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Raw Queries and Responses

1. Shard Calculation

Query:

Response:

Calculated Shard: 160 (from laksa161)

2. Crawled Status Check

Query:

curl -X POST \
  'http://laksa160.int.ahrefs:8124/' \
  -H 'Content-Type: text/plain' \
  -H 'X-ClickHouse-Database: crawler3' \
  -H 'Authorization: Basic YXBpOg==' \
  -d 'SELECT getAhrefsURLFromUnparsed(src_unparsed) AS found_url, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(download_stamp), 0) AS crawl_time, ifNull(toUnixTimestamp(props_url_first_seen), 0) AS first_indexed_time, download_http_code AS http_code, src_unparsed AS src_unparsed, src_root_hash AS src_root_hash, history_drop_reason AS history_drop_reason, meta_title AS meta_title, meta_descriptions AS meta_descriptions, attrs_boilerpipe_text AS attrs_boilerpipe_text, attrs_markdown AS attrs_markdown, attrs_readable_markdown AS attrs_readable_markdown, meta_canonical AS meta_canonical FROM crawler3.page_info_local FINAL PREWHERE (src_root_hash, src_unparsed) IN ((getAhrefsRootHashFromUnparsed(getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://mentorintelligence.com/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter/\')), getAhrefsUnparsedNoserviceFromURL(\'https://mentorintelligence.com/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter/\'))) FORMAT JSONEachRow'

Response:

