Embrace Being Different in 2010

Be Different So we're just a bit closer to Christmas and the time when most people are starting to think about New Year's plans and resolutions. Yeah... Resolutions. The majority of which will likely be attempts to be more like the rest of the world. Attempts at losing weight, to stop smoking, spend more time with friends and family, get along with in-laws, become masters of our domain, etc. And these are okay. But what if we made a resolution to be a little less agreeable?

What if we made a resolution to think a little bigger about everything we do? What if we made a resolution to really give something some thought before responding with "That's a great idea." or "Yeah, we can do that." in meetings or dealing with clients? How about if we made a promise to ourselves to finally speak up a bit when we see something in our department that is broken - and we feel passionately that we can help to fix? (even if it's not our immediate responsibility!) Heck, what if we made a promise to ourselves to voice our opinion and thoughts more often regardless of if we were in the minority?

Going against the grain can be fun. Pushing our peers and leadership a bit can help to change business. I personally enjoy people and co-workers that are different than me - heck, if you've met The Redhead or have been a reader of RecruiterGuy.net for very long you know that we're polar opposites on nearly EVERYTHING (and it's dynamite!)
Not very long ago I was assigned a new VP at work - and he was "different" and it's been good. Some of the most enjoyable conversations/revelations I've ever seen/had have been the result of someone in the room thinking differently than the majority and not being afraid to speak up - even at the risk of rubbing a few the wrong way.

Package it however you like - but difference is good no matter where you see it. I say you've got roughly 18 days to decide if you want to recycle your list of resolutions to be like everyone else or if you want to try to both "think" AND "be" a little different in 2010.

originally posted at RecruiterGuy.net

Comment by Dan Nuroo on December 16, 2009 at 8:10am: Hey Chris, I actually did that 2 years ago. Went from agreeable Dan, to talk out loud Dan within reason). Had a big impact on my life/work. Just have to learn how to ride the lumps that'll come with it.

Comment by RecruiterGuy on December 16, 2009 at 11:27am: Thanks for the comment, Dan. Just remember that we're more likely to fall asleep at the wheel if the road is too smooth and straight. :-)

Comment by Slouch on December 16, 2009 at 11:37am: Hey Chris, not sure if you saw but you were mentioned here and I mentioned in you in a comment i made.

Comment by Susan Canarick on December 16, 2009 at 11:43am: I thought my "dare to be different" attitude came from my New Yorker roots! Amen to embracing being Masters of Our Domain in 2010!

Comment by Hassan Rizwan on December 17, 2009 at 2:36am: I faced this situation too, when we first experienced a slowdown in the economy, our growth tumbled a little. I decided to spearehead the sales activity with a bit more planning and how we could add more value for our clients. We stood out in the competition, but most importantly we learned how to recruit during recovery. Great post