Keith, assistant manager at an automotive repair shop, told session 4B of the Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“Earlier this year, at approximately 2:00 in the afternoon, I was out in one of the shop bays repairing a customer’s car when our customer service representative called me on the intercom into the front office. A customer, whose car I had worked on the week before, was standing there with a basket full of goodies. She said, ‘This is for you.’ (coffee, cheeses, cocoa and other treats). She told me that she wanted to thank me for doing what she felt was a lot of extra work, “for going the extra mile” — far more than she had expected.

When she brought her car in a week earlier, it was making a terrible noise. She thought it was ruined. She was really feeling disappointed because she felt she would have to cancel a long-planned trip to Seattle since it was Friday, she was going to have to forgo the big plans she had made for the weekend. As it turned out, I was able to repair her car and, with a little extra effort, I had it ready at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday

morning. Happily she still had time to make her trip to Seattle and keep her plans (which, she told me, was one of the best weekends she could remember). Of all the awards I have received over the years, this is one of my most treasured.

The lesson I learned from this experience is that when I put my heart in it, go the extra mile, others open their hearts to me. I was reminded once again that the best rewards come from the heart and often come to me in ways that are completely unexpected.

The action I call you to take is to put your heart into everything you do, do each task with the idea of doing your best and whenever you can go the extra mile, do a little beyond what is expected, knowing it will help another person. The benefit you will gain is you will know the feeling of a job well done, and you may have a positive impact on another person’s life forever.”