“When I got promoted, she cried harder than I did.”

I thought of Lorraine sneering that I had spent too much time talking to staff and not enough time impressing donors.

After dinner, Becca introduced me to her mother, who said she remembered my father walking through the lobby on Christmas Eve with trays of hot food for the overnight crew.

I realized that the company’s reputation had never been built solely in a ballroom.

It lived in hundreds of small interactions that didn’t make the annual report.