Knowing Something about Someone

When someone unexpectedly knows something about someone, it is, to that someone, an inspiring surprise indeed. Some of the best leaders I've worked with had less command of the business and more command of people behind the business: their names (first and foremost), families, recent events, motivators, etc. This is why technocrats can hardly complete against politicians, as evidenced by Theodore Roosevelt, when he said "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care". Of course, no one likes a smart ass who simply recites facts that they gleaned from an online profile, so this is more about deep and unexpected knowledge than surface facts, and the only way to glean that kind of information is to really care about knowing something about someone.