Thank you

Years ago as a young college student, I attended a conference held by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). The keynote speaker was a prominent Latina literary author. She overcome a lot of hurdles to get to where she was, and one piece of advice she gave always stuck with me. She said to always give personal thank you cards. To bosses, coworkers, whomever.

I never practiced this on a regular basis. I’ve always wanted to, I’ve just never been a sentimental person, and I’ve not yet been able to find a way to incorporate this into a regular part of my professional life. I think that’s about to change.

Recently, I received this thank you letter from an intern of mine who is leaving my office for an awesome opportunity with another organization. She would be incredibly successful if she had never met me, I have no doubt. But reading this still meant a lot to me:

In my experience, mid-level managers tend to be the first to be criticized, and their successes are more often met with a “that’s it?” than a “that’s awesome!” While you still shouldn’t feel sorry for us — it comes with the territory — having experienced this first hand I can definitely appreciate how powerful a good thank you is. Since becoming a manager, I have trained or assisted hundreds of employees, but I can count the number of personalized thank you’s that I’ve received like this on one hand.

I’m definitely writing more thank you’s now.

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