Just Joan

Archive for December, 2009

I gave my niece and her husband food gifts for Christmas. Being perishable, I couldn’t wrap them up and put them under the tree, so I made special things to represent the actual gifts and wrapped those. My niece asked me if the companies I purchased from had provided the things I had wrapped, and I told her, “No. I made them.”  Her response was, “You always go the extra mile.”

Then I proceeded to serve my guests purchased desserts.

That statement, and the knowledge that I don’t always go the extra mile (or I would have been Betty Crocker-ing in my kitchen to make those desserts), made me stop and wonder if it’s always appropriate and/or desirable to give 110%.  Are there times when less than your absolute best is truly good enough?

I hope some of you will tell me your thoughts on this, because I’d really like to know. In the meantime, though, I have discovered something about myself: I don’t always go the extra mile when it is too uncomfortable or inconvenient.  Some of those uncomfortable or inconvenient things include diet, exercise, networking, baking, phone calling, and ironing.

While some of those things are pretty harmless and don’t hurt anyone  – honestly, I am the only one who suffers if my ironing is less than perfect – I am troubled by the very idea that I don’t always do my best or try my hardest.  Often? Yes.  Always? No.

So that is my one phrase resolution for 2010 (a concept I stole borrowed from my friend April Dowling at PseudoHR): GO THE EXTRA MILE.  Always.  Even when it hurts or is uncomfortable.  Especially when it hurts or is uncomfortable.  It can only lead to a better 2010, my friends.  Happy New Year!

“You really ought to be on Facebook.”

My daughter, Amy Elliott, spoke those words to me in early 2009.  I don’t recall my exact response, although I am sure it was something like, “you’re nuts”, or “what for?”, or “isn’t that for kids like you?”  I probably said all three.  She knows me well, though, so I took her advice and signed up anyway.  I enjoyed it immediately, and I remember becoming SO excited when I actually had a dozen Facebook friends.

Two months later she persuaded me to sign up for Twitter.  I again did as she suggested, but like many people,  I didn’t understand Twitter at first.  Then I read an article in HR Magazine, published by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), about using Twitter.  It included some links and people I could follow.  One of those people had a Twitter instructional video, which included other links and ideas, which led me to  . . . well, you get the picture.  I was hooked.  Addicted.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was climbing  Forrester‘s The Social Technographics Ladder.

Starting out on the very bottom as an inactive non-user, I went to the top, as a blogger, in less than a year.  I may not be doing everything well yet, but I am doing it.  All it took was intellectual curiosity, patience, and the willingness to step outside of my comfort zone.

I began writing this blog with the idea that I was going to encourage everyone to start climbing their own social media ladder.  To quit lurking or listening on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and to start commenting and interacting.  But I realized that not everyone wants to climb a social media ladder.  People have different levels of contentment for different things; who am I to push my passions on someone else?

So instead of encouraging you to climb a social media ladder, I am going to encourage you to find some ladder that you are passionate about – whether it revolves around work, family, friends, hobbies, or charities – and start climbing.  Get better, or smarter, or more involved, or more interactive, but START CLIMBING.

Need an incentive?  I’ll give you one, as suggested by the songwriting team of  John Kander and Fred Ebb:  “boost me up my ladder, kid, and I’ll boost you up yours.”*

I am offering a cash prize of $100, and the book “Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon” to a lucky reader who boosts me up my (or my daughter’s) social media ladder by commenting, tweeting, adding to a blogroll, following through Networked Blogs, etc.  Details in the video below.

Don’t understand what bacon has to do with social media and HR?  Look here.

The Social Media Ladder VIDEO

*I’ll put your name in the raffle drum an extra time if you can tell me (in your comment) the name of the song and the show it is from without looking it up.  Be fair.

“You really ought to be on Facebook.”

My daughter, Amy Elliott, spoke those words to me in early 2009.  I don’t recall my exact response, although I am sure it was something like, “you’re nuts”, or “what for?”, or “isn’t that for kids like you?”  I probably said all three.  She knows me well, though, so I took her advice and signed up anyway.  I enjoyed it immediately, and I remember becoming SO excited when I actually had a dozen Facebook friends.

Two months later she persuaded me to sign up for Twitter.  I again did as she suggested, but like many people,  I didn’t understand Twitter at first.  Then I read an article in HR Magazine, published by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), about using Twitter.  It included some links and people I could follow.  One of those people had a Twitter instructional video, which included other links and ideas, which led me to  . . . well, you get the picture.  I was hooked.  Addicted.

I didn’t know it at the time, but I was climbing  Forrester‘s The Social Technographics Ladder.

Starting out on the very bottom as an inactive non-user, I went to the top, as a blogger, in less than a year.  I may not be doing everything well yet, but I am doing it.  All it took was intellectual curiosity, patience, and the willingness to step outside of my comfort zone.

I began writing this blog with the idea that I was going to encourage everyone to start climbing their own social media ladder.  To quit lurking or listening on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter and to start commenting and interacting.  But I realized that not everyone wants to climb a social media ladder.  People have different levels of contentment for different things; who am I to push my passions on someone else?

So instead of encouraging you to climb a social media ladder, I am going to encourage you to find some ladder that you are passionate about – whether it revolves around work, family, friends, hobbies, or charities – and start climbing.  Get better, or smarter, or more involved, or more interactive, but START CLIMBING.

Need an incentive?  I’ll give you one, as suggested by the songwriting team of  John Kander and Fred Ebb:  “boost me up my ladder, kid, and I’ll boost you up yours.”*

I am offering a cash prize of $100, and the book “Zingerman’s Guide to Better Bacon” to a lucky reader who boosts me up my (or my daughter’s) social media ladder by commenting, tweeting, adding to a blogroll, following through Networked Blogs, etc.  Details in the video below.

Don’t understand what bacon has to do with social media and HR?  Look here.

The Social Media Ladder VIDEO

*I’ll put your name in the raffle drum an extra time if you can tell me (in your comment) the name of the song and the show it is from without looking it up.  Be fair.