Truck Driver

In 2015, I attended the IPM day where I first heard about Grateful Leadership. At the time I was leading a number of facility improvement projects. One project was to replace a drain line under the parking lot. To start my journey of acknowledging behavior and effort, I chose for this contractor team to visit each worker after the project was complete to shake their hands and give them a personal acknowledgment based on their involvement. The contractor crew came on time, did a great job and cleaned up the parking lot so there were no issues with damage to any vehicles. So, as they were packing up, I went down and met each person on the team and gave them each my personal thanks and acknowledgment for their involvement and the fine job they did.
One individual was sitting by his dump truck with backhoe and trailer, just waiting to leave. I approached him with the same intent to thank him. When I arrived I said “Excuse me but I would like to thank you for all the great work you did with our project. It looks great and your efforts are very much appreciated.” He got out of his truck with a puzzled look. He told me that he was just the truck driver. He would bring the equipment, be the Go-Fer guy to get additional parts, tools, etc. “I didn’t really do anything but run stuff back and forth.” I told him, “Yes, that was your involvement. If it wasn’t for you doing all those things, the crew may not have been completed on time or have done such a great job.” Still bewildered, he said, “But anyone could have done this.” Then I told him, “True anyone could have done these things. But it was YOU who did. And your help in this work is very much appreciated by me and our company. Thank you.”

The smile that grew on his face went from ear to ear.