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A 60-second conversation can make a world of difference in someone’s life.
In his book Foremen: Leaders or Drivers?, Sherman Rogers describes a summer he spent in an Idaho logging camp.
Rogers was just a college kid. But since he was training for leadership, the superintendent put him in command of the workers when he himself had to step away for a few days.
“What if the men refuse to follow my orders?” Rogers asked.
He was generally concerned about his young age and relative inexperience. But Rogers was especially anxious about Tony, an immigrant worker who seemed afflicted by a permanent bad attitude.
The superintendent shrugged, displaying a classic, shoot-from-the-hip approach to leadership. “Fire them,” he said.
Rogers was stunned. Then the superintendent seemed to back down, at least when it came to Tony. “I suppose you think you are going to fire Tony if you get the chance. I’d feel badly about that. I have been logging for 40 years. Tony is the most reliable worker I’ve ever had. I know he is a grouch and that he hates everybody and everything. But he comes in first and leaves last.”
The superintendent added, “There has not been an accident for eight years on the hill where he works.”
Rogers took over the next day. He immediately approached Tony. “Tony, do you know I’m in charge here today?” Tony grunted in response.
Rogers went on, “I was going to fire you the first time we tangled, but I want you to know I’m not.” Then he told Tony what the superintendent had said about him the day before.
Tony dropped the shovelful of sand he was holding. Tears streamed down his face. “Why he no tell me dat eight years ago?” he said in broken English.
Tony worked harder than ever that day. He even smiled.
He later confided to Rogers, “I told Maria you first foreman in deese country who ever say, ‘Good work, Tony,’ and it make Maria feel like Christmas.”
At summer’s end, Sherman Rogers returned to college. He crossed paths with Tony twelve years later in California. He was delighted to learn that Tony had become superintendent for railroad construction for one of the largest logging companies in the West.
He asked Tony how the doors of opportunity had swung open.
Tony replied, “If it not be for the one minute you talk to me back in Idaho, I keel somebody someday. One minute, she change my whole life.”
Steve Goodier, reflecting on Rogers’ story, describes the power of just 60 seconds of affirmation.
“One minute,” he writes. “Have you got one minute to thank someone? A minute to tell someone what you sincerely like or appreciate about her? A minute to elaborate on something he did well?”
Proverbs 12:25 tells the story straight: “Anxiety in someone’s heart weighs them down, but a good word makes them glad.”
You have the power to alter the future.
You can make someone glad.
You can even do it today.
Encourage instead of tearing down. Forgive instead of nursing a grudge. Hug your kid instead of yelling. Keep a promise instead of saying, “Whatever.”
Big things have small beginnings.
And it only takes a minute.
You can help someone experience Christmas in July.