This incident goes back to my days when I was working with an HR Consulting organization. One of our clients was a leading chain of grocery stores, based in Bangalore in India. Among the issues we addressed for this client was the retention of quality employees - a real challenge to managers when the salaries in the organization and the industry in that region were the major cause of discontent. During one discussion with a group of store managers, I asked the participants:

"What has caused you to stay long enough to become a manager?" After a long silence a newly promoted manager took the question and slowly, with her voice almost breaking, said, "It was 175 rupees worth pair of gloves."

Jaycintha told the group that she originally took a sales job as an interim option while she looked for something better. On her second or third day behind the counter, she received a phone call from her nine-year old son, Arun. He needed a pair of gloves as it was very cold and he would ride to his school on his bicycle starting early in the morning. She explained that as a single mother, financially she was very tight, and her first salary check had to go for paying bills. Perhaps she could buy him gloves with her second or third pay check.

When Jaycintha arrived for work the next morning, Hema Latha, the store manager, asked her to come to the small room in back of the store that served as an office. Jaycintha wondered if she had done something wrong or left some part of her job incomplete the day before. She was worried and confused.

Hema Latha handed her a box. "I overheard you talking to your son yesterday," she said, "and I know that it is tough to explain such things to kids. This is a pair of gloves for Arun because he may not know how important he is, even though you have to pay your bills before you can buy him the gloves. You know we can't pay good employees like you as much as we would like to; but let me tell you Jaycintha we do care, and I want you to know you are very important to us."

The thoughtfulness, empathy and compassion of this grocery store manager demonstrate that people remember more how much a manager cares than how much the organization pays. An important lesson for the price of a pair of gloves.