Small things. Big impact.

Flowers are cheap. A memorable statement that I was once told. What it means is that while flowers are cheap, divorce is expensive. Do the small, thoughtful things and the big things will take care of themselves. Are the little things important to everyone? Should they be? In my roles as both a leader and as an employee, I notice that it really is the smallest things that can make the biggest difference. Someone told me once, “nothing we do here from a work perspective is ground breaking, it is important but not memorable; people aren’t likely to remember that, but they will remember how you treated them”. Often that simply boils down to the small things that you do – and these are some of the behaviours that I have noted of people who pay attention to those things and who, as a result, are great leaders:

1.     They are inclusive: Talking about “we” and “us” as opposed to “me” and “I” is a good life practice, but particularly a good work practice No-one is a one-person-show and good leaders get that. Good leaders know, acknowledge and appreciate that it is a team effort and illustrate this in their choice of words.

2.     They remember the small details. It’s important to be authentic in your interactions but it’s also helpful to remember a milestone, a celebration or just acknowledge something that someone is excited about – and if a team member is concerned about an aging parent or an issue with a child, you need to be empathetic to that and be supportive where you can be.

3.     They operate “in the moment” – a personal annoyance of mine is people in a meeting, beavering through their email or, even worse, looking at their phones. Great leaders give you their full attention, are in the moment and that can make such a difference. It also means that you generally get a better solution, more support and greater engagement which has got to be a good thing

4.     They do not seem flustered – when a crisis happens, no-one looks to the person who is shouting and panicking for guidance. They look to the calm, unflustered person who, may be stressing internally, but who appears to have everything under control externally. It’s a small thing but has a big impact.

5.     They treat everyone the same – people who always know who the CEO is but don’t know the name of the concierge are not focusing on the little things. Being sure to cultivate good relationships all round and treat everyone’s contributions as valuable is imperative. For me, the little things are to just stop, connect, greet, look people in the eye, pass a personal comment and just engage.

6.     They can adapt their style – when you are able to be someone who can have effective relationships with everyone, it means that you are able to adapt your style to best suit the people you are engaging with -it’s a little thing but it’s critically important to get the best results all round.

As leaders, when you take the time to consider the little things, then you increase your chance to create a connected and cohesive company. Buying someone a coffee, sending a personal message, writing a card, giving a few hours off to do something, taking time to pop past a desk to say thank you – these are small gestures that make a big impact. If everyone asked themselves, “What good thing am I going to do today that may make someone else’s day brighter or easier?” imagine how positive our working world would be.

Nikki Benfield is an independent marketing consultant with VentureWeb (trying to pay attention to the small things!) currently working at EY. Like what you read? Email Nikki here.