A story to think about as a leader!

Here is a little story to think about that Klaus Schenck, a fellow
coach from Germany, sent me:

“One day I was sitting in the gate area in an airport watching a younger
woman arguing non-stop with her maybe five-year-old son, telling him to stop
this and not do that. What I heard sounded pretty intimidating to me, and I
was wondering whether or not I should try and intervene and comment to the
mother.

“Before I came to a conclusion, the mother left for the bathroom and told
her son to not dare to move until she returned. A man sitting in the row
next to the boy’s obviously had been listening to the conversation, too. He
now turned around ans spoke to the boy. He told him: ‘Hey young man, I’ve
been watching you for some time now and I just wanted to tell you I have the
impression that you are a very special and talented young man, and for that
I’d like to give you a quarter, as a gift, and to acknowledge that special
quality of yours, and for you to always remind you of that special
capability of yours.’ With that he handed him a 25 cent coin. And then the
man added: ‘And you know what, at some point in time, you might lose that
coin. Don’t you ever worry about that, because you’ll never lose its
message. If you’d lose the coin you’d know only the better that it proved
you’re a very special young person, ok?

“The boy nodded, and took the coin, and smiled. When his mother returned she
saw him smile, asked what had happened, heard about the gift – and told the
boy he was not allowed to accept gifts from strangers, just before heading
for the gate took the coin away from him.
After that, the boy smiled even broader …

The biologist inside me immediately loved this idea of “combined
vaccination”: infecting with hope and acknowledgement by means of a tiny
symbol, and immunizing against future discouragement at the same time with a
few meanig-ful words …”

Think about how you behave in your company or at home and what difference it can make to you,
your employees or your family!