How Gratitude Shifted Our Trajectory in 2025
“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others." ~Cicero
There are moments in leadership when the most consequential shift isn’t strategic—it’s perceptual.
For me, 2025 was one of those years.
Like many leaders, I entered the year carrying uncertainty and at times real concern about the shifting socio-political and economic climate. The leadership teams we work with were navigating restructures, turnover, funding losses, and profound fatigue. Crescent Leadership itself experienced a noticeable downturn in work from February through August. It would have been reasonable—perhaps even prudent—to pull back, wait for conditions to stabilize, or narrow our focus to preservation.
But in March, a call with our Collaborators motivated me to change the question I was asking.
Instead of fear insisting, “What do we need to protect?” we courageously asked: “Who are we grateful to serve—and how do we keep showing up for them well?”
We chose to orient ourselves toward Gratitude by intentionally shifting our attention away from scarcity and toward the leaders we were grateful to serve. That shift brought our purpose back to the center of every decision. We stayed connected to our clients. We stood by our research and leadership beliefs—even when those commitments faced increased scrutiny and resistance within the broader discourse. We showed up as consistently as possible. We offered in-kind support when it mattered, even when margins were tight. And we grounded our choices in appreciation for the relationships and values that had sustained our work over time.
Something powerful happened as a result.
Momentum returned. Our perspective evolved. Resilience strengthened. Our conversations deepened. By the end of the year, our trajectory had changed, not because external conditions suddenly improved, but because our interpretation and response to those conditions had shifted.
Research helps explain why this pattern is so reliable. Studies on Gratitude consistently show that shifting attention toward appreciation, especially during periods of stress, improves psychological resilience, emotional regulation, and goal persistence (Emmons & McCullough, 2007; Fredrickson, 2001). Gratitude broadens cognitive perspective, making leaders more likely to notice opportunities, resources, and relational assets that are otherwise obscured under threat.
At the time, I described this as a mindset shift. In hindsight, science offers a more precise explanation—Gratitude alters how leaders regulate stress, interpret social signals, and sustain energy under pressure. It doesn’t remove challenges. Rather, it changes the physiological and psychological terrain on which leaders come face to face with obstacles.
That distinction matters.
Gratitude as a Leadership Strategy
In Leader-First® Leadership, Gratitude is defined as recognizing and expressing appreciation for what brings meaning to your life, while acknowledging that the source of that value lies outside of yourself (DeShields, 2023).
This definition is intentional because it debunks two common misconceptions that limit the impact of Gratitude’s in organizations.
First, Gratitude is often dismissed as a soft skill—something nice to have, but secondary to “real” leadership behaviors like decision-making, accountability, or performance management. Second, when leaders do attempt Gratitude, it frequently shows up as vague or performative—a quick “thanks, everyone,” disconnected from real contribution or value. Neither approach produces meaningful results.
Gratitude, practiced well, is not about being agreeable or lowering standards. It is a leadership and coaching behavior that reinforces trust, belonging, and psychological safety across relationships. Organizational research shows that team members who feel genuinely appreciated report higher job satisfaction, stronger organizational commitment, and greater discretionary effort (Algoe, 2012; Grant & Gino, 2010).
The Gratitude mechanism drives motivation but, more importantly, cultivates relationship strength. Your team members are quietly, even subconsciously, asking a fundamental question every day: Do you care about me?
Not, Do you care that I work hard?
Not, Do you care that I produce results?
But, Do you care about me as a human being?
Gratitude is the intentional behavior that helps leaders answer that question authentically and credibly.
When leaders express Gratitude with specificity—naming what a peer or team member did, why it mattered to them, and the value it created—they reduce relational uncertainty. Research by Grant and Gino (2010) shows that receiving sincere, specific appreciation increases prosocial behavior and persistence, even in demanding work environments. Team members don’t just feel better—they work better, because they understand how their contribution fits into something meaningful.
In this way, Gratitude becomes strategic. It fuels trust, engagement, performance, and accountability long before performance reviews or incentive systems ever come into play.
Why Gratitude Works—The Science Behind the Practice
Gratitude is emotionally meaningful but also biologically powerful.
From a neuroscience perspective, Gratitude affects the systems leaders rely on most under pressure: emotional regulation, threat detection, motivation, and learning. Functional neuroimaging studies show that expressing or reflecting on Gratitude activates regions of the medial prefrontal cortex associated with empathy, moral reasoning, and social connection (Fox et al., 2015). These are the very capacities leaders need when navigating complexity, conflict, and uncertainty.
At the same time, Gratitude is associated with reduced activation in stress-related neural pathways. Regular Gratitude practice has been linked to lower physiological stress responses and improved emotional regulation, including reduced amygdala reactivity—the brain’s primary threat-detection system (Kini et al., 2016). In practical terms, this means leaders are less likely to default to defensiveness or reactivity during difficult conversations.
