Last week I facilitated a panel discussion for a gathering of Chapter Presidents for a national trade association. The panel was comprised of a Marine LtCol and a Marine Warrant Officer. I was supposed to have a third one but the war got in the way. When the association first asked me to do this I said “no problem.” I figure I call a few buddies, they show up, we do the work and go have a nice dinner. But that didn’t happen. The Marines are very busy these days and I ended up using some people I had never met before. Of course, they came highly recommended and did a great job.

The client wanted them to talk about leadership in these challenging and changing times. Of course, the conversation turned to the war and this was a chance for an audience that doesn’t usually interact with military personnel to ask some questions. One of my favorite questions was, “How can we say thanks? When I see you in the airport I don’t know what to do.” The answer, and I want you to hear it was, “Do whatever you want. A nod or a wave is fine. A handshake is fine too. Do what feels appropriate to you but do something if you want to.” I added that putting twenty bucks on the bar would be nice too. In other words, if you want to say thanks, say it.

How often in our own lives do we miss an opportunity to say thanks because we don’t have the perfect setting or because we don’t know the right way to say it or because someone (us or them) might get embarrassed? I would say, too often.
The other day our garbage can was already on the street and the garbage truck was two houses away. I needed to bring another bag to the curb and as I did the truck arrived. I put the bag in the garbage can at the same time the crew arrived at my house. I looked them in the eye and said, “One more for you…Thanks for being here today,” as I clapped him on the shoulder. He looked at me and said, “no problem,” but it was the look in his eyes that said it all. The look said, “thanks for recognizing me.” In that moment we both felt good.

I don’t think the world would be any worse off if we all sought the opportunity to feel that good more often. You can do this at home and at the office. The other day my wife folded several loads of laundry. Sometimes she does this, sometimes I do this and, let’s face it, folding laundry is one of those home chores we have to do. But on this day I told her “thanks” for folding the several loads and the look in her eyes said it all.

When the panel discussion was over last week the audience gave the Marines a long and loud standing ovation. I don’t think I have ever seen a group clap for that long for anything. It was quite impressive. We don’t need to give standing ovations for our teams or spouses and maybe the nod or wave isn’t enough but we need to do more to say thanks.

Thank you for reading this today. If it is your first time, I hope you will come back. If you have been here before I appreciate you coming back. I see the stats on visits to the blog so I know people are reading and I appreciate it. Thank for reading.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 3:40 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.