Courage + Consideration = Win-Win

I invited a friend to lunch a few months back and we finally were able to to meet on Friday at the new "Corner Bakery" near Lifebridge. I met this man from Lifebridge but had a chance to know him better after he attended the 7 Habits class that I facilitated. We both ordered salads and found a table in the back of the restaurant. We talked while we waited for our food to arrive and continued talking while eating.

After we had finished eating, a busboy arrived to clear our plates. As the busboy left our table, he turned to my friend and whispered something that neither of us could hear. He had to repeat it twice before my friend realized that the busboy was letting my friend know that his zipper was down.

“Wow,” I thought, “That was really nice and showed a lot of caring. There would have been no penalty for the busboy to just say nothing. He is not getting a tip and no one other than the three of us will ever know what he did.

This is a great example of practicing win-win and the balance of courage and consideration. It would have been easy for him to say nothing, but instead he said something and with consideration so no one else could ear. He had to repeat himself three times and never raised his voice any louder than the first time.

I was not involved in this interaction and it happened very fast, but the interaction impacted me in a very positive way and reflected well on the manager who hired and trained this employee. My salad was good but not perfect as they included walnut crisps, which I asked them to leave out. Now, none of that mattered. I want brag about this restaurant and this busboy’s caring skills. I smiled the rest of the day and told the story at least ten times.