(Guest Post from Seth McColley)

Six sentences.

That was all it took to make my week.

Last week, I received a note, via LinkedIn, from a guy that I worked with several years and two employers ago. Nothing deep. Nothing profound. Just a simple note asking me how I was doing, giving me a brief update on his end and then this…

“Thank you for being a positive influence and “stand up guy”. I have fond memories of our working relationship.”

I literally have not heard from this guy for years, so this note was an unexpected gift and a welcome surprise.

Those two simple sentences made an impact. Maybe it was the timing, maybe it was the relationship, maybe it was the memories of what we had endured together, but it hit me in a way that I certainly was not expecting. Sure I had a good working relationship with this guy. He was a Sales Manager and I was his HR Business Partner. We didn’t always see eye to eye and butted heads more than a few times, but at the end of the day we were both doing our part to manage and develop talent, grow sales and move the organization forward. Two simple sentences, but it gave me an incredible shot of encouragement to end the week.

How many times have you thought about reaching out to that old boss, a former peer, an employee you hired years ago, just to say ‘hello’, rattle their cage, find out how they’re doing or just tell them how much you appreciate them? Why do we sometimes feel that our words are not enough and that our gestures must be grander and greater? Our words are more powerful than we think and they carry more weight than we give them credit for. Never underestimate the power of your own words.

Now, this isn’t a post meant to encourage you to go tell those you love that you love them, because any day could be your last (although, it’s not a bad idea). But rather, it’s a simple reminder that recognition and praise can come in the simplest forms. Sometimes we spend so much time and energy “dressing up” recognition that it comes across as unauthentic, fake, pretentious and ill-timed that it just misses the mark. We choose style over substance.

Case in point…

I’d like to encourage you to reach out to one person this week and thank them for something. Let someone know that they’ve made a difference. Just one. My hope is that you’ll be able to make the kind of impact that this person had on me last week. Forget style…choose substance.