We can see a person’s responsibilities and upbringing through the small things they do; in other words, small details can reflect a person’s virtue and character. Employees who do their work well, and pay attention to the small details, receive admiration from their bosses and other employees.
As the saying goes: “Small details can ruin a company’s reputation, but if it handles them well, it can become a million-dollar business.”
What generates the boss’s admiration?
Story 1: A train ride past Mt Fuji
At a Japanese company located in Tokyo, there was a female employee in charge of purchasing tickets for clients. One client was a French company manager who often traveled to Tokyo to do business with this Japanese company. The female staffer often bought train tickets for this French manager from Tokyo to Osaka back and forth.
Soon, the French manager noticed that often the ticket to Osaka was by the window on one side. And the return trip to Tokyo was by the window on the other side. The French manager was interested and asked the female staffer why it was arranged like this.
The staffer replied with a smile: “When the train goes to Osaka, Mt Fuji is on your right side, when you return to Tokyo, it is on your left, so you can see different views of Mountain Fuji. Most people want to have a good view from the train, so I arranged the window seat this way for you, so you have a different side each time. Then, you can enjoy the view of the great mountain as well as the life of the local people on your trip.”
It was this small detail and the sincere words of the staffer that touched the French manager.
He was so moved that he decided to increase the trade volume with the company, at the end of the year, the transactions increased from 2 million to 10 million francs.
The French manager believed that if the staff in this company acted so responsibly to their clients, even with the small things that were done so well, what was there to worry about in doing business with a company like this?
After the owner of the Japanese company learned about this, he had great admiration for her virtue and conscientious efforts and he promoted the female staff member.
Story 2: Apples and oranges
Wilson is the founder of a Holiday Inn. One time when Wilson and his staff were having dinner together, an employee picked up an orange and directly gnawed on it. It turned out that the employee was highly myopic and mistook the orange for an apple. In order to cover up the embarrassment, he pretended not to care and swallowed it, making the crowd laugh.
The next day, Wilson invited the staff to dinner again. The dishes and fruits were the same as the previous day. Seeing that everyone was there, Wilson picked up an orange, and like what the employee did the day before, he took a big bite out of it. The crowd looked at him and followed suit. Then they found out that the oranges this time were completely different from yesterday’s oranges. They were oranges made with other food ingredients that were fragrant and sweet.
While everyone was happily eating, Wilson suddenly announced: “Starting from tomorrow, Allah will be my assistant!” Everyone was stunned and felt that the boss’ decision was very sudden.
Wilson explained, showing his admiration for Allah: “Yesterday, when everyone saw someone mistakenly eat an orange peel, Allah was the only one who did not laugh at him and instead offered him a glass of juice. Today, seeing that I was repeating yesterday’s mistake again, he was also the only one who didn’t follow suit and imitate me. Isn’t someone like him, who neither disrespects his colleagues nor blindly follows his boss, the best candidate for the assistant job?”
These two stories show that when you practice virtue by sincerely putting others first, even in small ways, this is what is valued and receives the most admiration from your boss and coworkers.
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