{"found_url":"https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter\/","crawl_time":1769447440,"first_indexed_time":1589991775,"http_code":200,"src_unparsed":"com,mentorintelligence!\/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter\/ s443","src_root_hash":"7301809909901170160","history_drop_reason":null,"meta_title":"Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter | Growing Mentor Intelligence","meta_descriptions":[],"attrs_boilerpipe_text":"We’ve all heard the common expression “Don’t sweat the small stuff!” usually meaning\nthat we should limit our personal energy to the things in life that truly matter. For those\neasily excitable, that is both sound advice and essential to sanity! This post is about\ndiscernment – the ability to identify the “small stuff” that carries far more significance\nthan it might appear at face value, significance that deserves our personal attention and\naction. This is a post about leadership, and about the little things that do matter. It is\nbased on a true story, an event that happened in the workplace a number of years ago that\nstill resonates with me and with the teams and people that I mentor and support.\nI was the leader of a small team working for a large defense contractor. Our primary\ncustomers were the men and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Our\njob plain and simple was to give them unprecedented overmatch against any adversary, to\ngive them a fighting chance to come back to their loved ones. Getting it right is about\nhaving, and enforcing, the highest standards in everything we do. It represents the shared\nsense of duty and service that ties our Service men and women to their civilian\ncounterparts, it is a team, and it is an almost sacred bond that unites our work.\nAs a part of my team’s responsibilities, we built and maintained a strategic planning\ncenter we called the War Room. We used the War Room to display our strategy,\ninvestments and program status. Customer visits to our factory were a daily occurrence\nand they often included a stop at the War Room. The room was located in the back\nsection of our main building, so after the routine office calls with senior leaders, it was a\nsimple walk down the main hallway to get to the planning center. The War Room was\nalso conveniently located just a few feet from the restroom. Since I spent a considerable\namount of time in the War Room, I was a frequent visitor to the facilities, and almost\nevery time I entered that rest room (or frankly any other rest room in ANY other location)\nI was disappointed to see used paper towels crumpled up and thrown on the floor. It\nbecame my routine practice to stop on the way out of the facilities, pick up the paper and\nput them in the trash where they belonged.\nOne day, I was sharing this story with one of my young, talented team mates, and I used\nit as an opportunity to mentor him about how leadership opportunities present themselves\nevery day for us to demonstrate what we believe by what we do, not by what we say.\nLeadership talk is cheap, and frankly, it means nothing unless it is backed by action. We\ntalked about how even in seemingly insignificant things like paper towels on the floor,\nwe define our character and our standards by what we do. That is especially true when\nwe think no one is watching. Even though I did not create the situation, I saw it and had\nto do something about it. Had I simply walked away as so many others had already done,\nthen the problem, in effect, became mine. I wondered how many times others saw what I\nsaw, and excused themselves because they did not create the problem, or because they\nbelieved that it was the janitorial staff’s job to clean up after us. Leadership does not\nallow either of those excuses. Walking the talk means that anytime we are confronted\nwith a leadership opportunity, we act on it because we must.\nBesides the personal motivation to do the right thing, I also explained that our customers\nform their opinion of our company and our standards by what they see during those visits,\nand that everything matters including how well we maintain our facilities. As a former\ncustomer myself, I reflected on how military leaders are trained to observe things, both\nlarge and small, and to draw broader conclusions based on those observations. Show me\na dirty motor pool and I can guarantee you that the unit that it belongs to has leadership\nproblems. The higher rank a person attains in the military, the more honed those\ndiscernment skills are. Hence, any senior visitor to our company who used that restroom\nand saw paper towels on the floor would likely draw an unfavorable opinion about our\nstandards, and might even extend that concern to the work we do on the programs we\nsupport. It represented a preventable and unnecessary risk to that special relationship I\ndescribed above. It is a small thing with potentially larger consequence, and so it was\nworth my time as a mentor to talk about it.\nAt the time, I was pretty sure that my colleague thought I was taking this leadership thing\na little too seriously, but he humored me. The very next day, he visited that rest room\nand just as I described, there were paper towels on the floor. He started to walk away,\nbut then thought better about it so he picked up the trash and threw it away. Just as he\nopened the door, two very senior (06-07 level) Navy visitors walked in. I could not have\nasked for a more visceral example of that leadership lesson. Years later, he was still\ntelling that story and the impact that it had on him. Sometimes the little things do matter,\nand it is an important skill for leaders at all levels to discern when they do, and to act on\nthem.