Shores We May Never See Ourselves...

I closed the last post with a commitment to share an example I’ve personally seen of someone who turned their ripples into waves by selflessly serving the people around them. I’m not gonna do that; I’m going to share two… (but I could easily point to dozens more!)

Yesterday afternoon, I had a conversation with a friend I had worked with several years back. Truth be told, he was listed as my immediate supervisor on the org chart but I can’t recall a single time where I saw him use positional authority - with me or anyone else in the company! While I had a pretty significant amount of experience in the work I was hired to do, I had no experience whatsoever in the industry we were working in. He was extremely intentional about helping me get up to speed and was always quick to brag on the work I was doing to the owners of the company; it was incredibly humbling…

I had started our business around that same time. Where many supervisors and managers I’ve seen over the years would have been uncomfortable with that, or even threatened by any potential it could have had for pulling an employee away from the organization, he was amazingly supportive of me there as well! And not just supportive in words, he constantly looked for people he could introduce me to who may turn into good connections for our business in the future. As we spoke briefly yesterday, he asked about someone we had recently worked with and mentioned in a social media post. I was excited to share with him that it was a relationship that came through a connection he made for me several years prior!

In that same conversation, he and I talked about another great guy we worked with at the time. I told him that I had recently spoken with our mutual friend by phone and was so excited to hear how things were going for him. He had also left the company we were all a part of at the time and accepted a position half way across the country. Since taking the new role, this friend shared with me that he had received a couple of promotions. As I told my former boss how excited I was to hear that and how great I knew our mutual friend would do in his new role, he was quick to explain that I didn’t understand the full scope of those promotions. Interestingly enough, both of them are working in that same company, just in different locations…

My old boss shared that our former coworker, who was now his coworker again, had not only gained tremendous respect with the team he was leading, the operations he was responsible for were some of the most profitable and productive in the entire (very large) organization! While that came as no surprise at all, that mutual friend hadn’t said anything about that when we had spoken just a few weeks prior - only how much he enjoyed what he was doing…

So why do I share these seemingly unrelated details?

Both of these men are some of the most selfless people I’ve ever had a chance to work with. When we worked together for a relatively small company (in comparison to where they’re working now), they were both in roles that carried significantly less responsibility than either of them were capable of handling. But that never stopped them from constantly looking for ways they could serve each person they interacted with on a daily basis, regardless of who that person was or where they were on the org chart. They both make a huge impression on me, just like they did with everyone who worked with us at the time. And in hearing more about what they’re doing now, it’s very evident that they’re both having a ripple effect with the people around them.

As I mentioned with a current business relationship coming from an introduction one of them made for me years ago, their example of selflessly serving the teams around them will continue to make ripples that ultimately turn into waves and reach shores they may never see - or even know about - themselves! When we push through the easier wrong and stand for the harder right, those choices will have a compounding impact on the team we’re serving. And doing that will create waves that will reach shores that we may never see ourselves!