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Doing the same thing generally produces the same result, and as the new year arrives, many business owners are considering new steps to help their companies achieve greater success in the year ahead. Leveling up requires change, and this post reviews three resolutions majority owners can implement to obtain better outcomes during 2026 for their companies and also for themselves.  Specifically, these resolutions should incentivize employee productivity, improve the company’s governance structure and help the majority owner become a more effective leader.

Resolution 1: Provide Employees With Phantom Equity or Stock Appreciation Rights

Providing employees with performance incentives is a common way for companies to boost productivity. Bonus structures are typically geared toward individual performance and may not correlate directly correlate with improved results for the company as a whole.  However, other incentive tools are available that more closely align employee rewards with the company’s broader productivity and performance goals. 

One such option is issuing phantom equity or stock appreciation rights.  These incentives do not involve an actual award of stock and do not provide employees with true equity in the business.  Instead, employees receive contractual rights that entitle them to additional payments based on the company’s performance.  Typically, these agreements provide for additional compensation if the company achieves specific revenue or growth targets.  When the company succeeds under these agreements, employees share in that success. 

Providing phantom equity aligns employee performance more closely with the company’s goals while avoiding complications associated with granting actual equity. As discussed in other posts, employees who hold equity in the business may have the right to access company books and records, assert fiduciary duty claims against leadership, and require the company to buy out their interests upon departure. 

Resolution 2: Refresh The Company’s Board or Managers

Private companies often do not operate with the same level of formality as large corporations, which can be beneficial. Less formality allows them to be more flexible, make quicker decisions, and benefit from closer communication among leadership. However, it can also result in little to no turnover at the board or management level, particularly when no defined terms of service exist for those serving in these positions.

When the same board members or managers remain in place for extended periods, stagnation can occur. A lack of fresh perspectives may lead to diminished energy, lack of vision and creativity for the business. To address this, the majority owner should conduct an objective assessment of the current board or management team to identify areas where additional expertise or stronger input is needed.

For example, the owner should evaluate whether the company’s current leadership adequately supports  the business in the following key areas: (i) finance and accounting, (ii) technical expertise, (iii) sales and marketing, (iv) strategic planning and (v) legal matters. If gap exists, the owner may consider transitioning one or more current leaders or expanding the board or management team to bring in new voices. 

Strengthening the leadership group can have a significant positive impact. Beyond introducing new ideas or experience, fresh perspectives reduce the likelihood that the company’s existing practices will simply be rubber-stamped. New board members or managers can inject energy and challenge stale assumptions in ways that existing leadership may not.

Resolution 3: Invest in the Owner’s Own Development as a Leader

In private companies, majority owners often wear many hats, making it challenging to oversee multiple areas of responsibility. This challenge is even greater when owners lack peers who can provide support, feedback and accountability.  Over time, access to trusted external input becomes invaluable for business leaders.

There are many ways majority owners can obtain this type of guidance, including organizations such as Vistage or Entrepreneurs’ Organization, executive coaching and other leadership development programs. Without this support, both the owner and the company may hit a ceiling that is difficult to overcome. Additionally, owners lack external support face a significantly higher risk of burnout due to the pressure of feeling solely responsible for the company’s success. 

Conclusion

The new year brings potential for change and growth, but repeating the same actions while expecting different results remains a flawed approach. Majority owners who want to elevate both themselves and their businesses must be willing to embrace change to achieve better outcomes. The three resolutions discussed here offer pathways to improved employee productivity, a more dynamic and experienced leadership team, and a stronger support system for the majority owner. Majority owners who act on these resolutions in 2026 will position themselves and their companies for success this year and beyond.

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Last week’s post gave me an opportunity to share my thoughts on how choosing to lead a business with a gratitude mindset can have a remarkably positive impact on the company’s performance, as well as on the people who work for or with the business. The post received positive feedback, and several readers expressed interest in learning how to bring more gratitude into their daily lives. Making gratitude a regular practice can be challenging, especially when life often feels overwhelming.

Fortunately, there are low-cost or free tools that can help you build a gratitude practice. Below are links to three different resources. The first is a short article from Teladoc Health that offers realistic steps for incorporating gratitude into your routine. The second is a YouTube presentation by Dr. Joseph Dispenza, titled 21 Days of Gratitude: Transform Your Life With This Powerful Meditation in 2025. The final resource is a book published earlier this year, The Gratitude Effect: Transform Your Life in Minutes a Day Through Mindful Appreciation, which presents a simple solution: dedicating just five minutes a day to mindful appreciation.

I hope you find these resources helpful, and I wish you a healthy and gratitude-filled holiday season. Please feel free to share comments about your own gratitude journey and let us know if you have resources that have been meaningful to you along the way.

