MARCH 2, 2026

What does it feel like to work with you?

I used to think the quality of my work spoke for itself. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that people don't just hire the work, they hire the feeling of being in it. People remember how they feel - in working with us, in experiencing our offerings, in our presence.

When I was just starting my career, I scraped together enough to buy a ticket to see Josh Ritter in Chicago. I took a roundtrip Amtrak from St. Louis. I settled into my coach seat mid-morning, probably too caffeinated, excited about the trip. It didn’t take long before the man sitting beside me started complaining about his seat. You can probably hear the refrain in your head: too cramped, not enough personal space, etc. He went on and on about it. I could feel his frustration saturate the air around us.

When a conductor came by to check tickets—you guessed it—the man gave him an earful. The conductor acknowledged his discontent and assured him he'd do his best. Then the conductor turned to me and, kindly, asked if I'd be willing to relocate. I couldn't fully read the situation, but sensed that anywhere away from my seatmate would be an improvement, so off I went. I followed him down the aisle, through a few cars, past coach, past business...and into first class. He smiled. I beamed. He had noticed the bigger picture and acted on what he noticed.

I've never forgotten how that felt. He found a creative solution, but precisely because he noticed the ripples. We can't be thoughtful without paying attention.

I've worked on the frontlines of customer service throughout my career and trained leaders in hospitality principles. Frontline work is the ultimate masterclass in leadership, by the way. And it's where I learned that hospitality is the architecture. Knock out the load-bearing wall and the whole structure comes down.

We’re all in the business of serving people. You have a version of that train story. Your teams or clients do too.

Alright, let's get to it. Hope you have a great week.

Mallory

P.S. My love of Amtrak comes from my grandparents who took a handful of cross country trips together - playing cards in the communal area, making friends in the dining car, and passing time waiting for a herd of cattle to shift off the tracks somewhere in the Dakotas. As my Grandma used to say: "We were in no hurry, and neither were those cows."