A Chance Encounter

On my way to lunch today, I had a chance encounter. I was walking through the hall towards the stairwell, when a man, whom I recognized from a meeting earlier that morning came to the stairway to introduce himself.

It was the president of Thomas Nelson. He recognized me from the meeting earlier that morning where I was introduced and he just wanted to personally introduce himself and ask me how I was enjoying my new position. He also wanted to know where I came from.

To me, this was an exceptional portrait of good leadership. But what was it about this encounter that showed such good leadership?

1. He remembered his subordinate.
In a meeting of 35 people, I was introduced and I merely had to stand and wave (the agenda was packed). I've had jobs where I met my boss many times (by "met" I mean I was introduced as if for the first time). I have been introduced many times as "another talented individual that works upstairs." (I know you don't remember my name and your not fooling anyone)

2. He went out of his way to introduce himself.
This is a very busy man. In the meeting I was in earlier he was talking with people in the room to try and work out a few details here or there, he even left a few times to take care of some things, but he stopped and put everything on hold to welcome me to the company.

3. He made it all about me.
By this I mean two things. One, he didn't say anything about his title. I didn't even recognize him or know that he was the president until he told me his name about a third of the way into the conversation. Secondly, he just asked questions about me--where I came from, what I did before, how I was enjoying it so far and the like.