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As we approach the year end, many of us take stock of what’s working in our lives — and what isn’t. Things don’t always turn out as we had planned, and that’s where I found myself earlier this year. Professionally, I have much to be grateful for, but during the year I endured personal relationship setbacks and needed to reflect on how I was showing up. This work led me to begin a gratitude practice — a thoughtful, daily effort to appreciate the abundance present in my life. What began as an internal shift has grown into a more open expression of gratitude to others, and this approach impacts my law practice, my views on leadership, and how to be a more grateful participant in all aspects of my life.

Why Practice Gratitude? The Evidence and Impact

The evidence to support a gratitude practice is compelling, and it may lead business owners to consider how they can integrate this in leading their companies. Research by the Harvard Medical School confirms that regularly practicing gratitude delivers measurable benefits, including:

  • Greater emotional and social well-being
  • Better sleep quality
  • Lower risk of depression
  • Improved cardiovascular health

The report and the data shared last year indicates that practicing gratitude may even extend lives.

The importance of showing gratitude also extends to the business world: “Beyond being a feel-good sentiment, thankfulness is a strategic tool that can strengthen your team, deepen customer relationships, and create a culture of positivity that fuels long-term success.”

When a company’s majority owner decides to adopt a gratitude mindset in running the business, it will lead to questions about how the company can show that it appreciates all of its stakeholders. This analysis requires the owner to consider how the company can express gratitude to (1) its employees, (2) its managers or board of directors, (3) its clients, and finally, (4) the community in which it does business. This post explores a number of ways the company (at the majority owner’s direction) can bring gratitude to its relationships with all of its stakeholders.

Gratitude Toward Employees 

The knee-jerk reaction that company owners may have when considering how to show gratitude to their employees is to assume the best (if not the only) way to demonstrate appreciation is by increasing compensation. While employees are not likely to turn down increased pay packages, the research shows there are different ways for employers to express appreciation to their employees, which may be even more impactful. 

In an article last year, The Importance of Appreciation at the Workplace and Its Impact on Success, Madeline Wilson listed four different ways for employers to express appreciation to their employees that can make a meaningful difference without increasing compensation:

(1) words of affirmation (through expressing praise or other forms of acknowledgment)

(2) quality time (one-on-one meetings focused on their career goals)

(3) acts of service (easing their workload)

(4) gifts (thoughtful items such as gift cards or gift certificates to amusement parks).

Showing appreciation to employees in these ways can have a dramatic, positive impact on workplace culture. As the article states:

Regular recognition and appreciation foster employee loyalty where turnover rates are reduced by as much as 40%. When employees feel appreciated, they are more likely to develop a sense of loyalty towards their company. This loyalty results in lower turnover rates, saving the company resources related to hiring and training new employees. Loyal employees are also more likely to advocate for the company, enhancing its reputation and attracting new talent.

Establishing a culture emphasizing employee appreciation cannot be overstated, because the costs of high employee turnover can be devastating to a business. It is not just the high cost of recruiting new employees; turnover likely will result in a loss of institutional knowledge and lead to low employee morale as well. When the company loses employees regularly, the workplace can become a toxic environment that can lead inevitably to a negative impact on the company’s bottom line.  

The benefits of employee engagement are often pretty clear. Recent research shows a strong correlation between employee engagement and organizational performance. Companies with highly engaged workers tend to outperform their competitors when it comes to revenue growth and profitability. Conversely, low engagement can harm productivity, innovation, customer satisfaction and employee retention.

Low Employee Engagement: Causes, Impact and How to Fix it, ActivTrak (Oct. 2023)

Gratitude Toward Clients

Companies cannot exist without customers and providing superior products and services to their customers is crucial for the business to achieve and maintain success. But creating long-lasting customer loyalty generally requires more than making great products or delivering good client service. Taking the extra step of making customers feel appreciated for their support builds this type of loyalty to the company and its brand.

Surveys show that 96 percent of customers say customer service is important in their choice of loyalty to a brand.

Loyal customers are five times more likely to purchase again and four times more likely to refer a friend to the company. On top of this, a five-percent increase in customer retention can increase your company’s profitability by 75 percent. Take a moment and reflect on these statistics.  Then, ask yourself “what does gratitude have to do with customer service?” The answer is everything. When your clients consistently receive top-level service from your business, you are building a loyal client base and their reasons for leaving are fewer. The best way to show your clients you appreciate their business is to give them what they expect, and then some, on-time, every time. In other words, gratitude is the key to retaining your existing clients, and your existing clients are generally a much easier sale than mining for new ones.

The Currency Of Gratitude: Retaining And Building On Client Relationships With Gratitude

Expressing gratitude to customers does not have to be a costly exercise. It can be as simple as following up consistently to make sure customers were satisfied with the product or the service. It is essential, however, that if the customer does have issues, the company needs to take steps to address the customer’s concerns. A company that takes the time and effort to address a problem for a customer is likely to earn that customer’s continued loyalty. 

Company owners looking for a successful business model for gratitude can find one in Zappos, whose focus on culture has become renowned. 

