in the conversation even when you’re not the one talking. Your success with others depends on how well you listen and understand.

2. Understand. In order to fully understand what another person wants, needs, and finds valuable, you must clarify and define. The best way to clarify these items is to ask questions. The best relationships are built upon asking questions that dig deeper and seek to understand. Think back to all those amazing first dates you had. They were filled with listening and asking questions. Those first dates showed compatibility. If they led to more dates, after a while you figured out if you both found the relationship mutually beneficial. It all began with seeking to understand each other better, and it’s the same in life and business.

3. Give. Freely, beyond expectations, and with wild abandon. Once you hear what someone desires, and you clarify and understand, it’s time to help. Help is a service-first action in which you give your best to people in order for them to succeed. This is where the value is received and perceived by the other person. If you have really heard what they need and understand it, you’ll be able to deliver a solution/service/product/relationship that will be exactly what they need (or maybe even more)!

When you up your value, you should see a return on your investment in the form of thank yous. Not just this week but regularly throughout the year. Your goal is to be a blessing to more people through your listening, understanding, and giving –– the person everyone is thankful for having a relationship with, personally or professionally.

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