My brother tells me that courage is “fear that has said its prayers.”

This past week, I saw lots of courage and plenty of heroes under fire as the company that I work for as a contractor dismissed one third of its workforce.

As an 100 year-old iconic brand, the organization has a long history of hiring caring and giving people. So it wasn’t much of a surprise that when the chips were down, the employees being fired took the high ground.

I was brought on to assist employees who were going to be affected by the layoffs, and the human resources department that I am a part of processed the paperwork of each and every person being let go.

Because I’m in the “smile business” so to speak, I couldn’t help but notice how much the sincere and genuine smiles of people in pain made things easier on us trying to assist them.

Though it wasn’t a group plan, everyone appeared to have consciously decided to let their smiles and positive attitudes be their swords. Not only did it help them, it helped those who remained. And it sent a signal to management about good character, something that was somewhat lacking in the decisions that had been made.

I came away this week thinking, again, that one should never doubt the power of a smile.

Thanks for sharing a smile.
Happy smiling,
D.L.