Little Gestures Go A Long Way

     Today's act of kindness was really the completion of something I started last night. I mentioned yesterday that I was consulting with a company regarding their corporate culture. Part of the process involved a large number of individual meetings with various members of their staff. The meetings were scheduled at 30 minute intervals and, as you might imagine, it was difficult to keep everyone on schedule all day long. It took a great deal of coordination and plenty of adjustments on the part of my administrative contact at the client. She did a fabulous job keeping us on track and I wanted to show her my appreciation.                       

     Though I certainly let her know verbally, I thought that a small extra gesture would be meaningful. Of course, I was at my hotel thinking about this at 8:30 last night! I decided to get her a small bouquet of flowers that I could deliver first thing today when I would be resuming my work. It required a little help and a bit of driving to eventually find a place where I could buy fresh flowers at 9:00 on a weekday night, but I did it. When I arrived at the client's office at 8:00 this morning, I gave her the flowers. She was certainly surprised, and quite appreciative. I know the extra effort I went through to make it happen was well worth it. While I didn't do it for this reason, I also know that she'll work that much harder to help me out in the future as well.