Stop Giving $10 Gift Cards. How Real Leaders Show Gratitude

‘Tis the season. The holidays are creeping in, and managers everywhere are placing bulk orders for $10 coffee gift cards. They’ll hand them out with a forced smile, check "employee appreciation" off their to-do list, and wonder why nobody seems all that motivated.

Let’s be blunt: that $10 gift card isn't a gesture of gratitude. It's a symptom of lazy leadership.

It’s a transaction. It’s the bare minimum. It’s a quiet, corporate way of saying, “I am required to give you a token of appreciation, and this is the least amount of thought I could possibly put into it.”

And your team knows it.

They’d rather have a leader who actually pays attention than a lukewarm latte. This kind of low-effort, check-the-box "appreciation" is almost worse than doing nothing at all. It feels impersonal and, frankly, a little insulting.

If you think a cheap gift card is going to make your top performer forget that they’re underpaid, overworked, and managed by someone who doesn't even know what they do all day, you are dangerously mistaken.

Newsflash: Real gratitude isn't a thing you buy. It’s a culture you build.

It’s an active, daily leadership strategy for retaining your best people. And in an economy where your superstars can get a new job by lunchtime, it’s not a "nice-to-have", it's a survival tactic.

So, if you want to actually show your team you value them, stop wasting your money at Starbucks. Do this instead.

1. Real Gratitude is Specific

A generic, all-staff email saying "good job this quarter, team" is noise. It’s corporate wallpaper. It motivates no one.

Real appreciation is specific and personal. It requires you to do the one thing most managers fail at: pay attention.

It sounds like this:

• "Sarah, the way you handled that angry client call on Tuesday was brilliant. You were calm, you de-escalated the situation, and you saved that account. Thank you."

• "Mike, I know you stayed late to get that report finished. It was incredibly thorough, and it gave us the exact data we needed to win the pitch. That extra effort made a huge difference."

See the difference? You’re showing them that you see them and the specific value they bring. It’s free, it takes 30 seconds, and it’s a thousand times more powerful than a gift card.

2. Real Gratitude is About Opportunity

Want to really thank your best employee? Stop giving them a cheap card and start giving them a path forward.

Your superstars don’t want more "atta-boys." They want to be challenged. They want to grow. Real gratitude is investing in their future. It's asking, "What skills do you want to learn next?" and then helping them learn them.

This is where so many companies fail. They promote their best doer into a management role with zero training. As John says, “You would never allow a forklift driver to drive without training… So why do we allow leaders to fly by the seat of their pants?”

It's a recipe for disaster.

The ultimate sign of respect is investing in someone’s potential. Pay for their certification. Get them a spot in a targeted digital course like the Fundamentals of Supervision training ($449) or Leadership for Team Leads ($199). Even just introducing them to Champions of the Underdog with John Graci shows you are playing a role in their growth. When you invest in your team's growth, you're not just saying "thanks"; you're saying, "I believe in your future here."

3. Real Gratitude is About Respect (For Their Time)

You can’t send a "we value you" email on Friday and then email your team at 9 PM on a Saturday.

All the "thank yous" in the world mean nothing if your actions show you have zero respect for their time. Real gratitude is protecting your team from burnout.

It’s running efficient meetings that don’t waste their day (we've talked about this, put the meat back into your meetings). It’s setting clear boundaries between work and life.

It's building a culture where people can unplug without feeling guilty.

Want to show your team you’re grateful? Give them their time back. Finish an hour-long meeting in 30 minutes. Declare a "no-meeting Friday." Trust them to get their work done without you monitoring their every keystroke.

4. Real Gratitude is About Paying People What They're Worth

This is the one nobody wants to talk about.

You can have the best culture in the world, but if you are underpaying your people, you are not grateful for them. You are exploiting them.

A gift card is a slap in the face to an employee who knows they’re being paid 15% below the market rate.

Stop hiding behind "we're a family" or "we have a great culture." Real gratitude is transparent and fair. It’s conducting regular market-rate reviews and adjusting pay before your best people are forced to get a competing offer just to get a raise.

Real gratitude is, and always will be, a paycheck that reflects a person's true value and contribution.

Stop looking for the easy way out. Stop treating appreciation like a line item in the holiday party budget.

Real gratitude is hard work. It requires you to be observant, to have tough conversations about pay, and to genuinely invest in your people's growth. It doesn't come in a little paper envelope. It comes from your daily actions as a leader.

Ready to stop managing like a rookie and build a culture of real gratitude? Connect with John and let's build a plan.