Did you ever wonder about the power of words? How we, as humans, often rely on the opinion of others, their assurance about our performance, our work, and even our personal lives? And the funny thing about it is, we believe in their advice, more than we believe in ourselves!
Do you ever stop and think, “How do my words impact others?”
If you do, or if you’re just interested to find out, allow me to tell you about one instance where I was able to believe and have confidence in myself, simply because of what my mentor and friend told me…it made me do something that I had never imagined doing in my whole life.
Are you ready? Let’s do this.
This story starts with me pulling through the gate to get to work. Once there, I noticed that there was extra security and attention being paid to our identification. Because this was not our usual procedure, I asked what was going on and was told that most of the employees were walking out on a strike. The rest were expected to join them within the next day or two. The Teamsters and Safeway were trying to reach an agreement on the pending contract.
At this moment, I did not really know what this would mean to our operations since I had never worked with a union before. I was clueless about the impact or consequences from a strike, or how long it would last.
People throughout San Diego were waiting for food to be distributed, vendors were getting their trucks offloaded with perishable items, and we still had to maintain a reliable schedule while the negotiations continued. As a support person who spent most of her time collecting shipping information, validating it against orders and working with drivers and loaders, I still didn’t know the impact of this.
That was until Phil showed up to work with his usual high-energy, sports jacket and tie, looking crisp as always. With a big smile on his face, he clapped his hands and said, “Are you ready?
I had no clue of what he was talking about, but I said, “Sure, ready for what?”
I would never have guessed it, but as the title suggests, my task was, wait for it…
To drive a forklift.
Imagine this, you go to work, expecting that you would do the usual things that you’re doing, and then they tell you, “Hey, are you ready to drive a forklift?”
Admittedly, I was shocked. I had watched plenty of forklift drivers over the past couple of years, navigate narrow aisles, high pallets, and heavy loads without a hitch. They moved quickly, confidently, and rarely (if ever) dropped anything.
Driving my Volkswagen Van was in no way the same as driving a forklift.
As a person who liked to feel competent and confident about my work, I said to Phil, “I don’t know how to drive a forklift and I don’t think I can do this.”
Then, Phil began to tell me a story about a time when he faced the same dilemma. He’d been working on the retail side as a butcher in the Phoenix area when a similar strike took place. They pulled him from retail and put him in the warehouse, gave him a few minutes training on a forklift, and then set him to work. Immediately.
He knew that if he could do it, someone with absolutely no training (hint: like me) could, too. He said that he knew that I was nervous, but he needed me to trust him. If there was any trouble, all I had to do was to come find him. He would be nearby.
With the thought of everybody swamped trying to move food to hundreds of thousands of people in Southern California, and with Phil needing to fill in and work around the edges, I did what I had to do. I hopped on the forklift and started working.
By the third or fourth day of operating a forklift, my confidence had grown greatly and I was proud to say that I had not caused any major damage to persons or property.
We were getting close to the end of a shift when Phil came to introduce me to the chairman and CEO of Safeway, Peter McGowan (yep, the very same Peter McGowan and former San Francisco Giant’s President and managing General Partner). Peter and Phil had worked together in the Phoenix area years before.
Upon seeing me on the forklift, he complimented me on my ability and asked how long I had been operating forks.
I told him I learned from Phil just days before. Normally I was provided back office and operations support.
That’s when Peter looked at Phil and said, “When were you ever a forklift operator?”
Phil just smiled and said, “I knew Sarah could do this, but first I had to let her know anybody could do it if they tried, so I told her that I had accomplished a similar challenge in the Phoenix area–”
“–and obviously it worked.”
Mr. McGowan looked at me and said, “You know Phil never did that – he never drove a forklift during a strike?”
Up until that time, I thought Phil’s story had been true. Who would have thought that Phil would trick me into successfully driving a forklift?
He fibbed! I realized then, even after I knew the story wasn’t true, what Phil told me about his experience didn’t take away the skills and confidence I’d gained in the last few days. I was still able to continue my temporary assignment, and my skills improved even more.
Thankfully my stint on the forklift ended with agreements on the contract negotiations were settled, and our friends and colleagues came back to work.
Here are my takeaways, even many years later:
- The stories we tell ourselves matter tremendously.
Once I accepted the challenge I never doubted I could drive a forklift. Why? Because Phil, being a great leader, showed me that if he could do it under similar situations, then I could. Even though he fibbed, his encouraging story aided me in conquering my fears of the unknown and moving forward, intentionally.
- Building someone else up, being a leader, helping them build confidence in themselves and their abilities so they can stretch beyond their own perceived limitations, extends beyond the immediate moment.
As expected, I never believed Phil’s future stories without a little further probing and confirming. However, I never doubted my abilities in the same way I had before this unexpected experience.
- Be grateful for those in our lives that help guide us, support us and cheer us on! Without them, we wouldn’t be where we are today!
The experiences that I had, the lessons that I learned, the leadership shown to me, the confidence that I built, these all became part of me. I’m truly grateful that I have been able to put them into action many times over.
If you want to express how grateful you are, maybe to someone that has helped you like Phil helped me, then please join us tomorrow on our Facebook page, as we unveil our 31-Day Gratitude Challenge.
#grateful #thankyou #inspiration #kindness #love #mindfulness #thankfullife #gratitude365 #gratitudeattitude #gratitudedaily
