In one of the training programs for managers, the coordinator asked the participants, “What has caused you to stay long enough to become a manager?"
One participant, with her voice almost breaking, said, "It was a Rs 200 baseball glove."
Mary told the group that she originally took a clerk job as an interim position while she looked for something better.
On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year old son, Bobby. He needed a baseball glove for Little League. She explained that as a single mother, money was very tight, and her first check would have to go for paying bills. Perhaps she could buy his baseball glove with her second or third check.
When Mary arrived for work the next morning, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in back of the store that served as an office. Mary wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete from the day before.
She was concerned and confused.
The manager handed her a box. "I overheard you talking to your son yesterday," she said, "and I know that it is hard to explain things to kids. This is a baseball glove for Bobby because he may not understand how important he is, even though you have to pay bills before you can buy gloves. You know we can't pay good people like you as much as we would like to; but we do care, and I want you to know you are important to us."
The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of this store manager is what has caused her to change her mind to look for something better and stay long enough to become a manager.
This demonstrates vividly that people remember more how much an employer cares than how much he pays.
An important lesson for the price of a Little League baseball glove.
One participant, with her voice almost breaking, said, "It was a Rs 200 baseball glove."
Mary told the group that she originally took a clerk job as an interim position while she looked for something better.
On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year old son, Bobby. He needed a baseball glove for Little League. She explained that as a single mother, money was very tight, and her first check would have to go for paying bills. Perhaps she could buy his baseball glove with her second or third check.
When Mary arrived for work the next morning, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in back of the store that served as an office. Mary wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete from the day before.
She was concerned and confused.
The manager handed her a box. "I overheard you talking to your son yesterday," she said, "and I know that it is hard to explain things to kids. This is a baseball glove for Bobby because he may not understand how important he is, even though you have to pay bills before you can buy gloves. You know we can't pay good people like you as much as we would like to; but we do care, and I want you to know you are important to us."
The thoughtfulness, empathy and love of this store manager is what has caused her to change her mind to look for something better and stay long enough to become a manager.
This demonstrates vividly that people remember more how much an employer cares than how much he pays.
An important lesson for the price of a Little League baseball glove.
My thoughts:
Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around. Acts of kindness does not only benefit receivers of the kind act, but also the giver, as a result of feeling a sense of contentment and relaxation when such acts are committed.
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