Gratitude also activates the brain’s reward system. Dopaminergic pathways—particularly those involving the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens—light up during positive social exchanges involving appreciation (Zahn et al., 2009). Remarkably, this effect occurs in both the giver and the receiver, reinforcing trust and motivation on both sides of the relationship.
Memory plays a role as well. When Gratitude is present, the hippocampus, which supports learning and long-term memory, is more likely to encode positive social experiences. Over time, this strengthens relational recall, making trust, goodwill, and collaboration easier to access when pressure mounts (Kini et al., 2016). This helps explain an underrecognized truth: Gratitude is one of the few leadership behaviors that benefits both the giver and the receiver simultaneously.
Leaders who practice Gratitude consistently report improvements in sleep quality, emotional well-being, and stress recovery—key indicators of sustainable performance (DeShields, 2023; Wood et al., 2010). In my own experience, tracking a daily Gratitude practice over 90 days corresponded with measurable improvements in restorative sleep, a critical predictor of cognitive performance and resilience. Those physiological gains translate directly into leadership presence—how calmly, clearly, and constructively leaders engage with their teams.
Gratitude does not just feel good. It improves how leaders lead.
Gratitude and Resilience—A Powerful, Symbiotic Relationship
Every decision, conversation, and moment of emotional regulation draws from finite energy reserves. When those reserves are depleted, even the most capable leaders begin to operate in survival mode: narrower thinking, shorter patience, and reactive choices that typically don’t reflect their best judgment or values.
In Leader-First® Leadership, we define the Resilience Touchstone as your capacity to overcome adversity through the systematic renewal of the body’s four energy wellsprings: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. Gratitude plays a critical, yet often underestimated role in renewing all four.
Physically, Gratitude supports recovery. Multiple studies link Gratitude practices to improved sleep quality, reduced fatigue, and lower levels of physiological stress, including reductions in cortisol and inflammatory markers (Wood et al., 2009; Emmons & Stern, 2013). Sleep quality, in particular, is a foundational input to executive functioning, emotional regulation, and sustained performance.
Mentally, Gratitude widens perspective. Fredrickson’s Broaden-and-Build Theory demonstrates that positive emotions—including Gratitude—expand cognitive flexibility and attentional scope, enabling individuals to think more creatively and access a broader range of problem-solving strategies (Fredrickson, 2001). Under chronic stress, leaders’ thinking narrows. Gratitude counterbalances that contraction.
Emotionally, Gratitude strengthens regulation. By dampening threat-based reactivity, Gratitude allows leaders to stay present during difficult conversations rather than defaulting to defensiveness or withdrawal. Research shows that individuals who regularly practice Gratitude demonstrate greater emotional stability and lower symptoms of anxiety and depression (Wood et al., 2010).
Spiritually—defined here not in religious terms, but as meaning and connection—Gratitude reconnects leaders to purpose. Studies consistently find that Gratitude is associated with greater meaning-making and life satisfaction, particularly during periods of adversity (Park et al., 2019). This wellspring is often the first to erode under pressure, yet it is the one that sustains leaders through prolonged uncertainty.
This is why Gratitude is not a “nice-to-have” during hard seasons. It is one of the most reliable ways leaders replenish the energy they expend on behalf of others.
From the Observation Deck—Leader-First® Leadership
Across our Leader-First® Leadership and team coaching engagements, a consistent pattern has emerged.
The leaders who experienced the most meaningful breakthroughs this past year were not those who ignored reality, lowered expectations, or avoided hard conversations. They were leaders who practiced Gratitude deliberately—often in moments when it felt least natural to do so.
For some, the epiphany came when they realized how rarely they expressed appreciation beyond simply saying “thank you.” For others, it meant recognizing that silence, however unintentional, was interpreted by their peers and team members as indifference. For some of our analytically wired or introverted leaders, the breakthrough was recognizing that caring does not require emotional intensity but rather consistent action and authenticity.
One moment, in particular, made the power of Gratitude unmistakably real.
The evening before the final session of a Leader-First® Leadership cohort, one participant went home and wrote individual, deeply personal Gratitude notes to every leader in the group. Each note named something specific—how that person had shown up, the value they brought to the collective, and the impact it had on her own leadership journey. She did this entirely on her own, without prompting or suggestion.
The next morning, just as we were about to begin our session on cultivating the Gratitude Touchstone, without pomp and circumstance, she quietly handed the notes to her peers.
The response in the room was immediate and profound. Leaders who are typically composed and guarded were visibly moved. Some were emotional. Others sat in silence, taking in what it felt like to be truly seen. What struck the group most was not the sentiment. It was the level of specificity. Her action was Gratitude in its purest, most impactful form, and exactly how we prescribe it.
That moment became a reference point for the entire cohort. Six months later, leaders from that group still discuss it when we reconnect because it permanently shifted their understanding of what Gratitude looks like when practiced with intention and courage.
Practicing Gratitude as a Leadership Discipline
If Gratitude is a leadership discipline, then discipline, not charisma or personality, dictates its success.
