Translator: David DeRuwe Reviewer: Raissa Mendes
We had already scheduled this leadership training
for a company in the interior of São Paulo state
three or four months in advance.
Two days before the training, the client called me,
"Cauê, we have a problem.
The unit director wants to join the training along with the team.
What are we going to do?"
I told her there was no problem
for the director to attend the training with the managers.
After all, it would give the idea
that we're "all in the same boat."
She expressed her concern
that if the director joined the training
and the managers felt intimidated by her presence,
it could put a big hole "in the boat."
Then she lowered her voice and said something I've never forgotten.
She said,
"Cauê, you have no idea what Andreia's like."
(Laughter)
Leadership is a funny thing.
There's always a leader we never forget.
I, myself, had a leader I never forgot:
Laura, Laura Thomas.
Laura was the manager at the ski resort where I worked.
I'd never traveled before, not even left the country.
I'd never traveled by plane.
Suddenly, there I was at a ski resort,
enjoying the moment,
thinking this would be the view I'd see most of the time.
This resort was so chic, so elegant - to give you an idea,
take a look at the bathroom in one of the rooms.
Check out the floors!
(Laughter)
Look at those beautiful tiles!
And the central bathtub?
What's also interesting is how very, very clean it is!
That's how it looked after I cleaned it.
(Laughter)
I was the resort's chamberlain.
I was responsible for cleaning and housekeeping.
Laura was my manager, and I always talked to her.
I'd say, "Laura, when you have something else that needs to be done,
something extra, let me know."
I wanted to learn.
I had a degree in hotel management, so this made sense.
One day, Laura called me,
"Cauê, your wish is my command!
We have an important safety project underway here in our area.
I need someone creative to do it; are you up for that?"
I said immediately, "Sure, count me in!"
Think of that, such an important thing, right?
I asked, "How will this affect my daily routine?"
She said, "Not at all!
(Laughter)
You'll keep cleaning the rooms,
and also
take care of the safety project."
I said, "That's exactly what I thought you'd say."
And it was all good!
I was excited, and I would go from room to room,
cleaning here, cleaning there, always thinking about work safety.
One day, while I was cleaning, Laura called me and said,
"Cauê, I need you to represent me in a meeting.
Relax, because it's a meeting about work safety,
and you're the expert."
I said, "Sure Laura! When's the meeting so I can prepare?"
She said, "Now," and I said "I'm ready!"
I went ...
And I was, going to this meeting,
to this beautiful meeting room that I'd never been in before.
When I entered the room, the resort's president was there.
He was the president of seven resorts, and he was there to listen to me.
Wow! I gave him my ideas.
I told him everything I was thinking.
He smiled, nodded his head, and made his considerations.
Later I returned ... to my work.
I knew that Laura trusted me to conduct a meeting
with the resort president,
just like she trusted me to finish cleaning a toilet.
We forget many things in our lives.
If I figure it out, I think I've forgotten most of the days of my life,
but I'll never forget that day.
We forget many people's names that pass through our lives,
but I never will forget Laura,
Laura Thomas.
I didn't know why that had affected me so strongly,
why it had represented so much in my life.
I just figured it out a little later when I returned to Brazil.
I was looking for work - looking here, looking there -
and one of the available vacancies required that I speak English.
I said, "Yippee!! Here I go!"
The name of the business was a little tricky to pronounce:
"Great Place to Work."
I got there, and I said,
"Good morning, is this Great Place to Work?"
They said, "This one's fluent, approved."
And I was in.
(Laughter)
Since 2001, I've been happy at Great Place to Work.
For those who don't know, Great Place is the company
that ranks the best companies to work for in Brazil and the world.
We've gotten expertise about why one company
is considered by its its employees to be the best place to work,
while another company is not considered by its people to be a good company.
The interesting thing is that it was there at Great Place to Work
that I understood, technically,
what Laura had given me that day.
And we can summarize what she gave me with just one word,
and this word may be the great secret behind the best companies to work for.
It's not having videogames, foosball, or ping-pong
that makes your company the best place to work.
It's not about having the best salaries and benefits.
It's not how colorful the walls are painted.
After all, there are many companies with colorful walls and gray people.
What makes a company an excellent place to work
is a simple word, and what Laura gave me was, pure and simple,
"um presente," a gift.
"Um presente" in English is a gift; "trabalho" in English is work.
We invented a word, a concept behind the best companies,
and that word is "giftwork."
It's an unexpected gift you receive in your workplace.
It's something that costs almost nothing -
not in time, not in money -
but, for the receiver, it has a value beyond measure.
And, if we're talking about the future,
I strongly believe
that there will be no future for companies that don't think this way,
for companies that can't go beyond.
But there's no company that goes beyond.
What exists are people that go beyond.
It's clear that we have to be better at finance, at innovation,
at processes with customers,
but if we can't do better
for those who provide the base of it all, the ones who do the work,
there is no future.
For this future, company size doesn't matter.
To give you some idea, look at this interesting data:
Of the 500 biggest -
not the best -
but the biggest companies in the world in 2000,
only 17 years ago,
half of them don't exist anymore.
