{"id":1205,"date":"2012-03-06T12:30:28","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T17:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bobpaff.com\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2014-06-05T11:05:30","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T15:05:30","slug":"social-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/?p=1205","title":{"rendered":"Social Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"

I gave a talk on Social Skills to a group of fifth-grade boys at the local parish school my\u00a0children attend. The genesis of this talk was rooted in my shock and dismay after chaperoning a field trip for\u00a0the third graders just a couple of years ago. Gone were all those social pleasantries we grew up with and\u00a0were taught by our parents and teachers. Not only have we come to accept rude or indifferent behavior,\u00a0we\u2019ve come to expect it! It\u2019s only when we encounter, in the words and writings of Johns Hopkins\u00a0professor Peter Forni<\/a>, civility, that we are taken aback.<\/p>\n

\"SocialSkills\"<\/a>It\u2019s too easy to lay the blame squarely on the shoulders of technology, with every imaginable gadget to\u00a0make us faster, more efficient and more productive. By the time you bring your new device home, the\u00a0manufacturers have already rolled out its replacement. I think the term \u201cplanned obsolescence\u201d still\u00a0applies! While technology has made us faster and more productive, it has also made us less\u00a0approachable, less connected, less involved, and even less interested.<\/p>\n

Since opportunity always stems from adversity, I’m waiting for some earth-shattering idea to swing the\u00a0pendulum back the other way and realize the significance and productivity of doing business the old-fashioned way, with relationship building and face-to-face contact. Someone will soon realize the genius\u00a0in this simple approach and harness the masses into a new wave of productivity! I touch on this in almost\u00a0every piece I write, when I talk about being connected, looking out for the other guy, picking up the phone\u00a0to ask what you can do to help someone. Again, I’ll go out on that limb and guarantee that you will be\u00a0more productive, generate more leads and revenue, create more awareness of your product or service,\u00a0make an unintended difference in someone\u2019s life or business! You can’t miss! What’s your fear, why the\u00a0delay?<\/p>\n

My fear is that if we don’t mend our ways \u2013 clearly what we’re doing is not working \u2013 we run the mammoth\u00a0risk of, within a generation or two, wiping out any form of one-on-one, face-to-face, business-over-breakfast-or-lunch connection with each other. Our children, our youngest associates, and future\u00a0corporate leaders will know no other way. The ramifications of such ignorance not only affect business,\u00a0but in my opinion, and more significantly, our willingness and ability to resolve conflict at any level,
\npersonal or professional. Relationships have ended and employees fired via text and e-mail. With the\u00a0push of a button or the flip of a switch, we can walk away and never look back! There’s HUGE opportunity\u00a0here, folks, gold in those mines. Where’s your shovel?<\/p>\n

To Your Success!<\/p>\n

Bob<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On March 8th, I will give a talk on Social Skills to a group of fifth-grade boys at the local parish school my children attend. The genesis of this talk is rooted in my shock and dismay after chaperoning a field trip for the third graders just a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-1205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-from-bobs-desk","tag-linkedin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2064,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/2064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bobpaff.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}