Zappos fosters a work environment that values open and honest relationships, creating a positive team and family spirit.

The company’s core values, such as “Deliver WOW Through Service,” “Embrace and Drive Change,” “Create Fun and a Little Weirdness,” and “Pursue Growth and Learning,” are not just statements but guiding principles.

These values encourage employees to be open-minded and passionate, fostering a culture of innovation and engagement. By prioritizing these elements, Zappos has established itself as a service company that consistently delivers happiness to its customers and employees alike.

Zappos Company Culture: What Can Be Learned From A Happiness-Driven Culture, Culture Monkey (May 2025)

It is not hard to connect the dots here. Making customers feel appreciated is a sure-fire way to ensure they continue to do business with the company. The best customers are those who are pleased to do business with a company and share that attitude with others. But that type of customer support is not the norm, and it requires the majority owner to develop a culture in the company where employees go the extra mile to make sure that all of its customers feel that they and their business are truly valued by the company.

Gratitude Toward Management

The benefits of showing appreciation to company employees may be more easily understandable than when the focus is on board members or managers. But senior leaders play a vital role in the business by providing oversight, guidance and vision. When they feel appreciated, board members will be more motivated, more closely attuned to the company’s needs, and more aware of the specific challenges the company needs to overcome. In addition, it is critical for board members to feel safe so they are able to challenge the status quo. The NACD published an important article on this topic last year titled Why Good Boards Make Bad Decisions: 

Those who have served on a corporate board know that while every member of a team may be smart, capable, and experienced, that does not necessarily mean they will collaborate effectively. Directors may know how to function on high-performing teams and have done so their entire careers, but a boardroom’s particular pressures and stakes can undermine their best attempts to work together.

This need for board members to collaborate effectively can only take place when they feel supported and appreciated. The business cannot afford to have board members who are going through the motions, because the company needs their best efforts to stay ahead of the market and not become stagnant. The NACD article explains the importance of providing this type of support to board members, termed as “psychological safety”:

Lack of psychological safety in the boardroom. Directors who can offer constructive input do so when they feel safe and comfortable in their environment. Open discussion cannot occur without the willingness of the board to engage in interpersonal risk-taking. Many boardroom environments make directors reluctant to volunteer viewpoints that might be unpopular.

Research suggests that psychological safety is a key differentiator in team performance, and comfort with engaging in difficult conversations drives continuous improvement. More than half of the directors surveyed in PwC’s 2024 Annual Corporate Directors Survey acknowledge having difficulty expressing their views in board assessments, suggesting reluctance to engage in conversations that could improve communication between directors.

The ways to express appreciation to board members and managers are similar to the ways that gratitude is shown to employees, and they include:

  • Arranging appreciation events
  • Sending videos that highlight board service
  • Providing awards or other recognition for the length of service and contributions
  • Sending handwritten notes pointing out significant contributions by the board members that made a difference to the company.

A company founder who sends handwritten, personal notes expressing thoughtful appreciation to board members will enhance the strength of the board’s relationship with the owner and the company.

Gratitude Toward the Community 

The final, but also important, stakeholder in the business is the community in which the company does business or maintains its headquarters. Companies that invest meaningfully in their communities help to position the business in a favorable way, secure support from the community, and build customer loyalty.

Let’s get one thing straight: corporate donations to nonprofits are a strategic move. Businesses that understand this aren’t operating from a place of charity alone; they’re investing in long-term trust, brand strength, and local resilience.

.  .  .

The connection between businesses giving back to the community and customer loyalty is undeniable. People are more likely to support companies that share their values and contribute to causes they care about.

It all ties into the concept of a social license to operate. Communities rally around businesses that contribute, not extract. And when times get tough—economically, politically, socially—those relationships are what keep your doors open. Giving back isn’t a cost. It’s a business advantage hiding in plain sight.

Businesses Giving Back to the Community: How It Can Benefit Your Business, Miami County Community Foundation (June 2025)

Building a strong connection between companies and their communities can be critical for the long-term success of the business. Taking care of the people the company serves gives them a reason to rally around the business and support it in a myriad of ways. As we approach the holiday season, the connection to community is best reflected in the iconic Christmas movie It’s a Wonderful Life. For years, George Bailey and his small savings and loan showed great care for the people living in Bedford Falls. When George suddenly falls on hard times, the people in the community rise up to help him in his time of need. It is hard to imagine a more resonant example of the importance of a business embracing a positive role in the community.

Conclusion

As we close out 2025, it may be time to consider whether the gratitude shown at this time of year can be extended in both time and scope. Gratitude does not have to be shared only in the holiday season or expressed only to those who are closest to us. If a business owner decides to commit to expressing gratitude as a full-time practice and to share it with all company stakeholders, it may elevate the business (and others) in positive ways that are difficult to predict. And perhaps, the uplifting feeling of holiday joy will last throughout the year.