Water Baby!

I was in Ahmedabad this weekend for a work trip.

While waiting for a customer in the hotel lobby, I must have been there for close to thirty minutes. Long enough for the security guard near the elevator to notice.

He walked over quietly and said: "Sir, I noticed you have been waiting for a while. I was getting thirsty, so I thought you might be too."

He handed me a bottle of water and went back to his post.

On the return flight, a baby a few rows ahead of me started crying. The mother tried everything. Nothing worked. After a few minutes, the air hostess gently picked the baby up, walked her down the aisle, made faces, talked to her softly, and slowly got her to calm down.

She handed the baby back to the mother with a smile and went back to her duties.

Two different people. Two completely different jobs. Two unscripted moments from the same trip.

Neither was trained to do what they did. Nobody asked them to. And nobody will remember their names. The hotel will get the credit for the water. The airline will get the credit for the calm flight.

But here is what I kept thinking about on the way home.

Both of them noticed something. And both acted on it without waiting to be told.

That is rarer than it sounds.

Most people do their job well. They show up, follow the process, tick the boxes. But the people who quietly make an organisation extraordinary are the ones who go slightly beyond. Not because someone said so. Because they genuinely cared about the person in front of them.

So here is the question worth asking as a leader. How many people in your team do this? And what kind of culture and environment does it take to make this the norm rather than the exception?

The security guard and the air hostess will never meet. They work in different cities, different industries. But they shared something that no job description can fully capture.

They paid attention. And then they acted.

I hope this helps you Shoot to the Top!