\nHere are five questions developing leaders and mentors should consider to grow their\nMentor Intelligence™ and enhance their own leadership skills:\n1. What are the “paper towel” issues in your own personal leadership journey, the small\nthings you (and others) walk away from that may have larger significance than you give\nthem?\n2. Have you ever ignored a problem or situation because you did not create it, because\nyou thought it is someone else’s job, or simply because no one else was watching you?\nWhat would you tell your mentees to do in these situations?\n3. What inconsistencies exist between your leadership “talk” and your leadership “walk”\nand what will you do about them?\n4. What is the most powerful personal example you can give of a seemingly small thing\nthat blew up beyond all proportion? What did you learn?\n5. If you are a mentor, how will you share this story with your mentees? How will you\nmake it “real” to them?\nNote: If you enjoyed this post I encourage you to check out my two\nbooks\n. These posts are part of a series of thoughts, observations and tools related to my original work,\n“Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – A Field Guide To Mentoring,\n” and the sequel,\n“Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – Companion Workbook.”\nHappy Mentoring!!!","attrs_markdown":"[![Growing Mentor Intelligence](http:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/GMILOGOFINAL.png)](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/)\n\nA proven, purpose-driven mentorship method that gives companies an edge in growing their most important investment...their people\\!\n\n[Pages Navigation Menu](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter\/)\n\n- [Home](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/)\n- [About the Author](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/about-the-author\/)\n- [Workshops](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/be-mentored\/)\n- [Speaking Engagements](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/speaking-engagements\/)\n- [Author’s Blog](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/authors-blog\/)\n- [Contact](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/contact\/)\n\n# Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter\n- 19\n- Dec\n\n- Posted by [admin](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/author\/admin\/ \"Posts by admin\")\n- [GMI Series](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/category\/gmi-series\/)\n- Comments Off on Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter\n\n[![daddylittleb](http:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/daddylittleb-300x200.jpg)](http:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/daddylittleb.jpg)We’ve all heard the common expression “Don’t sweat the small stuff!” usually meaning\n\nthat we should limit our personal energy to the things in life that truly matter. For those\n\neasily excitable, that is both sound advice and essential to sanity! This post is about\n\ndiscernment – the ability to identify the “small stuff” that carries far more significance\n\nthan it might appear at face value, significance that deserves our personal attention and\n\naction. This is a post about leadership, and about the little things that do matter. It is\n\nbased on a true story, an event that happened in the workplace a number of years ago that\n\nstill resonates with me and with the teams and people that I mentor and support.\n\nI was the leader of a small team working for a large defense contractor. Our primary\n\ncustomers were the men and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Our\n\njob plain and simple was to give them unprecedented overmatch against any adversary, to\n\ngive them a fighting chance to come back to their loved ones. Getting it right is about\n\nhaving, and enforcing, the highest standards in everything we do. It represents the shared\n\nsense of duty and service that ties our Service men and women to their civilian\n\ncounterparts, it is a team, and it is an almost sacred bond that unites our work.\n\nAs a part of my team’s responsibilities, we built and maintained a strategic planning\n\ncenter we called the War Room. We used the War Room to display our strategy,\n\ninvestments and program status. Customer visits to our factory were a daily occurrence\n\nand they often included a stop at the War Room. The room was located in the back\n\nsection of our main building, so after the routine office calls with senior leaders, it was a\n\nsimple walk down the main hallway to get to the planning center. The War Room was\n\nalso conveniently located just a few feet from the restroom. Since I spent a considerable\n\namount of time in the War Room, I was a frequent visitor to the facilities, and almost\n\nevery time I entered that rest room (or frankly any other rest room in ANY other location)\n\nI was disappointed to see used paper towels crumpled up and thrown on the floor. It\n\nbecame my routine practice to stop on the way out of the facilities, pick up the paper and\n\nput them in the trash where they belonged.\n\nOne day, I was sharing this story with one of my young, talented team mates, and I used\n\nit as an opportunity to mentor him about how leadership opportunities present themselves\n\nevery day for us to demonstrate what we believe by what we do, not by what we say.