The most effective leaders build practices that make Gratitude visible, specific, and reliable—especially when pressure is high. These are the three evidence-based practices that matter most:
Practice Gratitude with specificity, not frequency. Generic expressions of thanks (“Great job, everyone”) have little lasting impact. Research shows that Gratitude strengthens motivation and trust when it clearly links behavior to value (Grant & Gino, 2010). The most effective leaders consistently answer three questions when expressing appreciation:
What did you do?
Who did it impact—me, the team, and/or the organization?
What was the impact of your action?
This level of specificity reinforces desired behaviors, clarifies expectations, and signals that attention, not just outcomes, is being noticed.
Use Gratitude proactively, not reactively. Many leaders reserve appreciation for end-of-project celebrations or performance reviews. Yet studies show that Gratitude is most potent when it occurs close to the behavior it recognizes, particularly during periods of strain or uncertainty (Algoe, 2012). Expressing Gratitude before fatigue hardens into disengagement helps interrupt stress responses and preserve trust.
Let Gratitude drive your emotional regulation first. Neuroscience research shows that expressing Gratitude activates brain regions associated with emotional regulation and reduces threat-based reactivity (Fox et al., 2015; Kini et al., 2016). Practically speaking, this means Gratitude is not just something leaders give—it is something they use to steady themselves before difficult conversations, decisions, or feedback. This creates a powerful reinforcing feedback loop that intensifies Gratitude’s impact throughout the organization.
Leaders who pause to identify what they value about a person or situation before engaging tend to show up calmer, clearer, and more constructive.
Cultivating Gratitude in Others
Gratitude becomes transformative when it extends beyond individual leader behavior to shape how teams interact. Through modeling, reinforcement, and shared norms, leaders fuel healthy culture dimensions that build enduring organizations.
Model Gratitude as behavior, not a personality trait. When leaders treat Gratitude as a natural trait (“Some people are just more appreciative”), it may feel inaccessible to others. When leaders treat Gratitude as a practice, it becomes learnable and replicable. Research on social learning theory indicates that team members are far more likely to adopt behaviors they observe consistently modeled by those in authority (Bandura, 1977).
Leaders who express Gratitude publicly and privately, especially in moments of tension, signal that appreciation is part of how work gets done.
Normalize peer-to-peer Gratitude. Teams that rely solely on top-down recognition miss a powerful opportunity. Studies in positive organizational growth show that peer-to-peer appreciation strengthens belonging, trust, and collective efficacy more effectively than leader-only recognition (Cameron et al., 2011). Simple practices such as opening meetings with acknowledgments, closing projects with shared reflections on contribution, or explicitly naming collaborative effort can help Gratitude become relational rather than hierarchical.
Guard against performative Gratitude. Gratitude loses credibility when disconnected from real value, overused, or inconsistently applied. Team members can easily detect insincerity. Research shows that perceived authenticity is a key moderator in whether Gratitude increases engagement or breeds cynicism (Grant and Gino, 2010).
In 2026 Make Gratitude a Leadership Choice
Under sustained pressure, leaders often deprioritize Gratitude, not because it is unimportant, but because it feels less immediate than competing demands. That instinct is understandable, but also counterproductive.
Gratitude is most effective when practiced during adversity, not after it has passed. Gratitude reframes difficulty in a way that preserves agency, connection, and meaning. Gratitude helps leaders:
Stay grounded rather than reactive
Preserve trust when pressure rises
Renew the energy they expend on behalf of others
Reinforce cultures where people feel seen, valued, and willing to stay engaged
For all these reasons, and countless more, we have named Gratitude as the 2026 Leader Touchstone. This year at Crescent Leadership, we will make Gratitude a steady leadership choice made daily, visibly, and intentionally.
Leaders, as you step into the year ahead, remember that Gratitude offers something rare—a practice that strengthens performance and humanity simultaneously. When you choose Gratitude as an action, you don’t just shift how people feel at work. You change how work gets done.
And over time, that choice becomes the difference between simply leading through uncertainty—and leading in a way others want to follow.
References
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Cameron, K., Mora, C., Leutscher, T., & Calarco, M. (2011). Effects of positive practices on organizational effectiveness. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(3), 266–308.
DeShields, J. (2023). 9 leader touchstones: Unleash your team’s unique potential and build a dynamic, enduring organization. Leader-First Publications.
Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2007). The psychology of gratitude. Oxford University Press.
Emmons, R. A., & Stern, R. (2013). Gratitude as a psychotherapeutic intervention. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 69(8), 846–855.
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Gino, F., & Grant, A. (2024, April 2). The big benefits of a little thanks. Harvard Business Review.
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Park, Y., Impett, E. A., MacDonald, G., & Lemay, E. P. (2019). Saying “thank you”: Partners’ expressions of gratitude protect relationship satisfaction and commitment from the harmful effects of attachment insecurity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 117(4), 773–806.
Wood, A. M., Froh, J. J., & Geraghty, A. W. A. (2010). Gratitude and well-being: A review and theoretical integration. Clinical Psychology Review, 30(7), 890–905.
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