How easy it is for one benevolent being to diffuse pleasure around him; and how truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles!

— Washington Irving

LEADERSHIP

WHAT THIS MEANS

One warm person changes the temperature of a room, and it costs them almost nothing. Small things do it: remembering a name, asking a second question, noticing that someone is having a bad day and saying so. The effect spreads because people match what they are given, so the ease you offer comes back through everyone you offered it to.

Decide to be the warm one somewhere you would normally be neutral, at the counter, in the meeting, at the school gate. Say the kind thing out loud instead of only thinking it. You will not see most of what it does, which is fine.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Whose whole day could you improve with very little effort?

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