Half of them have disappeared.
I think Great Place to Work is where I first experienced,
in my veins,
what "giftwork" actually is.
I had recently arrived at the company and been working for two or three months,
that experimental period, right?
I was also doing a drama course.
I adore theater.
I love getting on a stage to tell a story.
That's the essence of theater, isn't it?
If someone here has done a drama course, you already know,
at the end of the course,
a play is presented for family and friends.
Generally it's a long season presented in one day.
(Laughter)
Sometimes two.
The problem is that this one day would happen on a Monday,
and Monday is a workday.
I was in a dilemma ...
Should I ask the staff at Great Place to Work
for the day off to complete my drama course,
or should I give up the drama course and keep working for the company?
It was then that I took another look at the name of the company,
and I remembered that besides being able to pronounce it, I also knew its meaning.
I went to talk with my boss at the time, Pamela.
I said, "Pamela, it will be on a Monday,
so can I not come to work that day
since I have this presentation for my drama class?"
I'll never forget how Pamela looked deep into my eyes and said,
"Cauê, you don't ask this kind of question here.
This kind of thing, you just let us know.
I know how important this course is to you. Go!"
And I went.
I did my performance; it was awesome!
We all performed; it was really cool.
Then we were thanking the public for their applause,
your family that will come, right?
(Laughter)
Everybody was applauding this marvelous thing.
Suddenly, from the back of the audience I began to hear a different applause:
"Cauê!" (Clap, clap, clap)
When the lights came up, I saw Ruy in the back of the audience,
Ruy Shiozawa, the president and CEO of Great Place to Work.
(Laughter)
Together with Pamela
and more than ten people and friends from Great Place to Work
who had come to watch me by surprise.
Ah!
(Laughter) (Applause)
That same night, Ruy told me something.
He said, "Cauê, this theater business is important to you, right?"
I said, "It is."
He said, "One day, I'll find a stage for you, here in our company."
So, I need to share with you an e-mail that Ruy sent a couple weeks ago
to TEDxSãoPaulo organization staff:
[Sadly, I can't be there. I suggest our star of the stage, our director, Cauê]
This e-mail proves I'm here by mistake!
(Laughter)
(Applause) (Cheers)
Wow!
(Audience) Cauê! Cauê! Cauê!
Cauê de Oliveira: I thought that might happen!
(Laughter)
I brought people to start it up.
(Laughter)
Thank you! Thank you!
Wow!
I've forgotten how to continue.
(Laughter)
Anyway, Ruy said it, right? "One day, I'll find ... "
So this stage I'm speaking from today,
is nothing more than the gift that Ruy had promised me in 2011
when I started working at Great Place to Work.
After this, I became Director of Corporate Education
at Great Place to Work, and this is what I do all the time -
give talks, do training, and travel all over Brazil
listening, learning, and telling stories about leaders who make a difference.
They actually pay me to do this!
(Laughter)
I'm not going to argue, am I?
(Laughter)
Since the thing I like to do most is to tell stories,
I'll end by telling one.
This story has a name,
and the name of this story is:
"You have no idea what Andreia's like."
(Laughter)
I traveled to interior São Paulo,
so very curious to know who this director was, Andreia.
When I got there, I saw that I had no idea
because she was an absolutely fantastic person,
a kind person, a human "giftwork."
She told a story that moved us.
At a certain moment, she raised her hand and said,
"Cauê, I have a giftwork to tell."
I said, "Please, Andreia, tell us."
She said, "Before I was director of the company, I was a manager.
I was very touched one day when my director called me,
and said, 'Andreia, I need you to come immediately to my office.'"
And she went.
When she arrived at the director's office, she opened the door,
and he and a lady were there.
She looked more closely, and saw it was her mother.
She thought some misfortune had happened in the family.
Quickly they calmed her fears, "No, everything's OK."
"Then why is my mother here?"
And then he explained, "Andreia, I don't know if you remember,
but one thing you told me, and that I'll never forget,
was on the day I promoted you to be a manager.
That day, you said,
'I wish my mother could be here to see this
because I know it would be important to her.'
Today is a special day for you," he said,
"because today you will be a director in this company,
and your mother is here to see it happen."
(Applause)
When she finished telling this story,
we all got emotional, everybody - even today, I get emotional
when I remember this scene.
To close, the most beautiful thing about this story
is that we pass all our time in companies looking to all sides, above, and below,
wishing that someone would do something for us.
The question that remains is: what are we doing for our organization,
for our boss, for our team, for our colleagues?
Because the most beautiful thing about giftwork is its reciprocity.
When you receive a giftwork,
your biggest desire is to pay it forward.
Do you think Andreia pays forward this giftwork for her company?
"Cauê, you have no idea what Andrea's like."
(Laughter)
What kind of director do you think she is for her organization?
What kind of leader do you think she is for her team?
I hope, from the bottom of my heart, these last moments I spent with you
can be a paying forward of the giftwork that I received in 2011,
from Pamela, from Ruy, and from my friends at Great Place to Work.
Because on that Monday, in fact,
I didn't go to work.
Thank you.
(Applause)
(Cheers)