????領(lǐng)導(dǎo)力培訓(xùn)機(jī)構(gòu)“學(xué)院”（The Academies）的老板蘇珊?惠特科姆稱，多年來，她一直把感謝行為充分應(yīng)用于這家位于加州弗雷斯諾的公司的管理之中。今年，她打算給手下的4位員工每人寫一份清單，列舉“感謝你為我做的10件事”。她說，她將在感恩節(jié)前夕把這份清單給他們。在其中的一份清單上，她感謝一位員工“傾注全力的勇氣”，感謝她學(xué)著開展電話銷售、管理團(tuán)隊(duì)，還感謝她“改善儀容的決心”。

????惠特科姆說，雖然她無法量化這種感激行為對她的生意究竟起了多大的幫助作用，但她知道在經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退最嚴(yán)重的幾個(gè)月中，這樣做的確對公司起到了作用。

????感激之所以是一個(gè)有效的工具，主要原因在于“它是建立信任的前兆，” 阿拉巴馬州伯明翰市桑佛德大學(xué)（Samford University）營銷學(xué)教授貝特西?布格?霍洛威這樣說道。而信任本身就是推動(dòng)忠誠極其強(qiáng)有力的因素，無論這種忠誠屬于何種類型的關(guān)系。同樣，感激只有發(fā)自真心才有價(jià)值。

????“它并非什么創(chuàng)造財(cái)富的神奇公式，”《一次簡單的感激行為》（A Simple Act of Gratitude）一書作者約翰?克萊里克說。他于2008年開始寫感謝信，當(dāng)時(shí)他的生活和律師事務(wù)所都發(fā)展得很不順利。事務(wù)所一直在賠錢，已經(jīng)沒錢再繼續(xù)租寫字樓了。“我沒法像往年那樣給我的員工發(fā)放圣誕節(jié)獎(jiǎng)金，我非常難堪，”他回憶說。

????于是，他開始給員工和那些按時(shí)付款的客戶寫感謝信。他還給他的子女、朋友，以及為事務(wù)所介紹客戶的律師們遞送了類似的信函。克萊里克說，有一位律師回信稱，他以前并不知道克萊里克需要這樣的客戶。“如果你喜歡的話，我還可以給再你介紹10個(gè)，”這位律師在信中寫道。

????他看到了感謝信和生意再次興隆起來的聯(lián)系。“如果你愛護(hù)支付酬金的客戶，他們的付款速度甚至?xí)兊酶臁Ｋ麄円矔?huì)珍惜你，”他說。一位客戶按時(shí)遞送來的支票幫助他的事務(wù)所重新找了一個(gè)安身之地，并支付了新辦公地的租金。其他人則給他帶來了更多的生意。“當(dāng)你覺得走途無路時(shí)，或許就是坐下來，寫上10封感謝信的時(shí)候了，”克萊里克說。

????文具禮品店“蒲公英天地”（The Dandelion Patch）的海蒂?卡萊特過去一直在寫感謝信，但她現(xiàn)在找到了新的辦法來維持生意的興隆。她和她的朋友，也就是前面提到的豪華車租賃公司老板，想出了一個(gè)主意，舉辦一場客戶答謝午餐會(huì)（她們當(dāng)時(shí)認(rèn)為這樣的活動(dòng)只會(huì)搞這一次），并邀請租車公司客戶的行政助理們一道參加。

????午餐會(huì)非常成功，因?yàn)檫@些助理們平常很少受邀參加這類特別聚會(huì)，只是經(jīng)常看到她們的老板奔赴各類高檔商務(wù)飯局。

????For years, Susan Whitcomb says she has made good use of gratitude at her Fresno, Calif.-based leadership coaching business, The Academies. This year, she decided she would write a list of "10 things I'm grateful about you" for each of her four staffers, which she says she'll give to them just before Thanksgiving. One of the notes acknowledges a colleague's "courage to stretch," learn to make sales calls, manage others, and her "commitment to make me look good."

????While she admits that she cannot quantify how that has helped her businesses, Whitcomb says she knows it has helped during the recession's slowest months.

????Gratitude is an effective tool largely because "it is a precursor to develop trust," says Betsy Bugg Holloway, a marketing professor at Samford University in Birmingham, Al. And trust itself is an extremely powerful driver for loyalty, no matter the type of relationship. Just the same, gratitude is only valuable when it comes across as genuine.

????"It's not meant to be any magical formula for wealth," says John Kralik, author of A Simple Act of Gratitude. He started writing notes in 2008, as his life and law firm were both suffering. His firm was losing money and had lost its office lease. "I was very embarrassed that I couldn't provide the Christmas bonuses that I had always provided to my employees," he recalls.

????So he wrote appreciation notes to his staff, and sent similar notes to clients who paid their bills on time. He wrote to his children, his friends, and to lawyers who sent a client his way. Kralik says one of the lawyers wrote back to him, saying that he had no idea Kralik would want a client like that. "If you like one, I have 10 more," the lawyer wrote.

????He sees the link between the thank-you notes and his business thriving again. "As you take care of the paying clients, they pay even faster. They value you," he says. One client's timely check allowed his firm to relocate and pay the new rent. Others brought him more business. "When you're feeling especially crummy, it's a good time to sit down and write about 10 thank-you notes," Kralik says.

????Heidi Kallett had been sending out thank-you notes, but she was looking for another way to keep her stationery and gifts stores, The Dandelion Patch, going. So she and her friend, the limousine company owner, came up with what they thought would be a one-time client appreciation lunch, and invited administrative assistants at the companies that used the limousine company.

????The lunches work especially well because assistants are hardly invited to special meals but often watch their bosses head off to a fancy business lunch.