Count Your Blessings

Cathie Leimbach • November 23, 2021

What thoughts are dominating your mind this Thanksgiving week? You might be looking forward to Thursday’s delicious food, or to time with some of your favorite people.  Maybe you are grateful that the company you work for is financially stable so you have had consistent income or you may appreciate your new job. Perhaps you are thankful for your good health or that you are regaining your strength after a serious surgery. Being thankful for the good things helps us push through the inevitable challenges that come our way.  

 

What about your work life? How thankful are you for having a job you love or for competent, supportive colleagues?  If you are a manager or supervisor, how appreciative are you of your employees?  How do you let your reliable, productive employees know how valuable they are?  When you have the habit of expressing gratitude at work, both morale and retention will be relatively strong. Less chance of employee burnout increases productivity and profit.

 

Also, being thankful increases our mental, physical, and emotional health. When we are positive, our body produces more dopamine and serotonin, two of the happiness hormones. This positivity gives us a can-do attitude and increases our resilience when facing challenges. Gratitude supports our physical health by improving our sleep, strengthening our immune system, and reducing pain. When we express thanks, show appreciation to others, and share the positive things in our lives, people enjoy spending time with us and we are emotionally stronger.     

 

I have a fond memory of the dishwashing time sing-alongs my mother and I had when I was growing up. They often included the hymn:

“Count your many blessings, name them one by one

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.”

 

Counting your blessings requires no money. It just requires a desire to notice the bright side of things and consciously acknowledge the many good parts of your life. Try keeping a gratitude journal in which you daily write down one to five things you are grateful for. If you do this from today to the end of the year, you will be able to reflect back on the many blessings that came your way in a short five weeks.

 

This Thanksgiving, enjoy the people you spend the day with, the activities of the day, and your turkey dinner. Tryptophan, the hormone in turkey that might increase your need for a Thanksgiving afternoon nap, is also a happiness hormone. It’s a blessing that turkey, the go-to food for Thanksgiving and Christmas, helps us be in a good mood to better handle the busyness and the crowds of the season and enjoy the precious celebrations.

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

4 Leadership Behaviors That Drive Trust, Performance, and Accountability

By Cathie Leimbach • March 31, 2026
Most leaders don’t struggle because they lack knowledge. They struggle because leadership opportunities show up in daily conversations —and those moments are easy to miss. The difference between average and high-performing teams often comes down to four leadership behaviors: 1. Build Trust Through Everyday Conversations Trust is built in small moments. Listen to concerns Ask thoughtful questions Follow through Address issues quickly and respectfully 🤝 Trust grows through consistent, everyday conversations. 2. Reinforce What Good Looks Like People repeat what gets recognized. Be specific: “I appreciated how you handled that client issue quickly—that made a difference.” 🔒 Clarity + recognition = stronger performance. 3. Address Problems Early—Kindly and Clearly Avoiding issues creates bigger ones. Keep it simple: What was expected? What happened? What needs to change? 👥 Clear, timely conversations reduce drama and improve results. 4. Support People So They Can Succeed Your role is to help your team succeed. Clarify priorities Remove obstacles Provide resources Coach progress 🔍 When people have clarity and support, performance follows. The Real Lever: Conversations None of this requires new systems. It happens in everyday interactions— 1:1s, quick check-ins, and follow-ups. Better conversations → better results. Quick Reflection Which one would make the biggest difference for you right now? Build trust Reinforce performance Address problems early Support success 👉 Join our next 60-minute Leadership Conversation – Inspiring Employee Performance on Monday, April 6, at 3:00 pm ET. Not a webinar. A working session with other leaders looking at what’s actually happening on their teams—and how small shifts in daily conversations change performance fast. If you're curious what even a 10% shift in consistency could look like for your team… this is a good place to start.

Three Small Shifts That Change Everything

By Cathie Leimbach • March 24, 2026
You don’t need to make big changes in your leadership practices to get better results. Often, it’s small shifts in everyday leadership conversations that quietly change how work gets done. Here are three that work:  1. Make priorities clear Start meetings by stating current priorities. That creates focus right away and helps conversations stay on topic. 2. Ask instead of solve Instead of answering an employee’s questions, ask, “What are your suggestions?” Such questions encourage employee thinking and stronger follow-through. 3. Hold short monthly one-on-one check-ins Meeting with each employee one-on-one allows the regular review of goals, progress, and obstacles. These short conversations surface issues early and keep everyone aligned. These small habits keep teams steady and focused. Your challenge this month: Pick one shift and try it. Notice what changes in clarity, buy-in, or accountability. Sometimes the difference between teams that struggle and teams that move smoothly comes down to a few simple leadership conversations happening consistently. 👉 Join our 60-minute Leadership Conversation on March 30th at 3:00 PM to see how small shifts in everyday leadership conversations can quickly improve clarity, ownership, and results.