The Gift of Being Noticed

In this week's episode of the StarTalk podcast, one of Neil deGrasse Tyson's guests is Sir Martin Rees, a long time legend in the field of astrophysics. Neil tells the story of a time they had met before that contains powerful leadership lesson.Neil was attending a society conference as a graduate student, too young in his career to be given a speaking opportunity. Instead, he and others stand next to their scientific papers, published on poster board and hope a conference attendee will stop to read their work.Neil says "You came up to my paper! And you looked at it and you asked me questions about it. And you didn't have to do that. I felt that my future as a participating scientist was blessed, if you, will by your presence. So I just want to thank you. I don't know how often you do that, but I just want to thank you because what may have been little for you was big for me at the time."Neil reminds leaders so eloquently that although the gift of your notice or thanks may seem small to you, it could mean something much greater to the person you gift it to.This wonderful story is from 3:35 to 4:50 on the episode link above.