We’re still here.
It’s kind of hard to think about everything we’ve gone through this year, isn’t it?
I was talking with my coach this week. We ended up discussing one of my favorite topics—gratitude. I called this year a “Gratitude Reset”. Meaning the things I was grateful for last year are decidedly not the things I’m grateful for this year.
Right now, I’m grateful for:
* The health of my family; and
* That my wife and I still have jobs.
If you’d asked me that a year ago, those two things were way down on the list—because I took them for granted. If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s the reminder that the most important things aren’t the big vacation you took, or how much money you made; it’s the basics. It’s a gratitude reset.
We now turn to 2021 with a sense of cautious optimism. Vaccines are due to be administered starting this month. It would appear that a sense of normalcy will begin anew something in the second quarter (if people will just wear their damn masks!) We have a new administration whether you like it or not. Things are changing and will continue to change.
I’ve studied trust as a leadership essential for several years. It’s now truly coming to the forefront as both an essential characteristic of leadership, corporate culture and in every personal and professional relationship we have.
A lot of components go into trust, which will be discussing during our upcoming leadership workshops. But the fundamental question remains: Why do we trust who we trust? Smarter people than I haven’t been able to answer that question. But knowing that we must trust and be trusted is a given to success in all relationships.
So in ending the year, I’d like to combine gratitude and thank the people in my professional life I most trust with gratitude. You all know who you are.
And to each of you, gratitude. I can’t do what I do without you.