A Respectful Distance . . .

One of the perils of my job is that I could be accused of being a bit of a dork. For instance, one part of my job is to understand and explain how and why people communicate in the ways that they do. One of the ways that people communicate is through their use of space and I'll admit that how people use space is a source of constant fascination to me.

For instance, take the other day when I saw a Dallas police officer who was having a chat with a (rather portly) panhandler in a very busy intersection in Dallas. The officer had pulled his car along the sidewalk and was talking to the panhandler through his passenger window. The panhandler was standing on the far side of the sidewalk (as far away from the police car as possible without leaving the sidewalk) and had positioned himself so that he was almost even with the front tire of the police car. The officer had to lean all the way into the passenger seat and all the way forward just to talk to the guy.

As I sat at the red light watching this interchange, it struck me that the panhandler was using space to lessen the police officer's control of the situation. He was making life just a little bit hard for the cop without being overtly disrespectful.

While I sat there (it was a really long light), the panhandler shuffled up the sidewalk just a bit so that he was pretty much even with the front bumper of the car. At this point, he actually took control of the situation because the cop could not continue the conversation without either leaning completely across the car and out the passenger window or pulling forward. He chose to pull forward and thus surrendered a little bit more of his power to the panhandler.

Clearly, the police officer was still in a one-up position in terms of the power dynamics of the interchange, but the panhandler significantly diminished the officer's power status through nothing more than a shuffle of the feet.

Want the job?

So I am sitting at Starbucks, again. It really is amazing what we see and hear at this coffee meeting spot. Over the years I have witnessed a number of job interviews take place over a cup of coffee and my little rabbit ears always try and well, eavesdrop on the conversation. Am I nosy? Yes. But that really isn't the reason I pay so much attention to the conversation. I pay attention because I teach this "stuff" and I am always intrigued to listen in on real life interviews. Right now, just to my right, there is an interview happening between two women. I wish I could whisper a few things to the interviewee. One--don't talk so darn much. Yes--you wold think that in an interview you should just talk talk talk talk and then talk some more. You are trying to sell yourself right? But the truth is you need to balance how much talking you do with how much you are listening. You can provide yourself with some listening time with a few well planned questions. Well planned questions do a couple of things. One--it indicates you have done your homework. Two--it allows the other person "shine" a little by telling you what they know.

Now if I could just run her across to the mall and help her put together a knock em' dead interview outfit......

Nose Hair is no small detail

For those of you that know me personally or professionally you know that I work at Starbucks a lot. Standing in line this morning to order my tall iced coffee with two pumps of vanilla I was confronted by grossness. What kind you ask? The kind involving the nose. And Hair. Nose Hair to be exact. This man, who I am sure is highly adequate in his job, was suffering from an overgrowth of nose hair. Now I try to not judge a book by it's cover but well....I tend to judge a book by it's cover. It's true. If this was not the case, actual book covers themselves would not be so important in determining whether or not the book gets read or not.
According to www.bookmarket.com, the quality of the book cover does indeed make a difference in whether or not we pick up the book and more importantly, buy it. Now let's extend the metaphor shall we? The same can be said for picking a contractor, consultant, doctor, attorney, accountant--well anyone. And our "book cover " if you will is HOW WE LOOK. Personal grooming is a big part of that package. Men--overgrown nose hair is a no no. Giant Cattepillar Eyebrows (a la Bobby Knight) is again, a no no. Don't get me started on ear hair.

Now, if I can find a way to let Mr. Hair Nose know this.....

It's Not Rocket Surgery . . .

I was driving (really fast, cause that's how I roll) on my way to meet Libby this morning (to work really hard, cause that's . . . well, you know) and I zoomed past a pickup with a logo on it that actually provoked thought! I kid you not! I slowed down and let the pickup catch up with me so I could take a second look.

It wasn't actually the logo that caught my eye, it was the tagline, "Hey, it's not rocket surgery." The company is Logix Communications (a Houston-based firm) that is pretty nondescript as far as I can tell from their website, but their tagline indicates a sense of humor and personality that is just the kind of thing I look for in companies that I patronize. It made such an impression on me that as soon as I got to my office (Starbucks), I opened up my computer and looked them up.

The sad part? I can't find their tagline anywhere on the website. It seems that their marketing/branding strategy is not terribly well integrated. Still, their approach to branding was enough to get them written up in the Bravo blog and, let's be honest, that's a pretty high honor.

-- Millie Shaw