Ever worry about being boring?
I’ve been paying attention to what makes people pick up the phone, schedule coffee, post comments, friend you on Facebook and follow you on Twitter. And I must say, it’s NOT when you’re being “oh so professional”. People make comments on the personal posts, not so much the professional. They’re interested when you let your personality show through. They want to hire you, date you and hang out when you’ve got a life and you’re not afraid to show it.
Want to know how to beat being boring? Lean on in and I’ll share a few of my best-kept secrets:
- Sprinkle provocative words in your conversations and writing like “secrets, sins or sexy”
- Make a self-deprecating comment or two (“I hate when I trip and fall in front of my kids friends!”)
- Banish ambiguous high-dollar words from your vocabulary like, “organizational development” or “solutions consultant”
- Be a real person on your LinkedIn profile or Facebook page: mother of 5 under 5, avid collector of baseball caps, etc.
- Post that picture in your cubicle of the fingerling you caught on your last fishing trip
- Stop repeating the Starfish Story or saying, “You know what they say about the definition of insanity…”
- Read something other than business books
- Have your teenager load a few new songs of their choice on your ipod (Live a little!)
- Take your 70-something parents to a clothing optional hot springs, by mistake (a story for another day!)
- Profile behaviors and practices of people in your industry and do something different
- If everyone is wearing black, wear something yellow
- Put humorous bumper stickers on your car rather than socially assertive, angry ones
- Serve cookies to your employees, cook them a steak or take them all out to a 3-D movie (much more fun than teambuilding!)
- Let your grandkids paint the bathtub walls with chocolate pudding – or better yet, your spouse!
- Meet for coffee somewhere other than Starbucks for goodness sakes (how about a museum, visitors center, community garden?)
- Put a picture on your business card, website, brochure so people know who they’re dealing with
- Most of us have pets; tell us about yours!
Sometimes standing out draws people in. They’re bored by the “same old”, frustrated with politics and fearful of failing. Offer something fun, something interesting, something different. But most of all – offer something sincere!
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