The Leadership Superpower You're Overlooking.

Read Time: 4 min

Happy Thanksgiving!

This week, we are pausing our performance series to give you a short break from the family meal and a quick read on the importance of gratitude for your leadership and your team.

As a reminder, here is what to expect from this newsletter:

• 1 Leadership Idea

• 5 Minutes or less

• 1 Story from a Coach, Athlete, or Leader

• 1 Piece of supporting research

• 5 Takeaways you can immediately implement.

The Idea: ✨ The Power of Gratitude in Leadership

Coaching is often about preparing your athletes for adversity, guiding them through successes, and shaping them into leaders on and off the field. But in the whirlwind of competition and performance metrics, it’s easy to forget one of the most transformative tools at your disposal: gratitude. Gratitude isn’t just about saying “thank you”—it’s about fostering a mindset that shifts the focus from what’s missing to what’s meaningful.

When gratitude becomes part of a team’s culture, it changes everything. Athletes stop competing against each other and start striving with each other. Coaches become more intentional, players become more resilient, and teams achieve more than they ever thought possible. Let’s explore how gratitude can elevate your leadership and your team.

🏅 Gratitude in Action: Wisdom from the Legend

Great coaches understand that gratitude is the glue that holds a team together. There is no better example of this than the legendary John Wooden. Wooden held a 7-point creed given to him by his father that stood as a manifest for how Wooden operated as a coach and person.

The seventh point was, “Give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day.”

Wooden loved history and one of his favorite quotes on this topic was from Abraham Lincoln:

“If we magnified our blessings the way we magnified our disappointments, we’d all be a lot happier.”

Here is a list of some of Wooden’s quotes on Gratitude and Appreciation:

"Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out."

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“The great secret of life is to cultivate the ability to appreciate the things we have, not compare them.”

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“Contentment makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor.”

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“I am not what I want to be, not what I ought to be, and not what I am going to be, but I am thankful that I am not what I used to be.”

Wooden paints a powerful picture here of a coach who is able to truly find fulfillment in their coaching, a rarity today, and is grounded in gratitude and appreciation for where they are.

📚 The Science of Gratitude

The impact of gratitude isn’t just anecdotal—it’s backed by research. Studies published in Personality and Individual Differences reveal that gratitude fosters prosocial behavior, meaning team members are more likely to support and uplift each other. (Source)

Moreover, gratitude enhances resilience by rewiring the brain to focus on positives rather than setbacks. (Source)

Teams that practice gratitude consistently are happier, more motivated, and better equipped to handle challenges. Gratitude doesn’t just improve morale; it directly impacts performance and outcomes.

🎯 Practical Takeaways

Here are five ways to practice gratitude with your team starting this week:

1. Start Each Practice with Gratitude Rounds: Spend a couple of minutes before and after practice sharing one thing each person is grateful for.

2. Gratitude Letters: Allow players to write letters to someone who has impacted their journey and share them with the team.

3. Gratitude Boards: Create a space for anyone in your unit, team, or program to add notes of appreciation for teammates, coaches, or staff.

4. Recognize Unsung Heroes: Be intentional about highlighting, celebrating, and uplifting players or staff whose contributions may go unnoticed but are vital to the team.

5. Gratitude in Performance: Ground yourself and have your players ground themselves in the things they’re grateful for to put each performance and game in perspective. This would be an amazing gameday ritual to build.

These small acts can create a ripple effect of positivity and connection within your team.

✨ Closing Thought

Gratitude is not a luxury; it’s a necessity for transformational leadership. By embedding gratitude into your team culture, you create an environment where trust, joy, and success thrive. So this week, take a moment to practice gratitude—not just as a leader, but as a person. You’ll be amazed at how quickly it inspires those around you.

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