Smiling
At Strangers
Our premium content subscribers
get a weekly email from me. Short and sweet, one idea at a time, plain
text. Actionable stuff, but maybe not enough for a whole cast.
Reminders, suggestions, observations.
In one of our first such mails
(by the way, they're called Things I Think I Think), I mentioned that
one of the best career tools I know of is smiling at strangers. I'm
amazed about how often folks walk right by others, and don't even
acknowledge them. I wrote that someone had done that to me at a client
recently. They looked right at me, and then chose not to smile and look
away. They regretted it later when their boss introduced me to them as
their coach. Ouch! And he deserved it.
So, here's the story: I was
speaking to a group of undergraduates last week, for my friend Bill
White. Bill's a former CEO, and a great professor at Northwestern. He
asks me to come every year and speak to his seniors about preparing for
interviews, and professional life in general. He asks me to come during
the time of year when seniors are starting to interview. When
interviewers are coming to campus.
As I walked into the building
that morning, it was clear I was a businessman among students. Dress
slacks, dress shirt, long trench coat, briefcase. The students were in
jeans and sweats. Heads down, ipods playing. Totally self-absorbed.
You might ask, how did I know
they were totally self-absorbed? Because
after walking by between 50 and 100 students, not one of them
acknowledged me, helped me, smiled at me, spoke to me.
When I wandered back and forth in the main lobby by at least 50
students, clearly with a look of where
am I on my face, no one offered
to help me.
But what happened next was even
better. I went upstairs, to meet Bill, and I ran into only two people
in the halls. One was a construction worker, and the other was a very
well dressed professor or perhaps fellow businessman.
And
both greeted me politely.
The construction worker said "morning," and nodded his head. I said,
"hey". The suited fellow said "good morning, how are you," and I
replied in kind. That construction worker probably doesn't need to
curry favor with me, he wasn't thinking about his career - he
was just being a pleasant person.
Oh, and there's more. When I
told Bill the story, he agreed the students need more such skills, and
he made sure I was going to tell the story in class. I did, and the
students, for the most part, got it. If
I had been interviewing that day, and had recognized them from the
lobby, it would have been a tougher than normal interview (particularly
if they told me they were a people person, or friendly, or warm).
Final nail in the coffin of
those too self absorbed to be polite?
The
other polite person I ran into was the dean of the school,
whom Bill and I had lunch with after my talk. We laughed when we saw
each other, and he shook his head at the story, and asked us to come
back and repeat the message.
Be
nice. Smile. Who KNOWS who you might smile at - or not. Maybe it will
help...but it really doesn't matter. It's the right - kind - thing to
do.
Manager
Tools Germany Launches!
We're
pleased to announce the launch of Manager Tools Germany, a regular
podcast on Manager Tools topics presented in, you guessed it, German.
You
can find it here: http://www.werkzeuge-fuer-manager.de.
Our
longtime member and friend Gernot Glawe hosts the show. Gernot is an
experienced German manager who has adopted Manager Tools in his company
with exceptional results.
Gernot
will be talking about the Manager Tools principles – One on
Ones, Feedback, Coaching, Meetings, DiSC, etc. – in the
context of German companies and institutions.
We
are extremely grateful for the effort Gernot is putting into this
endeavor – we're always thrilled to find someone who shares
the same passion of excellence in leadership and management. Thanks,
Gernot!
We
hope that the German edition helps German-speaking managers everywhere
become more effective.
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