Upgrade your introductions

Share information or resources, rather than "fun facts"

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Good Morning, This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Today's tip is to upgrade your introductions. Aim for introductions
that do more than just break the ice. Ideally, you

(00:26):
wind up feeling like you actually know the person better.
On a Before Breakfast episode a few months ago, I
suggested that when you are given the common icebreaker topic
of sharing a fun fact to introduce yourself, you choose
a fact that is more than just fun and say

(00:47):
something about yourself that connects you to your colleagues and
the work you are doing. Togather. If you are the
one teaching a class or leading a group of people
who are meeting for the first time, you can help
this process along by not asking for a fun fact.
Instead ask people to introduce themselves in a way that

(01:11):
builds relationships or shares resources. For instance, if you are
leading a group where everyone had to opt into the team,
an obvious question is what attracted people to the work
in the first place. That lets you get to know
people's motivations, which can prove helpful as you divvy up

(01:32):
work and work to keep people engaged Along the way,
you could also ask people their favorite tool to use
in their work. This can be an app or digital
tool like calendy, or a physical tool like a certain
kind of name tag that people feel more motivated to wear.
It could be a procedure or routine that helps people

(01:54):
in their work, like putting the next day's priorities on
a sticky note on their laptop before they quit for
the day. Asking people about their favorite tool may reveal
the diversity of work styles and creativity of your team,
and it may spark people's interests and tools and routines
that work for their colleagues. Plus, it conveys an attention

(02:17):
to productivity and intentionality, something that isn't necessarily conveyed when
you ask people to reveal something idiosyncratic about themselves. Another
approach to introductions is to invite people to share their
hopes for the group and your work together. Now, obviously
everyone wants the main outcome. If your team is coming

(02:40):
together to land a certain big client, everyone wants you
to win that big proposal. But you can ask what
beyond the main outcome people would like to see if
this team is a success will win that proposal, and
fill in the blank. People will may express hopes about

(03:01):
the impact of your work, or the experience of working
to gather or their own learning. This sets a positive,
forward looking tone, and it lets you see what's important
to each person on the team. If you're looking for
something that's a little more retrospective, you can ask people

(03:22):
to share a favorite aspect of a previous project. No doubt,
people have had lots of different experiences, and knowing what
people liked in the past can help you figure out
who should work on what and how you might keep
people more motivated. While there is nothing inherently wrong with

(03:42):
asking people their favorite animal or Thanksgiving side dish, or
which day of the twelve days of Christmas they most
identify with, this may or may not help you build
relationships or recognize people's less or known skills. If you
want to know things that will help you professionally, you
might as well ask for that. If you try upgrading

(04:07):
your introductions, I'd love to hear how you do it.
You can reach me at Laura at Laura Vanderkam dot com.
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the moose of our time. Hey, everybody,

(04:31):
I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod.
That's B the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
podcast at iHeart media dot com that before Breakfast is

(04:53):
spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much, I
look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a
production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I
heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio apps, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Yea