21 Nov Set Your Thanksgiving AND Leadership Tables with These Same Three Things

The feast of Thanksgiving is about celebrating a bountiful harvest and sharing that abundance with others in gratitude, love and peace. What would be possible if we had a Thanksgiving mindset every day?

GRATITUDE

Gratitude is one of our favorite topics at High5 Leadership, and we do practice it daily. It is the quickest way to raise your energy and the energy of everyone around you. One beautiful Thanksgiving tradition is to have everyone share something they are grateful for before the feast begins. What if we took that same concept into the boardroom and shared something we are grateful for at the start of every meeting? How might that change the energy, attitude and, therefore, the outcome of those meetings?

LOVE

If the Pilgrims and Native Americans could stop fighting for a day (as the story goes), it seems reasonable that we could lay down our judgments for a day. Start by making a list of the judgments you brought into the world. That’s a VERY short list – zero! All of our judgments were learned from someone else. ALL. OF. THEM. Just as we learned to have judgments, we can learn to love and let go of those judgments. When we drop the judgments, we start to see we are way more alike than different.

So, for today, drop the lens of judgment and look at others through the lens of love. You only need to do it for one day. Today. Then choose it again for every today after that. When you look through the lens of love, what will be different around the dining room table and the conference table?

PEACE

Peace is defined as a state of mutual harmony between people or groups. The quickest way to have peace in your personal and professional relationships is to have a shared outcome. Most of us have some relatives, friends, co-workers or team members that may join us for Thanksgiving or that we see every day at work. The quickest way to establish harmony is by everyone involved having a shared outcome for the celebration, the meeting or the project. When we do that, our individual differences won’t come into play as much, so they won’t be a distraction.

For instance, the outcome for Thanksgiving might be that everyone has fun and only positive conversations are allowed. Anyone who brings negative to the party has to do the Chicken Dance for 30 seconds. (OK – I know what’s happening at my Thanksgiving celebration!) At work, set some ground rules and make sure everyone is clear on the outcome. It speeds up the transaction, and there’s no need for personal agendas.

When you bring these three items to your holiday table, and your conference room table, you will experience the absolute abundance that is available to every last one of us. What we focus on is exactly what will expand for us. Focus on building the family and the culture that you want.

To find out more about our Conscious Leadership Development Strategies reach out for a free strategy session at info@high5leadership.com.