\n\nLeadership talk is cheap, and frankly, it means nothing unless it is backed by action. We\n\ntalked about how even in seemingly insignificant things like paper towels on the floor,\n\nwe define our character and our standards by what we do. That is especially true when\n\nwe think no one is watching. Even though I did not create the situation, I saw it and had\n\nto do something about it. Had I simply walked away as so many others had already done,\n\nthen the problem, in effect, became mine. I wondered how many times others saw what I\n\nsaw, and excused themselves because they did not create the problem, or because they\n\nbelieved that it was the janitorial staff’s job to clean up after us. Leadership does not\n\nallow either of those excuses. Walking the talk means that anytime we are confronted\n\nwith a leadership opportunity, we act on it because we must.\n\nBesides the personal motivation to do the right thing, I also explained that our customers\n\nform their opinion of our company and our standards by what they see during those visits,\n\nand that everything matters including how well we maintain our facilities. As a former\n\ncustomer myself, I reflected on how military leaders are trained to observe things, both\n\nlarge and small, and to draw broader conclusions based on those observations. Show me\n\na dirty motor pool and I can guarantee you that the unit that it belongs to has leadership\n\nproblems. The higher rank a person attains in the military, the more honed those\n\ndiscernment skills are. Hence, any senior visitor to our company who used that restroom\n\nand saw paper towels on the floor would likely draw an unfavorable opinion about our\n\nstandards, and might even extend that concern to the work we do on the programs we\n\nsupport. It represented a preventable and unnecessary risk to that special relationship I\n\ndescribed above. It is a small thing with potentially larger consequence, and so it was\n\nworth my time as a mentor to talk about it.\n\nAt the time, I was pretty sure that my colleague thought I was taking this leadership thing\n\na little too seriously, but he humored me. The very next day, he visited that rest room\n\nand just as I described, there were paper towels on the floor. He started to walk away,\n\nbut then thought better about it so he picked up the trash and threw it away. Just as he\n\nopened the door, two very senior (06-07 level) Navy visitors walked in. I could not have\n\nasked for a more visceral example of that leadership lesson. Years later, he was still\n\ntelling that story and the impact that it had on him. Sometimes the little things do matter,\n\nand it is an important skill for leaders at all levels to discern when they do, and to act on\n\nthem.\n\nHere are five questions developing leaders and mentors should consider to grow their\n\nMentor Intelligence™ and enhance their own leadership skills:\n\n1\\. What are the “paper towel” issues in your own personal leadership journey, the small\n\nthings you (and others) walk away from that may have larger significance than you give\n\nthem?\n\n2\\. Have you ever ignored a problem or situation because you did not create it, because\n\nyou thought it is someone else’s job, or simply because no one else was watching you?\n\nWhat would you tell your mentees to do in these situations?\n\n3\\. What inconsistencies exist between your leadership “talk” and your leadership “walk”\n\nand what will you do about them?\n\n4\\. What is the most powerful personal example you can give of a seemingly small thing\n\nthat blew up beyond all proportion? What did you learn?\n\n5\\. If you are a mentor, how will you share this story with your mentees? How will you\n\nmake it “real” to them?\n\n*Note: If you enjoyed this post I encourage you to check out my two [books](http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Growing-Mentor-Intelligence-Field-Mentoring\/dp\/0991161211\/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KW6P8M6Y2HJ5WTNRGYB). These posts are part of a series of thoughts, observations and tools related to my original work, [“Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – A Field Guide To Mentoring,](http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Growing-Mentor-Intelligence-Field-Mentoring\/dp\/0991161211\/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KW6P8M6Y2HJ5WTNRGYB)” and the sequel, [“Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – Companion Workbook.”](http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Growing-Mentor-Intelligence-Mentoring-Companion\/dp\/099116122X\/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=145AFPQS5T342R5FV68D) Happy Mentoring!!\\!*\n\n[← Previous Post](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/thoughts-on-being-authentic\/)    [Next Post →](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/creating-a-personal-leadership-ecosystem\/)\n\nComments are closed.\n\n#### Inquiries\nYour message was successfully sent.   \n**Thank You\\!**\n\n#### Buy the books\\!\n\n#### Recent Posts\n- [The Lost Art of Civil Discourse](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/the-lost-art-of-civil-discourse\/)\n- [Creating A Personal Leadership Ecosystem](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/creating-a-personal-leadership-ecosystem\/)\n- [Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter\/)\n\n#### Site Map\n- [Home](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/)\n- [About the Author](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/about-the-author\/)\n- [Author’s Blog](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/authors-blog\/)\n- [Contact](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/contact\/)\n- [Speaking Engagements](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/speaking-engagements\/)\n- [Workshops](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/be-mentored\/)\n\n[Growing Mentor Intelligence - A Field Guide to Mentoring](https:\/\/mentorintelligence.com\/)\n\nSite By: [Bleu Kinney DM](http:\/\/www.bleukinney.com\/)","attrs_readable_markdown":null,"meta_canonical":null}

3. Robots.txt Check

Query:

Response:

4. Spam/Ban Check

Query:

Response:

5. Seen Status Check

ℹ️ Skipped - page is already crawled

📄

INDEXABLE

✅

CRAWLED

2 months ago

🚫

ROBOTS BLOCKED

Page Info Filters

Filter	Status	Condition	Details
HTTP status	PASS	`download_http_code = 200`	HTTP 200
Age cutoff	PASS	`download_stamp > now() - 6 MONTH`	2.5 months ago
History drop	PASS	`isNull(history_drop_reason)`	No drop reason
Spam/ban	PASS	`fh_dont_index != 1 AND ml_spam_score = 0`	ml_spam_score=0
Canonical	PASS	`meta_canonical IS NULL OR = '' OR = src_unparsed`	Not set

Page Details

Property	Value
URL	https://mentorintelligence.com/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter/
Last Crawled	2026-01-26 17:10:40 (2 months ago)
First Indexed	2020-05-20 16:22:55 (5 years ago)
HTTP Status Code	200
Meta Title	Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter \| Growing Mentor Intelligence
Meta Description	null
Meta Canonical	null
Boilerpipe Text	We’ve all heard the common expression “Don’t sweat the small stuff!” usually meaning that we should limit our personal energy to the things in life that truly matter. For those easily excitable, that is both sound advice and essential to sanity! This post is about discernment – the ability to identify the “small stuff” that carries far more significance than it might appear at face value, significance that deserves our personal attention and action. This is a post about leadership, and about the little things that do matter. It is based on a true story, an event that happened in the workplace a number of years ago that still resonates with me and with the teams and people that I mentor and support. I was the leader of a small team working for a large defense contractor. Our primary customers were the men and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Our job plain and simple was to give them unprecedented overmatch against any adversary, to give them a fighting chance to come back to their loved ones. Getting it right is about having, and enforcing, the highest standards in everything we do. It represents the shared sense of duty and service that ties our Service men and women to their civilian counterparts, it is a team, and it is an almost sacred bond that unites our work. As a part of my team’s responsibilities, we built and maintained a strategic planning center we called the War Room. We used the War Room to display our strategy, investments and program status. Customer visits to our factory were a daily occurrence and they often included a stop at the War Room. The room was located in the back section of our main building, so after the routine office calls with senior leaders, it was a simple walk down the main hallway to get to the planning center. The War Room was also conveniently located just a few feet from the restroom. Since I spent a considerable amount of time in the War Room, I was a frequent visitor to the facilities, and almost every time I entered that rest room (or frankly any other rest room in ANY other location) I was disappointed to see used paper towels crumpled up and thrown on the floor. It became my routine practice to stop on the way out of the facilities, pick up the paper and put them in the trash where they belonged. One day, I was sharing this story with one of my young, talented team mates, and I used it as an opportunity to mentor him about how leadership opportunities present themselves every day for us to demonstrate what we believe by what we do, not by what we say. Leadership talk is cheap, and frankly, it means nothing unless it is backed by action. We talked about how even in seemingly insignificant things like paper towels on the floor, we define our character and our standards by what we do. That is especially true when we think no one is watching. Even though I did not create the situation, I saw it and had to do something about it. Had I simply walked away as so many others had already done, then the problem, in effect, became mine. I wondered how many times others saw what I saw, and excused themselves because they did not create the problem, or because they believed that it was the janitorial staff’s job to clean up after us. Leadership does not allow either of those excuses. Walking the talk means that anytime we are confronted with a leadership opportunity, we act on it because we must. Besides the personal motivation to do the right thing, I also explained that our customers form their opinion of our company and our standards by what they see during those visits, and that everything matters including how well we maintain our facilities. As a former customer myself, I reflected on how military leaders are trained to observe things, both large and small, and to draw broader conclusions based on those observations. Show me a dirty motor pool and I can guarantee you that the unit that it belongs to has leadership problems. The higher rank a person attains in the military, the more honed those discernment skills are. Hence, any senior visitor to our company who used that restroom and saw paper towels on the floor would likely draw an unfavorable opinion about our standards, and might even extend that concern to the work we do on the programs we support. It represented a preventable and unnecessary risk to that special relationship I described above. It is a small thing with potentially larger consequence, and so it was worth my time as a mentor to talk about it. At the time, I was pretty sure that my colleague thought I was taking this leadership thing a little too seriously, but he humored me. The very next day, he visited that rest room and just as I described, there were paper towels on the floor. He started to walk away, but then thought better about it so he picked up the trash and threw it away. Just as he opened the door, two very senior (06-07 level) Navy visitors walked in. I could not have asked for a more visceral example of that leadership lesson. Years later, he was still telling that story and the impact that it had on him. Sometimes the little things do matter, and it is an important skill for leaders at all levels to discern when they do, and to act on them. Here are five questions developing leaders and mentors should consider to grow their Mentor Intelligence™ and enhance their own leadership skills: 1. What are the “paper towel” issues in your own personal leadership journey, the small things you (and others) walk away from that may have larger significance than you give them? 2. Have you ever ignored a problem or situation because you did not create it, because you thought it is someone else’s job, or simply because no one else was watching you? What would you tell your mentees to do in these situations? 3. What inconsistencies exist between your leadership “talk” and your leadership “walk” and what will you do about them? 4. What is the most powerful personal example you can give of a seemingly small thing that blew up beyond all proportion? What did you learn? 5. If you are a mentor, how will you share this story with your mentees? How will you make it “real” to them? Note: If you enjoyed this post I encourage you to check out my two books . These posts are part of a series of thoughts, observations and tools related to my original work, “Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – A Field Guide To Mentoring, ” and the sequel, “Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – Companion Workbook.” Happy Mentoring!!!
Markdown	[![Growing Mentor Intelligence](http://mentorintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/GMILOGOFINAL.png)](https://mentorintelligence.com/) A proven, purpose-driven mentorship method that gives companies an edge in growing their most important investment...their people\! [Pages Navigation Menu](https://mentorintelligence.com/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter/) - [Home](https://mentorintelligence.com/) - [About the Author](https://mentorintelligence.com/about-the-author/) - [Workshops](https://mentorintelligence.com/be-mentored/) - [Speaking Engagements](https://mentorintelligence.com/speaking-engagements/) - [Author’s Blog](https://mentorintelligence.com/authors-blog/) - [Contact](https://mentorintelligence.com/contact/) # Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter - 19 - Dec - Posted by [admin](https://mentorintelligence.com/author/admin/ "Posts by admin") - [GMI Series](https://mentorintelligence.com/category/gmi-series/) - Comments Off on Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter [![daddylittleb](http://mentorintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/daddylittleb-300x200.jpg)](http://mentorintelligence.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/daddylittleb.jpg)We’ve all heard the common expression “Don’t sweat the small stuff!” usually meaning that we should limit our personal energy to the things in life that truly matter. For those easily excitable, that is both sound advice and essential to sanity! This post is about discernment – the ability to identify the “small stuff” that carries far more significance than it might appear at face value, significance that deserves our personal attention and action. This is a post about leadership, and about the little things that do matter. It is based on a true story, an event that happened in the workplace a number of years ago that still resonates with me and with the teams and people that I mentor and support. I was the leader of a small team working for a large defense contractor. Our primary customers were the men and women of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Our job plain and simple was to give them unprecedented overmatch against any adversary, to give them a fighting chance to come back to their loved ones. Getting it right is about having, and enforcing, the highest standards in everything we do. It represents the shared sense of duty and service that ties our Service men and women to their civilian counterparts, it is a team, and it is an almost sacred bond that unites our work. As a part of my team’s responsibilities, we built and maintained a strategic planning center we called the War Room. We used the War Room to display our strategy, investments and program status. Customer visits to our factory were a daily occurrence and they often included a stop at the War Room. The room was located in the back section of our main building, so after the routine office calls with senior leaders, it was a simple walk down the main hallway to get to the planning center. The War Room was also conveniently located just a few feet from the restroom. Since I spent a considerable amount of time in the War Room, I was a frequent visitor to the facilities, and almost every time I entered that rest room (or frankly any other rest room in ANY other location) I was disappointed to see used paper towels crumpled up and thrown on the floor. It became my routine practice to stop on the way out of the facilities, pick up the paper and put them in the trash where they belonged. One day, I was sharing this story with one of my young, talented team mates, and I used it as an opportunity to mentor him about how leadership opportunities present themselves every day for us to demonstrate what we believe by what we do, not by what we say. Leadership talk is cheap, and frankly, it means nothing unless it is backed by action. We talked about how even in seemingly insignificant things like paper towels on the floor, we define our character and our standards by what we do. That is especially true when we think no one is watching. Even though I did not create the situation, I saw it and had to do something about it. Had I simply walked away as so many others had already done, then the problem, in effect, became mine. I wondered how many times others saw what I saw, and excused themselves because they did not create the problem, or because they believed that it was the janitorial staff’s job to clean up after us. Leadership does not allow either of those excuses. Walking the talk means that anytime we are confronted with a leadership opportunity, we act on it because we must. Besides the personal motivation to do the right thing, I also explained that our customers form their opinion of our company and our standards by what they see during those visits, and that everything matters including how well we maintain our facilities. As a former customer myself, I reflected on how military leaders are trained to observe things, both large and small, and to draw broader conclusions based on those observations. Show me a dirty motor pool and I can guarantee you that the unit that it belongs to has leadership problems. The higher rank a person attains in the military, the more honed those discernment skills are. Hence, any senior visitor to our company who used that restroom and saw paper towels on the floor would likely draw an unfavorable opinion about our standards, and might even extend that concern to the work we do on the programs we support. It represented a preventable and unnecessary risk to that special relationship I described above. It is a small thing with potentially larger consequence, and so it was worth my time as a mentor to talk about it. At the time, I was pretty sure that my colleague thought I was taking this leadership thing a little too seriously, but he humored me. The very next day, he visited that rest room and just as I described, there were paper towels on the floor. He started to walk away, but then thought better about it so he picked up the trash and threw it away. Just as he opened the door, two very senior (06-07 level) Navy visitors walked in. I could not have asked for a more visceral example of that leadership lesson. Years later, he was still telling that story and the impact that it had on him. Sometimes the little things do matter, and it is an important skill for leaders at all levels to discern when they do, and to act on them. Here are five questions developing leaders and mentors should consider to grow their Mentor Intelligence™ and enhance their own leadership skills: 1\. What are the “paper towel” issues in your own personal leadership journey, the small things you (and others) walk away from that may have larger significance than you give them? 2\. Have you ever ignored a problem or situation because you did not create it, because you thought it is someone else’s job, or simply because no one else was watching you? What would you tell your mentees to do in these situations? 3\. What inconsistencies exist between your leadership “talk” and your leadership “walk” and what will you do about them? 4\. What is the most powerful personal example you can give of a seemingly small thing that blew up beyond all proportion? What did you learn? 5\. If you are a mentor, how will you share this story with your mentees? How will you make it “real” to them? Note: If you enjoyed this post I encourage you to check out my two [books](http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Mentor-Intelligence-Field-Mentoring/dp/0991161211/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KW6P8M6Y2HJ5WTNRGYB). These posts are part of a series of thoughts, observations and tools related to my original work, [“Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – A Field Guide To Mentoring,](http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Mentor-Intelligence-Field-Mentoring/dp/0991161211/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1KW6P8M6Y2HJ5WTNRGYB)” and the sequel, [“Growing Mentor Intelligence™ – Companion Workbook.”](http://www.amazon.com/Growing-Mentor-Intelligence-Mentoring-Companion/dp/099116122X/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=145AFPQS5T342R5FV68D) Happy Mentoring!!\! [← Previous Post](https://mentorintelligence.com/thoughts-on-being-authentic/) [Next Post →](https://mentorintelligence.com/creating-a-personal-leadership-ecosystem/) Comments are closed. #### Inquiries Your message was successfully sent. Thank You\! #### Buy the books\! #### Recent Posts - [The Lost Art of Civil Discourse](https://mentorintelligence.com/the-lost-art-of-civil-discourse/) - [Creating A Personal Leadership Ecosystem](https://mentorintelligence.com/creating-a-personal-leadership-ecosystem/) - [Sometimes The Little Things Do Matter](https://mentorintelligence.com/sometimes-the-little-things-do-matter/) #### Site Map - [Home](https://mentorintelligence.com/) - [About the Author](https://mentorintelligence.com/about-the-author/) - [Author’s Blog](https://mentorintelligence.com/authors-blog/) - [Contact](https://mentorintelligence.com/contact/) - [Speaking Engagements](https://mentorintelligence.com/speaking-engagements/) - [Workshops](https://mentorintelligence.com/be-mentored/) [Growing Mentor Intelligence - A Field Guide to Mentoring](https://mentorintelligence.com/) Site By: [Bleu Kinney DM](http://www.bleukinney.com/)
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