Thank Your Way to Career Success

I travel a lot.  Most of the posts for this career success blog have been written on a plane or in a hotel room.  Spending a lot of time in hotels, I realize how difficult – not mention physically demanding – the job of a hotel housekeeper is.  Try changing over 20 beds a day, and you’ll see what I mean.

Because I appreciate how hard hotel  housekeepers works, I always tip – just a couple of bucks on the pillow each morning.  The other day I was in Portsmouth NH .  I placed two dollars on the pillow when I left the room in the morning.

When I returned that evening, I found a note on the desk in the room that said, “Dear Guest, Thank you so much for the tip.  Your housekeeper.”

I have been tipping hotel housekeeping personnel for years.  This is the first time I ever received a thank you.  I didn’t expect to be thanked; nor did I think it was necessary – but it was nice all the same.  And that brings me to today’s career success advice.

Tweet 78 in my career advice book Success Tweets says, “Say ‘thank you’ often.  You’ll succeed, build a strong personal brand, and leave a legacy of being a nice person.”

Zach Bussey is a Twitter friend of mine.  He lives in Toronto and I live in Denver.  Isn’t the Internet a great thing?  Zach really understands social media.  You should check out his site.  The other day, Zach and I exchanged a few tweets on the importance of saying thank you.  Here’s one of the tweets Zach sent me…

“The word ‘thanks’ is used less and less.  It’s unfortunate, because it’s the kind of word that can change someone’s day.”

I agree.  A sincere “thank you” always makes my day.  I really appreciate the people who take the time to thank me for these blog posts and my daily success quotes.  My day gets a little brighter every time someone thanks me.

That’s why I end every one of my blog posts with something like, “thanks for reading.”  I really appreciate the time you take to read my blog.  Thanking you is the least I can do to show this appreciation.

A while back, I did a blog post where I featured Jeff Hajek’s book, Whaddya Mean I Gotta Be Lean?  I like this book.  And, as I pointed out in the post, Jeff provides some great career advice in a book that at first glance doesn’t seem to have much to do with career success.

Jeff sent me an email the day after the post ran, thanking me for my favorable comments about his book.  I thought that was great – and for me it was enough.  However, a couple of days later, I received a handwritten note in my snail mail from Jeff.  It read…

Bud,

I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to review Whaddya Mean on your blog.  I am cognizant of the fact that you have gone out of your way to help me, so if there is anything I can ever do to return the favor, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Best wishes,

Jeff

Handwritten notes are not very common these days.  I was touched that Jeff took the time to write one and send it to me.  By sending it, he really strengthened his relationship with me.  The next time he asks for my help, I am very likely to give it to him.  Also, he offered his help to me.  I feel that I can go to him if I need assistance in his area of expertise.  Jeff used a simple technique – a handwritten note – to build his relationship with me.  The housekeeper did the same – she used one of the note pads that the hotel supplies to guests.

Jeff purchased a thank you card for his note to me.  That was great, but I have an even better idea.  I have invested in a set of note cards with my name printed at the top and my return address on the back flap of the envelope.  I suggest that you do the same – you’ll find yourself writing more thank you notes when you have a card handy.

The common sense career success coach point here is simple.  Successful people are interpersonally competent.  Interpersonally competent people are good at building relationships.  Thanking people when they help you is a great way to build relationships.  Follow the career advice in Success Tweet 78.  “Say ‘thank you’ often.  You’ll succeed, build a strong personal brand and build a legacy of being a nice person.”  Besides thanking people in person, handwritten notes are a great way of saying thank you.  Handwritten thank you notes establish you as someone who cares about other people and is willing to go a little out of your way to build relationships – the hallmark of interpersonally competent people.

That’s the career advice that was prompted by a housekeeper’s thank you note for a two dollar tip.  What do you think?  Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment.  And, as always, thanks for taking the time to read my daily musings on life and career success.  I value you and I appreciate you.

Bud

PS: If you haven’t already done so, I suggest that you check out my career advice book Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained.  The first gives you 140 bits of career success advice tweet style — in 140 characters or less.  The second is a whopping 390 + pages of career advice explaining each of the common sense tweets in Success Tweets in detail.  Go to http://budurl.com/STExp to claim your free copy.  You’ll also start receiving my daily life and career success quotes.

PPS: Have you seen my membership site, My Corporate Climb?  It’s devoted to helping people just like you create career success inside large corporations.  You can find out about it by going to http://www.mycorporateclimb.

 

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