The Number

The Number

When I led the Human Resources team for an organization for many years, I would sometimes end my day thinking – what did I accomplish today? There were days where I shook my head and said – nothing… 

Years ago, I decided not to focus so much on the tangible work output, but rather think about the people and relationships I touched during my day. When I made that mind shift, I began believing it was better for me to have a positive impact on one person each day than worry about making a bigger impact. In my theater days I said to myself, “I don’t care how large the audience size is because if one person shows up and they are moved by what they experienced, I have done my job.” 

Lately I have been generously invited to speak about employee engagement and cultural elements in a business by organizations who sometimes focus on wanting a certain number of registrants versus really focusing on the content of the conversation. I guess I always approach any engagement now not by the number of Zoom windows, but by the response of one, two, or a dozen people afterwards who reach out and say they learned something new or thought about something differently. I’d rather have one engaged mind stimulated and ready to take action than 50 people signed onto Zoom, but not on the edge of their seats.

I can’t always guarantee an audience, but I think I can guarantee an impact…

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