Ah, May. There’s something about the longer days and warmer weather as spring starts to take hold that feels like a restart button. Maybe it’s the change of season, or maybe we’re still reminiscing and feeling pretty inspired from the fifth annual Women in Retail Leadership Summit and all of the incredible women we met, but whatever it is we’ve started shifting our mind-set towards an attitude of gratitude. And, according to Wharton Business School, we might be on to something.

In an interview with David DeSteno, a Northeastern University psychology professor, Knowledge@Wharton explores how gratitude, compassion and grit can make a better leader and lead to a more successful business. Below is an excerpt from the podcast interview:

Grit is the passion to pursue your goals, to do something hard, to be willing to work hard to get ahead. Outside of the professional domain, I think about grit in the social domain. To me, people who have grit are the mom who might work three jobs to put her kid through college and the grandfather with emphysema who will pull the oxygen tank behind him to go see his grandson’s game. What drives that is not this kind of planning, this willpower; it’s what you feel.” — David DeSteno. You can listen to the full podcast episode here.

Tell us, how do you incorporate gratitude into your everyday life?

Many thanks 🙂

Caitlin Sullivan
Senior Editor
Women in Retail Leadership Circle