You are always representing yourself and your company!
One day, the nicest surprise happened to me. It was a huge reminder of the effect we have on other people at all times. We are always not only representing who we are when we interact with the world, but also, as leaders, sending messages about our companies.
Knowing this, it’s best to be happy and strive to have a happy workforce.
The importance goes beyond good business.
A while back, I was flying from San Francisco to Burbank on an 8:45 pm flight but got to the airport in plenty of time to catch the 5:20 flight, which a Southwest rep had assured me over the phone had plenty of seats open (because of my status with the airline, I can hop on any available earlier flight). Except by the time I got to the airport, the 3:00 pm flight to Burbank had been canceled, so the 5:20 pm flight was overbooked and then some.
I could have just stayed with my 8:45 pm flight, but there was a much earlier flight to LAX (Los Angeles) that worked even better for me. I also knew they needed seats on the 8:45 pm Burbank flight to accommodate all the passengers from the canceled flight, so I went to the gate agent and asked if she could get me on the Los Angeles flight instead.
Something in the system was blocking that, so she made a call and I got to hear her very cute, funny side of the conversation, with a lot of jargon about booking me “Hong Kong style” and other insider phrases about how to make the change work. It took about 10 minutes, but I was amused the whole time, and really grateful. She also kept stopping to thank me for my patience, but honestly, what was there to be impatient about? She was doing me a favor.
When she finally got the booking to work and handed over my boarding pass, I complimented her on what great spirit she had in the presence of so much anger (did I mention there was a canceled flight?) and took off the Speak Happiness bracelet I was wearing and handed it to her. She seemed genuinely happy to get it.
I boarded my flight and didn’t think about it again, until the next day, when I got a notification from Instagram that I’d been tagged in a post. This post.
I couldn’t believe it!
This young woman took the time to look me up, find a graphic about my work, and post about it. The nature of her post is about always representing your brand, but I saw it as more than that. It made me realize that my simple act of kindness actually had an effect on her. Enough to inspire her to do all of that.
It also made me think about the times in the past year that maybe I wasn’t my best self — in airports, at hotels, dealing with those whose views I disagree with.
I can think back to very specific things that have been said to me by others in the past — mean things, words that should not have been spoken, and I realize that if I have that memory of someone saying something like that to me, someone might have a memory like that about me, and it makes me sad. The book is already written, and the past can’t be changed, but we can learn how not to repeat it.
So try to remind yourself every day, that you affect the people you come into contact with, whether for a moment, or a season, or a lifetime.
So whenever you can, Speak Happiness.
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Valerie Alexander is committed to expanding happiness and inclusion in all communities. She is a globally-recognized speaker on the topics of happiness in the workplace, the advancement of women, identity, equity & inclusion, and unconscious bias. Her TED Talk, “How to Outsmart Your Own Unconscious Bias,” has been viewed over half a million times and is used as a teaching tool in classrooms and boardrooms around the world.
If you want to join Valerie Alexander’s Happiness & Inclusion mailing list, go to SpeakHappiness.com/Inclusion to sign up and download the free workbook, Five Policies That Outsmart Unconscious Bias in Your Company. This newsletter comes out on the first and third Tuesday of every month.
If you’re interested in having Valerie Alexander speak at your organization or conference on Workforce Happiness as a Strategic Business Advantage, Outsmarting Bias, Identity & Inclusion, or the Advancement of Women, reach out through SpeakHappiness.com.
