Giving a gift to your boss can have surprising, positive ramifications that can help you next year.
Even if they don’t celebrate Christmas or Hanukah or Kwanzaa or anything, get them something.
And even if they’re a grump, a Grinch, a tyrant or a Bah humbug Scrooge, send them a big box, big bag or a crate of what they love.
Indeed, even if you really can’t stand your boss (or your business partner, or your key investor, etc.), you absolutely, positively must get them a gift this holiday season.
Why? The reason may surprise you.
No, it’s not for schmoozing. And no, it’s not to settle their nerves, thank them for not firing you during the restructure or to console them for 2020’s difficulties. Those are all possible side benefits, indeed, both those aren’t the reasons you’re going to give them a gift—at least not this year.
The reason is...you. And what that gift is going to help you, your boss and your colleagues accomplish next year.
Consider that, for years, scientists have known that gift giving, when done right, brings the gift-giver greater joy, better health and longer life. Moreover, during this particular year of emotional upheaval, uncertainty, stress and trauma, giving could be the perfect antidote to latent and unknown stress you’re carrying around.
But still: there’s another, more fascinating reason for gift-giving without reservations this season.
It’s to build resilience.
Researchers have uncovered a powerful, mental trait known as psychological capital. And, just as it sounds, psychological capital is a kind of mental reserve that measures our mental resources for bouncing back from adversity. In other words, people with greater amounts of psychological capital exhibit greater psychological resilience.
Moreover, entrepreneurs and small business owners tend to exhibit greater amounts of psychological capital than average.
That could explain why many entrepreneurs have the courage to take the risk in starting a business. Whatever the reason, in studies of business owners, extreme stress, challenges and setbacks do not interfere with their clear thinking and judgment to the same degree it does with non-entrepreneurs or with people possessing lower psychological capital.
How this works with gift-giving and happiness is as follows...
The right gift activates a certain area of both the gift-giver’s and the recipient’s brains: making them both happier. That same area of the brain stimulates psychological resilience directly and, theoretically, builds psychological capital. The former gauges how they bounce back while the latter gauges how much they can take, and still bounce back.
Right now, we’re not sure precisely how much a given act of generosity boosts psychological capital, per se, but it does. That means you’re actually giving your boss two gifts instead of one. The right gift gives them a greater capacity to deal with forthcoming challenges.
But what’s the right gift? Read this earlier post, which outlines the science behind selecting and giving the right ones. It’s important: the wrong gift robs us of this effect (or dampens it, at least) and wastes our money and effort.
So, assuming you’ve chosen the right gift and given it, something else amazing happens. While, as we’ve said, you and your boss’s moods get lifted—along with their psychological capital—it also builds a deeper bond between you.
But wait, that’s not all.
Giving that gift also builds your own psychological capital. And, believe it or not, behavioral scientists have explored this effect of gift giving and receiving in the office place, specifically among leaders and followers.
When leaders experience greater psychological capital ‘boosts,’ they pass this on to followers, and vice versa. The net effect is that all concerned are better prepared to face future challenges, difficulties, good things and bad things. Moreover, an additional bonus is that your colleagues also benefit by your boss redirecting that psychological resilience. So, just imagine what happens if all of you give!
So there it is. Even if you already have a genuinely human and emotional reason for giving your boss a holiday gift this season, now you have a scientific one to go with it.
Happy holidays!
