Happy Sunday Everyone:
My team and I did a half day at Glide Memorial this past Wednesday. If you haven’t heard of it, Glide is the “soup” kitchen in the movie Pursuit of Happiness. It’s a special place. Our company sponsored it last year and both my team and my family have been going back ever sense to donate time and money.
Side note: As I get older, and perhaps a bit wiser, I’ve noticed a fondness for remembering something someone once told me, or a quote I heard, that had no particular meaning because I hadn’t had the life experience at that point in time, and then have an event actually take place where it triggers me to go back and put meaning to that quote because I actually experienced an event, and now understood, at some level, what it actually meant…a little deep, I know….Fast forward-We are at Glide…turns out wells Fargo also has a group of people volunteering, as a team building exercise. Almost impossible for me not to sound bitter but they show up 30 minutes late, geared up head to toe in company bling, they’re taking selfies, they’re taking group photos, and not particularly helpful considering we were 5 minutes away from serving 500 meals, even the staff was annoyed. Service starts, I’m in the kitchen doing what I do best, heavy lifting for 5 minutes at a time, then supervising….but I observe our team, Erica is collecting tickets with a massive smile on her face, making every person who is getting a meal feel like they’re dining at Ruth’s Chris, Holly/Brig are handing out cups/silverware with huge smiles and Brandon/Rawson are in the back collecting plates, bussing tables, smiling and talking to all the “clients”, as Glide calls the people eating there. I’m a proud papa….like really proud, my team would have been there with or without me and they were high from the experience……then as I place a 30lb pack of beans in the steamer, this wells Fargo guy looks at me and says “I’ll bet you’re not expecting to get a lot clients out of this place” as he looks at a fairly disheveled client and smiles at me, I was not impressed. So here’s where I’m going….to some degree, I’ve been that guy. Not in making fun of another person but in donating my time or money for myself to feel better about myself. I actually can’t even give this guy that much credit, he was donating his time because someone else told him he had to. Enough about him, some positive observations from Wednesday
· Taking time off as a team to volunteer is a must. Beautiful thing about this group of people is at least 1/2 of you will have this scheduled by tomorrow.
· it is literally impossible not to have more gratitude in your life by serving others.
· being grateful for not being in someone else’s shoes is not being grateful. Try not to confuse the two (I can struggle with this).
· If you expect to be thanked every time you do something for someone else, you’re head/heart are in the wrong place. The more I think about this, the better I am.
· If you ever want to know if you hired the right people, take them to do volunteer work and see how they respond to the environment. My side note above is “There’s nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer”….granted that was Jimmy Doolittle as he sent fighters to bomb japan in world war II. I’m not suggesting my team was under that pressure but I will also say I’m not sure I’ve even been more proud than to watch my team make people feel so warm, welcome, and equal, then thank me after for the opportunity to serve.
Have a great week ahead!!