💬 Told a quiet colleague her presentation was good, and it meant far more than I expected

There's a woman on our team, Shalini, who never speaks in meetings. Last Thursday she had to present to the whole department. 40 people, the director in the front row. She was shaking a bit at the start. You could hear it in her voice. Then the director asked a hard question about the numbers. She answered it calmly, with the data right there. After the meeting I just said, that was really good, the way you handled his question. That's all I said. She said thanks and went back to her desk. I didn't think about it again. Monday she came to my desk with a box of Karachi biscuits. She said nobody had told her anything after. Not her manager, not the director. Just me, in the corridor, for 5 seconds. She'd been up till 2 am the night before practising in front of her mirror. That stayed with me all week. I've been in that company 7 years. I can count on 1 hand the compliments I've had. And I'm the same. I notice good work all the time and say nothing. I just think it. It costs nothing. 5 seconds. And apparently it can make someone's whole month. So I'm trying to say it out loud now, at least once a week, when someone does something well. Has a small compliment ever stayed with you for longer than it should? Or one you gave? I still remember a teacher in class 8 writing good thinking on my answer sheet. 1993. 2 words. My wife says I'm getting soft in my old age. Maybe she's right. The biscuits were very good, by the way. The fruit ones, my favourite.

A one line compliment landing that well says something about how rarely people hear it at work. A senior once told me my report was clear and that was the whole feedback, and I carried it for months. You did not need to say more. Did Shalini say anything the next day, or did she just look more relaxed in the meeting?

I told my cousin her wedding speech was the best one I'd heard in years, expecting a polite thank you and nothing more. Turns out she had rewritten it four times the night before, terrified of messing it up in front of everyone. My one line apparently settled something she had been anxious about for weeks. You never really know what a small comment is going to land on for someone.