My friend, Rabbi Kalman Packouz manages to find spirituality in all sorts of places and situations.

Once, while riding a bus, he noticed that not only was the bus driver grumpy, but he seemed to be “spreading misery to everyone who boarded his bus. It was as if he saw each passenger as an intrusion and if there were no passengers, he could just drive his route in peace.”

Wondering if he could somehow help the driver to change his attitude, he offered:

“You are doing a wonderful kindness!”

“What do you mean?” grumbled the driver.

“You are helping so many people — a woman to take her son to the doctor, a man to visit his elderly father, a soldier to return to his base, a little boy to go to school; you have a wonderful job — just by driving the bus you can do so many acts of kindness!”

The bus driver said, “I never thought of it that way. You’re right!”

Now, admittedly, it’s not always that easy to help someone change their attitude; to elicit a reframe from misery to, instead, joy and gratitude.

I’m also not suggesting you be so bold as the Rabbi by doing that with strangers. On the other hand, in the proper and safe environment, that can be an excellent thing to do.

However, the lesson is that when we really look at what we do, we can all find “Holiness in the mundane.” We can see and appreciate the spiritual aspect.

It begins with looking for ways to be grateful. And, once the context of gratitude has been established, it’s amazing how good we can feel.

How do you touch peoples’ lives through what you do? Count the ways. I guarantee you there are many!

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Rebecca from Virginia wrote in with a good lesson for customer-service representatives (meaning, everyone in any company!) based on the post entitled, “ACKNOWLEDGE ME!”

“Hey Bob, just had to write and say that your post was right on the mark.

”I’d been trying to straighten out a bank mess-up concerning my nine year old son’s savings account. After four weeks of waiting they said it was fixed, only to get the statement yesterday discovering it had another added service charge. I knew I was frustrated when I went to the bank today, but the manager’s whole attitude took the problem from frustration to complete anger!

”Never once did she apologize or tell me she understood how frustrating this was and that she’d get it fixed. Thanks to your article that I had just read, I realized why I was getting so angry. This allowed me to keep my cool and leave still in control. But, on the way home I was thinking — for this bank it went from my closing my son’s account of $126 when I walked in to my closing all of our family accounts by the time I walked out of the bank — all because someone couldn’t say ‘sorry.’

“When I write the bank president to express my frustration regarding the treatment of a child’s account, I will definitely mention it .”

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Thank you for your letter Rebecca. You shared something that all of us in any field of customer contact need to always keep in mind.

Just a suggestion, if I may: when you write to the bank president, be sure to let him or her know how much you had previously enjoyed being a customer and that you always appreciated the staff being friendly and treating you with respect (assuming that’s true).

Then, calmly and rationally state the problem, how it made you feel and the result.

The nicer and less emotional you are in your letter, the more the president does NOT want to lose you as a customer, and will respond accordingly.

For an example of a very effective letter, you can cick here and download my free special report, How to Write A Complaint Letter That Gets Results.

While tact is mainly a skill it is also an attitude.

While empathy is mainly an attitude it is also a skill.

Fortunately, both can be learned.