Tag: business

Common courtesy makes you uncommon

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Hello, readers. Today, let’s discuss common courtesy. It’s the little things that matter, such as listening, saying please and thank you and as we’ve said 8,352 times, essentially, just being kind. This is particularly important in business.

Yesterday, we read this blog post on Peter Shankman’s blog (he’s the social media entrepreneur/author/all around adventurous guy). The post is called, “Five things people don’t do — that you should,” and we agree 100 percent with everything on this list, not only for business, but for all areas of life.

Tips such as “pay attention,” and “know when to shut up” can go a long way and, as Shankman mentions, help you stand out from the crowd both professionally and personally, because frankly, most people don’t do either one.

If we only did those two things, imagine how much more people would want to be around us and work with us. Read the entire list, it’s good stuff.

Cheers!

M

Buttered up: Dinner roll dos and don’ts

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Whether you are dining with the in-laws, al fresco, at the tea room or the in the board room, there is one way to butter your bread.

Do:

Place a pat of butter on the side of your bread plate or dinner plate

Tear off a small bite of bread

Butter the bite with your butter knife

Take a bite and enjoy

Don’t:

Butter the entire roll or piece of bread and chow down

Keep dipping your butter knife in the community dish over and over

Sop up the butter with your bread (unless you are at home alone, we wouldn’t deny you this guilty pleasure)

Keep these tips in mind and breakfast, lunch and dinner will go down like buttah.

Cheers!

M

All shook up: the art of the handshake

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When it comes to handshaking, it’s safe to say there are as many styles as there are different types of people in the world. But, we’re going to keep this short and sweet, much like a good handshake.

If you are in the U.S. (the rules are different in other countries and we’ll explore that another time), in any social or business situation, male or female, this is how you should shake:

Firm — not too hard and definitely not too delicate

Short — one or two pumps

Eye contact — make it

That’s it. Happy handshaking!

Cheers!

M

TMI: A race for the cure

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There is a disease spreading across America. It’s a silent killer of friendships and co-worker relationships. It strikes when you least expect it: at the grocery store, in the office, on Twitter. This preventable disease is commonly known as: too much information.

If we at Re-find could be known for only one good deed, we’d pick curing TMI. A lot of people like to blame the spread of TMI on the Internet and sites such as the above mentioned Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites, but we all know that oversharing has been around for a very long time.

Unfortunately, we’ve all been within earshot of some stranger’s loud cell phone call, in which, for example, he or she is describing in detail the lancing of a boil. Similarly, we’ve been approached by a colleague who insists upon informing us of the argument he had with his wife or partner the night before or worse, about the makeup relations they had after the fight.

There are two ways to begin the process of eradicating TMI:

1) Lead by example — There is something to be said for mystery. By keeping some areas of our lives (the bathroom, the doctor’s office, the bathroom) to ourselves, not only do we allow ourselves to move through life with a bit more dignity, but we allow people to get to know us over time. Friendship is a process and if we divulge too much too soon, our relationships don’t develop organically. Also, especially in the workplace, we need to maintain a certain degree of professional distance, so that our co-workers can continue to respect us and our work and are not distracted by our latest crisis or unpleasant outpatient medical procedure.

2) Removal — When someone is oversharing  with you, there is no reason you can’t politely remove yourself from the offending conversation. Just say, “Would you please excuse me for a moment,” and go to the powder room or tend to a task. Also, you can change the subject. If that doesn’t work, shoot me an e-mail and we’ll come up with a solution specific to your problem.

Let’s do our part to cure TMI.

Cheers!

M