Compound Interest (And Not the Financial Kind)



I watched a movie on video yesterday called “Hello, My Name Is Doris” with Sally Field.  I would describe this movie as a dramedy where instead of boy meets girl and boy falls in love with girl, the movie turns things around where girl (Sally Field) meets boy (Max Greenfield) and girl falls in love with boy.  I liked this movie!  You can read a movie review from Variety here.  

One of the elements in the movie was Facebook where girl attempts to connect with boy on a personal level by going on Facebook and finding out about his interests.  The girl finds out that one of his interests is a particular electronica band.  By happenstance, the band would be playing at a local club, and she goes to the club in hopes of meeting the boy.  This reminds me about networking.  During face-to-face networking we try to find common ground.  We ask questions to find out what a person does, where they work or went to school.   We show interest in the other person by asking questions.  Maybe we work in the same field, work at the same company or went to the same school, thereby establishing common ground in which to start a relationship with.  It’s not enough to just establish a relationship.  We can further a relationship by asking about someone’s interests and what their passions are.  (To repeat, in the movie, the girl discovers that one of the boy’s passions is a particular band, and this served to establish and strengthen a relationship.) 

On LinkedIn I find out what type of article my connection is interested in reading, so that when I see such an article, I will pass it along to my connection.  I do this to show an interest in my connection.   

On LinkedIn we’re given an opportunity to indicate our interests on our profile.  You might want to fill this in if you want people to get to know you.  This can be important as a way to further a conversation and to strengthen a relationship.

I used to think that some things posted on LinkedIn might be more “appropriate” for Facebook, but when you think about it, in order to start a conversation and strengthen a relationship, it’s helpful to know what our connection’s interests are.  If they are posting something meaningful or personal to them, this is something that we want to know about!

I have an interest in dispute resolution.  You learn that to resolve a dispute you need to talk to each other and discover each other’s underlying interests.   For example, there is an orange on the table.  Both you and I want the orange.  You might think this is a zero sum game where one person gets the orange (winner) and the other person doesn’t get the orange (loser).  But maybe both of us can be a winner?  By talking to each other about our interests, I discover that you want the orange because you want the orange peel for baking, and I want the orange so that I can eat the fleshy part.  So what do we do?  I peel the orange and give you the orange peel and I keep the fleshy part.  Win-win situation.

Going back to “Hello, My Name is Doris”, Doris goes with her friends to hear a motivational speaker at a lecture.  The motivational speaker talks about the word “impossible.”  He suggests that instead of hearing the word “impossible” that we re-frame and think of “I’m Possible.”

I think this is a nifty idea.

We can open up the possibilities for ourselves when we stop thinking it’s “impossible” and instead think “I’m Possible”!   


Originally Published on LinkedIn:  June 18, 2016
Image Credit:  Pixabay

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comfort Zone

Image
Yesterday I did something that was out of the ordinary for me.   I signed up for an 8 week improv class with the  Bad Dog Theatre Company . The idea for attending such a class was suggested to me when I attended  DisruptHRToronto  (a networking event) where I heard a speaker named Lori Pearlstein on December 1, 2016. Ms. Pearlstein owns a company called  Playworks .  Ms. Pearlstein’s company provides improv classes to corporate clients and helps people to improve their public speaking, team building and brainstorming skills. I thought to myself that improv is something that I would like to try. As is usual with me, I filed the suggestion away in my head perhaps to re-visit in the future. I was talking to a friend of mine and we were talking about food preferences. He noted that I could be more adventurous when it came to food. Point well-taken.    I wrote a LinkedIn post called “ Ham .” In this post I talk about my early foray in the world of musical
Read more

Human Nature

Image
Yesterday (June 19th) was very hot and humid in Toronto, and Environment Canada issued a heat alert. Today promises to be another hot and humid day with the humidex expected to rise to 40 degrees Celsius. When it’s hot in Toronto, we wish for winter and cooler weather; and when it’s winter, we wish for summer and warmer weather.  I suppose this wishful thinking of thinking the grass is always greener somewhere else is a part of human nature. When we’re working, we think wouldn’t it be nice if we had more leisure time, and when you’re in transition (like me), you think wouldn’t it be nice if we were working? When I was working at Combined Insurance, that’s all I thought about was work.  Never thought about stopping and reflecting on things.  In transition I’ve seen the other side (the leisure side), and I know that when I find a job, that I’d want more of a balance between working hard and pursuing leisure activities (maybe going to see a Toronto Blue Jays game o
Read more

Positivity...Let me count the ways

Image
In a previous post “ Always On My Mind ” I mentioned to job seekers to “stay hopeful and positive.” I would like to expand on how exactly job seekers (or anyone else for that matter) can “stay positive.” First I’m reminded of a  FISH! Philosophy  tenet of “Choose Your Attitude.” We can choose to have a positive attitude in a number of ways. Be nice to yourself   We can’t always feel positive (or up or cheery) all of the time. Sometimes we feel down.  I suggest that we accept that we feel down at this moment and that this feeling won’t last forever. We can think to ourselves that things will feel brighter tomorrow. Give yourself permission to feel down at this moment and take comfort that tomorrow is another day.  We can do some basic things to take care of ourselves: get enough rest, drink lots of water, eat healthy, get some exercise, etc. Other than these things, we can participate in activities that make us happy. For me, it’s spending time with family
Read more