
After one of my recent Keynote Speeches in Boston, one attendee came up to me and put her hand on my arm, looked me in the eyes, and said:
“I had to come up and thank you. I saw you speak here last year and you changed my life. Truly. Based on your advice about the importance of having pride and passion in one’s work, I changed my job. I am now passionate about what I do and prideful about where I work. I left a terrible marriage. I started working out daily. I’ve lost 41 pounds. I feel great. I just needed to let you know the profound impact you have had on my life.”
Wow. I almost started crying. What a thank you.
It then got me thinking about how I could pay that compliment forward. I committed to:
- Reaching out to the people that have had the greatest influence on my life and thanking them.
- Conducting random acts of kindness daily, especially during this special week of thanks and celebration.
Paying it forward feeds a cycle of continued random acts of kindness. When humans are the recipient of random acts of kindness, it is in their nature to pay it forward. Thus, it has a powerful ripple effect, potentially impacting thousands. Look what happened at this Starbucks in St. Petersburg, Florida where 378 consecutive people paid it forward:
Video
Paying it forward also simply feels good. Especially this week, but also through this year, I encourage you to thoroughly enjoy giving thanks and paying it forward.
Kevin Sheridan is an internationally-recognized Keynote Speaker, a New York Times Best Selling Author, and one of the most sought-after voices in the world on the topic of Employee Engagement. For five years running, he has been honored on Inc. Magazine’s top 100 Leadership Speakers in the world, as well as Inc.’s top 100 experts on Employee Engagement. He was also honored to be named to The Employee Engagement Award’s Top 101 Global Influencers on Employee Engagement of 2017.
Having spent thirty years as a high-level Human Capital Management consultant, Kevin has helped some of the world’s largest corporations rebuild a culture that fosters productive engagement, earning him several distinctive awards and honors. Kevin’s premier creation, PEER®, has been consistently recognized as a long-overdue, industry-changing innovation in the field of Employee Engagement. His first book, Building a Magnetic Culture, made six of the best seller lists including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. He is also the author of The Virtual Manager, which explores how to most effectively manage remote workers.
Kevin received a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Business School in 1988, concentrating his degree in Strategy, Human Resources Management, and Organizational Behavior. He is also a serial entrepreneur, having founded and sold three different companies.
Twitter
LinkedIn
Instagram
Youtube
Email: kevin@kevinsheridanllc.com