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In this episode of 5 Minutes With Andy, CEO Andy Freed shares how a 30-second “thank you” early in his career shaped how he leads — and why small moments often make the biggest impact.

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Andy discusses:

• Why the true promise of leadership lies in creating moments that motivate and inspire others.
• How being present and intentional in everyday interactions is at the heart of great leadership.
• Why telling someone they matter can shape how they see themselves — and their work.

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Hi. Welcome to Five Minutes With Andy. My name is Andy Freed. I'm the CEO of Virtual, Incorporated. For the last 25 years, we've been helping organizations as they're forming, growing and changing and helping them make their mark on the world.

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Today, I want to talk to you about something that happened about 30 years ago that’s still one of the highlights of my career.

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And when it happened, it probably only took about 30 seconds. And the person that said these words to me probably doesn't even realize and remember the day. But for me, it was so impactful and something I carried with me in my head, in my heart, every day.

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Thirty years ago, I was working for Angus King when he was running for governor of Maine, and Angus was a long shot. He was the longest of longshots. He was running for governor as an independent. And nobody was sure in 1993 if he would even make it all the way to 1994, when the election was, much less win. He did go on to win and serve two really successful terms.

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But on that summer day in 1993, I was sitting at 169 Park Row, his office in Brunswick, Maine. I was in a back office just by myself, and Angus walked in, and he walked up to my desk, and he looked me in the eye, and he said, “I just want to take a minute to say thank you. Thank you for making my dream of running for governor come true. I don't know how this is going to turn out, but I'll always remember that you helped make this dream come true.” And then he walked out of the room.

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He probably doesn't remember that moment. Thirty years later, I carry it with me all the time. And to me, that's the excitement and promise of being a leader. You can create a moment like that for somebody at any moment. You can only do that by being present, by showing up, by thinking about leadership, not just when you're on stage at a staff meeting, not just when you're talking to a group of people, but thinking about leadership and thinking about creating those opportunities every minute of the day.

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There's nothing I enjoy more than rounding as the Chairman of the Board of MelroseWakefield Hospital here, just up north of Boston. When I'm doing that, what I really love to be able to tell folks is two words: that they matter. That they matter for our reputation. They matter for how we're taking care of patients. They matter for what we're trying to do as an organization. Understanding that and that idea that somebody matters is so important to somebody’s belief in themselves, somebody's belief in the organizations. People want to know that the work they do every day matters.

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I know that the work we do here at Virtual every day matters. We help organizations make their mark on the world. We help organizations do things like Apple Pay and pay for things with cell phones. We help make payments secure worldwide. We help put nurses at a bedside during the pandemic. We help create new technologies.

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Now, those moments aren't always big moments. Sometimes it's the little things that get us there. Sometimes it's that person that just printed out some name badges that makes the meeting go successful, and that going successful means the people are all there, and then they're able to make that set of decisions.

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All of that work matters. The idea for folks, though, is that the challenge for leaders is to tell people that their work matters and recognize that your chance to do that isn't always the big moments, but the little moments. And you might not even remember that, but you can create those moments for people that they carry with them and might even want to share in a podcast someday for the rest of their life.

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So thanks for spending five minutes with me today. This has been Five Minutes With Andy. If you've enjoyed this, make sure you like or subscribe and join us again. See you soon!