INITIATIVE AND LEADERSHIP 327As she handed the typewritten page back to me, she said, "Your
motto has given me an idea that is going to be of value to both you
and me."
I told her I was glad to have been of service to her. The incident
made no particular impression on my mind, but from that day on I
could see that it had made a tremendous impression on her mind. She
began to come back to the office after supper and perform service that
she was neither paid for nor expected to do. Without anyone telling her
to do it, she would bring to my desk letters that she had answered for
me. She had studied my style and these letters were written as well as
I could have done it; in some instances even better. She kept up this habit
until my personal secretary resigned. When I began to look for some-
one to take his place, what was more natural than to turn to this young
woman to fill the place. Before I had time to give her the position, she took
it on her Initiative. My personal mail began to come to my desk
with a new secretary's name attached, and she was that secretary. On
her own time, after hours, and without additional pay, she had prepared
herself for the best position on my staff
But that is not all. She soon became so noticeably efficient that
she began to attract the attention of others who offered her attractive
positions. I have increased her salary many times and she now receives
four times what she earned when she first went to work for me as a
stenographer. And, to tell you the truth, I am helpless in the matter,
because she has made herself so valuable to me that I cannot get along
without her.
That is Initiative transformed into practical, understandable terms.
I would be remiss if I failed to also point out an advantage, other than
a greatly increased salary, that this young lady's Initiative has brought her.
It has developed in her a spirit of cheerfulness that brings her happiness
that most stenographers never know. Her work is not work-it is a great
interesting game at which she is playing. Even though she arrives at the
office ahead of any of the other stenographers and remains there long