The Power of Appreciation
At the end of the day people won't remember what you said or did, they will remember how you made them feel.
—Maya Angelou
Claudette Colvin was labeled a juvenile delinquent from the time she was a 15-year-old teenager until she was an eighty-eight-year-old elder. In 1955, Colvin refused to give up her seat in the ‘colored’ section of the bus when the driver demanded that she and her three friends move for a young white woman to sit. This was nine months before Rosa Parks made her historic stand on a Montgomery City bus.
Handcuffed and charged with disturbing the peace, breaking segregation laws, and assaulting police officers, Colvin has lived with this tarnish on her character for the past seven decades. Continuing the fight, Colvin was one of four defendants in the federal case Browder vs Gayle–challenging city bus segregation in Montgomery as unconstitutional.
Colvin’s juvenile delinquent record was expunged after Judge Calvin Williams became aware of her story, and took steps to set the record right, even apologizing on behalf of the judicial system. The beauty about an act of appreciation is that it can become contagious—Judge Williams, in turn, has received deep appreciation from people around the country for his act of recognizing Colvin’s significance in the fight for social justice.
When Colvin was introduced to Judge Williams, she giggled like a fifteen-year-old schoolgirl. As she was listening to Vice President Harris acknowledge her part in the social justice struggle, Colvin was hardly able to contain her jubilation, noticeably holding her breath and excitedly gesturing in the air.
With a movie being made to tell her story, Colvin is gracious about recognition only coming at this stage of her life. She asked the 15-year-old actress who will play her in the movie to be sure to “Show the passion” and “Bring out the fire.”
The power of appreciation is derived from acknowledging the value of a person—whether it impacts us personally or is germane to the success of our business—it starts with the belief that that everyone’s contributions should be recognized.
The Intentionality of Appreciation
I was in a store recently, looking for some household items. As it was my first time there, I had no idea where to find the items. As a store employee approached, I asked him where to locate each of the items, to which he gave a one-word response as he kept walking. Hardly accommodating, bordering on dismissive, and certainly with an unappealing manner, the interaction left me unimpressed and prompted my cousin to say, “He wasn’t very nice.”
In stark contrast, I recall the concierge and staff at the Intercontinental Hotel we stayed at in Bali earlier this year. Each encounter made me feel as if I was the center of their universe for that moment. I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard thank you so many times in one day—not a rote, cursory utterance, but a heartfelt, sincere expression. At each interaction their eye contact was intentional, their attention was keen and the inquiry authentic. I had to smile when, after we thanked a server for cleaning up a spill, she, in turn, thanked us. Our nine-day experience was one that left us feeling very special and most certainly valued.
So, when we recently became T-Mobile customers, I once again experienced the level of appreciation that made our stay in Bali unforgettable. Their customer care approach is a systemic people-valued practice–from good-natured phone dispositions to the thank you notes, after every interaction, “for allowing them to assist” you and for being a part of the company.
Intercontinental and T-Mobile employees go beyond the expected, showing us that we don’t need to wait until someone does something out of the ordinary to warrant appreciation—it can be consistent acknowledgement of their very presence through a nurturing energy of attention.
