Apr. 7, 2009
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Friends of Many Kinds!
I have been thinking about the dynamic of friendship lately. It started with the wonderful outpouring of wishes on my birthday last month. Even though technology makes remembering and sending easier than ever, I was so touched by how many of you took the time to send me wishes. And then 2 weeks later, I found 50 more sent from Plaxo that I have yet to thank people for! I appreciated each and every wish. Thank you. And, I appreciated the SendOut cards I received. If you don't know about this cool service, you can try it out here.
This paragraph should be a good reminder for you to review your system of connecting with and touching all your friends and past customers and clients. If you don't have their birthdays, it might be a good warm call. And be sure to clear your spam folder regularly so you don't miss 50 cards!
So, back to friends...the next way this is showing up in my life is all the people who have asked to be my "friend" on social networks. I may be missing something by not accepting everyone as a friend, but I look at each request and make sure there is some relevance. I can't imagine why an Indian IT guy in Bombay wants to be my friend. I ignore quite a few.
This new way of staying connected is very fun and delicious. Since many of us are home officed, we miss out on the camaraderie and brainstorming that happens in a more traditional office setting. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can provide this or they can suck a lot of time and cause you to waste productive time or ignore the traditional face to face.Hopefully, you have developed a well thought out strategy. Sherry Chris from BH&G says she spends 2.5 hrs a day on social networking. Tech guru, Amy Chorew, says limit it to 12 minutes a day. What is the magic number for you and your plan?
And, yet more about friends...at Bernice Ross's Awesome Females in Real Estate Conference, she invited a man, John King, to share with us about leadership and teams. His book, Tribal Leadership (for a free audio download) sounds fascinating. In the time he spent with us, we were treated to some very innovative and intriguing thinking about what it takes to connect and lead effectively. One of his findings was that a group of 6 was a perfect size for an activity like brainstorming or project creation. Another was that over 80 people will break into sub-groups and must be managed with that understanding. Several years ago, I actively participated in several small masterminding groups that have since disbanded. I believe I am ready to create a few of these groups again to tap into the shared brilliance that mastermind groups offer.
"No one of us is as smart as all of us."
This inquiry into friends is one I plan to delve into a bit more and I invite you to do the same and let me know what you think!
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