My Father was big on basic manners. "Thank you", "You are welcome" and other basic forms of courtesy were not just taught to us by my Father, he was a living example of the word respect. Respect for others, respect for elders and respect for others' property.
I didn't realize the influence my father had, in this regard, until five years after he died in June of 1984. In the late eighties, I was the new Packaging Manager at the Buffalo General Mills Cereal Plant. A few months after I started, the midnight shift broke an all time record for packaging cereal in one shift. I got up at four in morning and drove into the plant to personally show my appreciation to the employees who worked the often forgotten "grave yard" shift.
As I walked through the plant in the middle of the night, I simply walked up to each employee at their work station and shook their hand. Then, like my late Father taught me, I simply said, "Thank you".
Then as I was walking off the packaging area floor, a women, whose hand I shook earlier walked up to me. She shook my hand and said, "Thank you" to me.
I replied, "Thank you for what?"
She said, "You are the first manager to personally thank me for doing a good job in 32 years!"
Whenever I have shared this story during one of my speeches, whether it was in the US, Canada or China, I see heads nodding in the audience. I truly believe that adults are under-appreciated.
Thanks Dad for your example and a life lesson I will never forget. Now, the world knows the rest of your story.
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