I adore leading webinars on Grateful Leadership and The Power of Acknowledgment! Usually we have several hundred people from around the world on each one, and they are so willing to participate and share stories that have a way of bringing me – and I suspect many of the participants as well – to tears. Here’s one excerpt from my new book (I often ask permission to use the personal reactions and stories that attendees submit, for my future writings – they are so poignant and express the need for Grateful Leadership and acknowledgment better than I ever could!) So here is one excerpt I got permission to use that was in response to an exercise we did during the webinar, called the Knock Your Socks Off™ Power of Acknowledgment Exercise for Grateful Leaders.

robert w: I can’t send the message because the person I have in mind is now deceased. He was a former boss who in one sentence set my entire career. He called me into his office to ask me to deal with a situation. He started to tell me what to do and then stopped. He said, “You know what to do, don’t you?” I said yes. He said, “Then I don’t need to do anything here. Just let me know if anyone gets in your way.” I learned that I could take charge, and from there, I kept taking on more responsibilities and moved up the chain to management. I never got to thank him for that. He died from cancer a year after that conversation.

My comments excerpted from my book Grateful Leadership: Using the Power of Acknowledgment to Engage All Your People and Achieve Superior Results: As I read this acknowledgment to our audience, I have to admit that my voice broke. I felt Robert’s sadness, frustration, and realization, and this last was what gave it so much meaning for the 104 other people from around the world. How many of us have withheld this kind of simple, yet extraordinarily powerful, statement? A statement that, reduced to its essence, might be, “You have no idea what a huge and positive impact you made on my life in that one moment. I will never forget you. I will be forever grateful.” I’m sure that every one of us in that virtual room thought of those we had not fully, profoundly, and generously acknowledged. I do believe that Robert’s statement moved each of us to commit to making sure we let those who had made a difference in our lives know about it—as soon as possible…

That’s why I hope you will all be there – it’s an amazing, inspirational and transformational experience. Bring your whole team to the event. Just go to www.iil.com and it is the featured free webinar on the home page. Hope to see you on December 13^th!