How Attractive Are You?

A long-winded discussion on the weekend with friends about relationships got me thinking. My personal belief on the subject at hand that day was that being in love and being in a committed relationship doesn’t mean that you promise never to be attracted to anyone else ever again.

One of my girlfriends stated, and I agree wholeheartedly, that it’s far more flattering and far more of a sign of a great relationship if you are attracted to other people but make a conscious decision to remain committed and faithful to your partner.

I think it’s kind of the same in a business relationship. I’ve always told any sales person that was employed by us that being “courted” by another real estate agency is simply a sign that you’re doing a good job and should be a matter of course.

In fact, if you’re awesome at whatever job you do – it’s likely that at some stage you’ll get a job offer to move elsewhere.

That’s when you get to decide how strong your “relationship” with your current employer is. Have they earned your loyalty or will you be more “attracted” to the offer at hand?

Employers – what effort are you putting into nurturing your relationships with your employees? What do you think your best 3 employees would say if they were approached today by a competing firm?

Employees – it’s a two way street! What are you doing to maintain the relationship? What do you think your current employer would do to try and keep you if you said you were leaving?

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By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments

The Great Valentines Day Caper

I love Valentines Day. I'll admit it - as uncool and lame as some of you will think that is, I get a real kick out of it.

This year on our make up Valentines Day (he spent the real V-Day working) I was annoying my husband by chronicling one of our adventures with a present he got for me on facebook and twitter when I suddenly realised that I wasn't just mindlessly taking photos with my iPhone, I was illustrating two really important things - and all with coloured straws.

The present, as you can see from the photo was a very groovy straw joining kit that allows you to drink out of 2 (or more I've just realised) drinks at the same time while having all the bendy fun you can handle. I'm not sure that the cute kids on the box illustrate that it should be used with cocktails, but you get the point.

The kit consisted of over 200 pieces and after tearing it open my husband and I got to work, each designing our half of the straw concoction, neither looking at each other while we worked (we were far too consumed with our design job). We only saw each others creations when we joined them at the yellow connector after we had completed them. Despite working from exactly the same pieces, our solutions were completely distinct and unique.

Mine is right hand side - all high and a symmetrical across a diagonal point. My husband's (showing his very creative brain) is like a roller coaster and is completely 3 dimensional (which didn't even occur to me).

In a work environment I've always believed that before you do a joint or group brainstorm for issues, each individual should have their own brainstorm first so that they're not influenced or biased and have an opportunity to put forward their best and most creative ideas.

Left to brainstorm this problem together we might have influenced each other and we would have missed the unique solutions to the problem each of us made on our own.

Now - off to find two more cocktails and rework an even more sophisticated straw solution!

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments