God is in the details
“God is in the details,” my mother would say when she was planning a dinner party or a reception for the people who attended my father’s church.
She was quoting Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, though it’s almost certain that the saying wasn’t original with him. It’s also attributed to Gustave Flaubert, the art historian Aby Warburg, and others.
There’s also a popular variant: “The devil is in the details.” If you’re searching for work in this tight-fisted economy, you’d better memorize both forms. Details matter. Even when it’s not fair.
I started thinking about that when I read a great post by Alison Green, writing at US News and World Report. The title was “Why the Little Things Matter in Your Job Search.” Here’s a key quote.
“So, why do such little things matter? Well, when you’re screening applicants, you only have a small pool of information about each person. You know you’re only seeing a sliver of who that person is, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still all you have to base your decision on. When someone makes a mistake–arrives late, say, or gives a horrible answer to an interview question–instead of constituting less than 0.1 percent of the information you have about someone (as with a friend or coworker), it looms much larger in the whole.”
Little things matter because they’re a big percentage of the available impressions. They also matter because they bring the other person up short.
In my post here on “Business Etiquette and You” I mentioned a COO candidate who blew his nose on his napkin in the middle of lunch. I still remember it and it still jolts me emotionally.
There’s a fine post at The Effective CIO, titled “Effective Dining,” where Chuck Musciano talks about the importance of rudimentary table manners. It’s all part of the details.
If my mother were here, she would advise you that the best manners are invisible. They don’t call attention to themselves, but they show care and concern for others and an awareness of what behavior is accepted.
When Tom Beebe was Chairman of Delta Airlines, in their glory years, he urged cabin crew and cleaning staff to pay attention to the details. He put it this way: “Coffee stains on the flip down tray may make a passenger wonder if we pay attention to engine maintenance.”
Learn the basics. Pay attention to the details. If you make a mistake, admit it and apologize. God, and perhaps your future employment, are in the details.