As a person starting my career and then as I transitioned into people leadership, I found a lot of success by simply dialing in the details of the work that my team and I did. Employees who were on the lower side of engagement found new joy in the work that were doing. People just got along better. Our customers recognized the change and were cheering on the changes.
Minor things matter is a phrase that my mentor Paul Herman, taught me during one of our first one-on-ones together. it stuck with me so strongly that as I kicked off Passing the Baton nearly 10 years ago as a newsletter, speaking to my team about the power of minor things was one of the first topics I wrote about. As we got the podcast started we pulled from the newsletters to get our topics started. Minor Things Matter is show 8. Years later, minor things still matter, perhaps more than ever as your team and customers desire authenticity and crave a level of service that is hard to find in many places.
Minor things matter in your work
Whether you are a leader of influence or a people leader, the minor things in the work output that you create are important and help you stand out in the workplace. When you focus on the minor things in work, everything else around you is impacted in a positive way. Stress levels go down, and mental capacity is opened to take on more work.
A great example of minor things mattering in work is on the show The Bear. The premise of the show is one of the world’s best chefs coming back home to Chicago as he inherited a rundown family restaurant. As you can imagine the place is a mess and he slowly elevates the restaurant into something totally different by focusing on the minor things. He cuts tape with scissors instead of the tape dispenser because the tape dispenser gives the tape jagged edges. As he remodels the kitchen he times himself and is very critical because he can’t get the time down by one second. The magic really starts to happen as other employees start adopting the habit as well. Both the service and the quality of food are unrecognizable as they get ready to restart the restaurant.
In my own recent work, my team owns a very complex talent review slate where we talk about hundreds of leaders across the United States and align on their development needs and how we can better invest in them. It is a web of sessions that need to sequence correctly in order to flow right. Now I hate spreadsheets, famously if you’ve listened to the podcast since the beginning, but we wanted to create an easy way for leaders to see who was being discussed where and a central place for my facilitators to verify accuracy. I don’t know that I would describe excels as beautiful, but this certainly was – clean, simple, informative. My facilitators used it perfectly, and it worked just as it was designed.
Want to guess how many people said something about the document? 0. Often that’s the way that minor things work. Sometimes they are there to make the work stand out, and sometimes they are there to clear distractions, confusion, and roadblocks. No one is going to walk into the cooler at the Bears restaurant and say “Wow, you cut the tape!” or look at my spreadsheet and say, “This is so clean!” Focus on minor things to help your work stand out above the crowd but also remember to dive into the details even when most people won’t see it.
Minor things matter to your customer
To build a raving fan base, focus on the minor details in your acts, services, and products that you create. The Bear’s Restaurant staff is sent to work in other restaurants as the place is being remodeled. One goes to work at the highest quality restaurant in the city. There he sees attention to detail and customer service taken to the extreme level. The staff there uses the guest list to go on their social media accounts to learn about them before their reservation. They use that knowledge, to dial in a very intimate and personal experience. One person commented that they missed their chance to try Chicago deep-dish pizza before they had to leave town. What did the staff do? They sent someone out to a nearby pizza place, bought a pizza, upped the presentation, and served it to that person in their own restaurant.
If your or your team’s work directly affects your customer, what details can you dial in with them to really up your customer service game? If your role is more of a support or corporate function, then your customer is the business that you serve. What details can you dial in to make things easier for them?
Minor things matter to your team
It’s important that your team experience that same level of care and attention to detail from you in their experience. Whenever I took on a new team at a new location, the first thing that I always invested in was the common area or breakroom. A deep clean, fresh paint, and upgrading the furnishings always showed my team that A) I put them first B) The difference some attention to detail makes, and C) I see a need and work to resolve it.
Part of dialing in the details of the experience of your team is slowing down to get to know them and listening. Make note of the things that you discover like, preferences, tastes, what their favorite things are, and what is important to them. Use that information to insert those small acknowledgments as the relationship goes on.
Back to the show, The owner has two interactions with his employees. One employee is going to cooking school for the first time and she tells the owner that she doesn’t have a set of knives to start the school with. The chef tells her to take his, a very nice and expensive set of Japanese cutlery. She is reminded of his kindness as she uses the knives at school and when it’s time to come back to work she tries to return them. The chef replies, “I don’t remember ever asking for them back.” What was once one of his biggest detractors how now become one of his most loyal team members. The owner shows the same care to his second-in-command after she commented early on how nice his chef coat was. Just before reopening, he gifts her the same custom jacket as a thank you.
Listen, learn, and dial in the details to create loyal and engaged team members.
Minor things matter to you
You’ve taken care of your work, your customers, and your team. It’s time to also dial in the details for yourself. Minor things really do matter in your own self-care and well-being. Some areas to consider when dialing the details in your personal time.
- Your living space – Whether you have a room, an apartment or a house, attention to detail in upkeep, cleanliness, and maintenance goes a long way in helping you feel stress-free in your own place.
- Your hobbies – Are things organized in a way that you can jump right into the fun? How about the hobby itself? What are ways that you can elevate that experience for yourself?
- Your personal relationships – Which of those your benefit both you and and the other party by giving it some extra attention?
- Your physical being – Are you giving it the attention that it needs in order to have a healthy life? Could an exercise plan help or perhaps a new look at your food intake?
Attention to detail will never go out of favor. It’s a future-proofed behavior and trait that serves yourself, your team, and your customer in a way that shows you truly care.
Make a better tomorrow.
-ZH
