This post is about my son, Quinton, who works as a waiter in a Chinese Hot-Pot restaurant! Since he was a baby, he’s loved food, and restaurants! Chinese especially! Quinton was on vacation so I didn’t get to see him for a couple of weeks. So, we decided to have dinner together at the Hot Pot restaurant he works at. When my husband and I got there, even though Quinton wasn’t “working”, he cleaned off all the outdoor tables, not just the one we were going to use. “I have all the cleaning stuff, so I might as well help my teammates who are working”, he said. “I can see it’s really busy tonight!”
About halfway through our dinner, another group came to eat outdoors. One of the waiters asked them to wait a moment so he could clean the table. “No need”, Quinton said, “I already did it!” Both the customers and Quinton’s teammate were super happy! Who wants to wait when they are hungry for dinner!?
Often we might categorize what Quinton did by cleaning tables on his day off as going “above and beyond”. I don’t. And Quinton doesn’t either. We categorize it as kindness: "Doing something with the purpose of creating a positive effect and outcome for someone else.” (p. 6, The Kind Leader). Can you imagine would happen if everyone thought in terms of kindness as the norm, instead of “going above and beyond”? We don't expect people to go "above and beyond"all the time, but we certainly can expect everyone to strive towards acting, speaking and thinking kindly all the time!
And please remember, as I always say "Parents are their children's first leaders". Children learn how to be kind from the example they see from their parents. When their parents act, speak and think kindly, children learn how to do the same.
(Thank you Quinton for your great example and Kind Leadership!)