This Lent, say thank you

This semester I am in two consulting classes, Business Problem Solving and Experiential Consulting. In both, we have learned perception is everything and that in order to find the true root of a problem you have to be open-minded and thorough.

The solution isn’t going to rest in the opinions of people at the top of the food chain, rather it’ll lie in the entry-level workers, the custodial staff or possibly a receptionist.

Point is you’ve got to value everyone, including the “little people” in a company.

This week I realized just how important that message was. There I was, roughly 6:30 am on a Monday morning, performing one of my many cleaning tasks as a fitness attendant at the Rec Center. For this particular hourly task, I had to clean all of the fitness machines around the top track.

I was on my hands and knees wiping down one of the last bikes of the morning – I was pretty tired at this point and a little annoyed with how much dust was accumulating on my rag – when all of the sudden a seemingly regular man in the middle of his workout stopped, looked at me, and said, “Thank you, the machines look great!”

And then continued on his way.

I was shocked, both at the fact that this man stopped to say thank you and at the profound impact such a short statement had on me.

It’s not like I was cleaning out of a pure kindness and expecting people to thank me for it. It was my job and I was being paid to do so. But these six words immediately made me feel respected and, much to my surprise, actually motivated me to do an even better job with the few machines I had remaining.

I realized that my professors weren’t just talking to hear their own voice (which occasionally seems to be the case), instead they were giving incredible life and career advice.

It’s an extremely valuable lesson for everyone to know. But, I think it is even more vital for those of us at Notre Dame to recognize, especially during the Lenten season.

The Notre Dame spirit, without a doubt, embodies the importance of support and appreciation for other people – but perhaps some of us, including myself, could be even better at exhibiting these values. Instead of solely going through withdrawals from a lack of sweets or cursing or whatever it was we decided to give up, we should replace what we’ve foregone with being more active in our appreciation of others.

In the long-term and as future graduates of such a prestigious academic institution, many of us have set our sights on holding positions of high power in a company one day.

In leadership roles, appreciating others becomes even more fundamental than just a practice you adopt during Lent.

You never know the impact you’ll have with just a few words.