I met Bob Burg for the first time this month at the Endless Referrals event in Columbus. I have read his books and followed him on Twitter and was a fan of his teachings, but I didn’t really know him as a person yet.

But I learned about the graciousness of Bob Burg at the event. Let me explain.

I had the honor of introducing Teresa Cleveland of Empowered Awareness, the host of the event. I was the first to use the microphone, but we had microphone issues. In fact, we had major microphone issues. First we couldn’t find the lanyard, and then it didn’t work, and then we had to start 10 minutes late because of the issues and we still didn’t have it figured out yet.

As Bob talked, we had crackling. The mike went in and out. We had a change of microphone. Then the lost lanyard was found. Then we had more crackling. It was a hot mess.

Knowing her as I do, while Theresa handled the situation with grace, I know she must have been silently fuming inside. If you’ve ever run an event like this, you know what I’m talking about. You do so much work to get the event up and running and then it seemingly falls apart, or so you think, with a crackling and/or absent microphone. And this was Bob Burg, international business guru, speaker, author for crying out loud!

Not surprisingly, Bob and Teresa sailed through it like the pros that they are. In fact, as the mike crackled and hissed, and Teresa worked with the technician to fix the issue, Bob decided to just go without a mike and make do. At one point, he even had us clap for the technician who was working on it for him saying, (and I’m paraphrasing) “This isn’t his fault. In fact, he’s the one who just happened to be here to help us get this fixed. Let’s give him a round of applause.”

Bob handled the situation with care and ease and grace. He handled it without being demeaning to the facility or people running the show from behind the scenes. He put everyone at the event at ease and turned our attention from that situation right back to what we came for – Bob’s message and insights.

Graciousness personified.

Now not only am I a fan of his work, I am a fan of Bob, the person. While I learned some key phrasing for getting Endless Referrals, I think what I experienced in Bob’s gracious demeanor was an even greater lesson.