“What I do matters.” While traveling in Portugal this week, I encountered a young waiter who displayed great pride in his restaurant, care for his customers, and who epitomized the very concept of servant leadership. Not only did he take the time to learn about each of us and our tastes, he even asked the chef to prepare an off-menu dish for a member of our party.
After lunch, I told him how much I appreciated the manner in which he cared for us. He responded simply by saying, “I try to treat every single person this way. I hope that, upon their return home, they will treat everyone the way I treated them.” Then he said, “What I do matters.”
I learned a lot this week during my travels, but nothing more important than the lesson this young man taught me. Leadership is not reserved for people at a particular level in their organization, nor does it require one to have direct reports. If you are taking steps to make the people around you better, then you are a leader. “What we do matters.”
Be intentional about it…
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