I finished my week of “business immersion” for Business school, and I must admit, I was blown away at the caliber of the professors we have and the material covered.

One of my favorites sessions was on effective communication by John Daly. What the professor does, is to go around and talk to very successful business people and find out what some of the small things that they do to be successful. There were some simple things, like never take a new position where the previous person did an outstanding job, or leaders identify problems, not solutions. However, the best tip he gave us was from a story that happened to him.

John was talking with an executive one afternoon over coffee. They talked for a few hours, and on a tangent, the exective mentioned that he thought his niece had one of John’s classes, and she really enjoyed it. He said he’d double check for him. They continued to talk for a few more hours before they parted ways.

The next day the professor got a handwritten letter from the executive saying how much he enjoyed their chat and in the p.s., he said that his niece did have his class, and that she really enjoyed it. John looked at the p.s., and had no idea what he was referring to. He brushed it off and went about his day. A few hours later, it occurred to him that the p.s. was in reference to something they talked about in the middle of their long conversation. He picked up the phone, and called the executive. John thanked the executive for the letter, and asked him how he remembered that small 2-second aside about his niece in their 5 hour conversation. The executive replied, “John, you remember when you asked me what helps lead to success. Well, it’s not keeping the big commitments that build people’s trust in you, because they have to keep them regardless. It’s the little commitments, the ones that the other person may not even remember making that truly build trust in a relationship.”

The big takeaway from this class is, it’s not just the big things that make someone successful, it’s all the little things that really count.