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!

What’s Really Driving Employee Detachment?

By Cathie Leimbach • April 21, 2026
Most leaders don’t struggle because they don’t care. They struggle because the root causes of disengagement are easy to miss. Right now, many employees are emotionally detached from their workplaces—and a majority are still watching for their next opportunity. But this isn’t about perks or pay. It’s about something more foundational. Less than half of employees clearly know what’s expected of them. Even fewer feel encouraged to grow, connected to purpose, or heard at work. Those aren’t surface issues. They’re leadership gaps. And they show up in everyday conversations. Engagement is built—or broken—through how leaders communicate expectations, opportunities, purpose, and voice. For example: When expectations aren’t clear, people guess and stay busy—and performance suffers. When employees don’t see how their work matters, connection fades. When leaders don’t ask for employees’ perspectives, people disengage—even if they stay. These aren’t big system failures. They’re missed conversations. The good news? What causes detachment is also what fixes it. Where could clearer, more intentional leadership conversations reconnect your team? Look at your last two workplace culture or employee engagement surveys. What do they show about how well your leaders meet employee needs? Where are leaders falling short? How do these strengths and gaps affect your bottom line? How long are you willing to accept the underperformance that follows?  Your Next Step: Click here to book a free conversation with Cathie Leimbach about discovering and/or closing leadership gaps in your organization.

What Problems Disappear When Leadership Gets Stronger?

By Cathie Leimbach • April 14, 2026
Most workplace issues don’t start big. They build slowly—through missed conversations, unclear expectations, and more people leave. That’s where disengagement shows up. And when it does, the cost is real: 78% higher absenteeism 51% higher turnover 63% more safety incidents These differences come from comparing the 25% of organizations with the strongest employee engagement to those in the bottom 25% (Gallup). And across the U.S., the bigger picture is hard to ignore— disengaged employees cost organizations nearly $2 trillion annually in lost productivity (Gallup). These aren’t just HR problems. They’re leadership problems. When people don’t feel connected, clear, or supported: They call off more More people quit Mistakes and risks increase The good news? These patterns are preventable. Strong leaders reduce these issues by: Addressing problems early Creating clarity instead of assumptions Having consistent, direct conversations Reinforcing expectations before things drift It’s not about doing more. It’s about leading differently—every day. A question to consider: Which of these challenges is quietly costing your organization the most right now? 👉 Join our upcoming Leadership Conversation on April 27th, 3:00 PM—this is not a webinar . This is a candid conversation with leaders comparing their employee engagement challenges and successes.  Most organizations are tolerating more of this than they realize. The question is—are you?