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Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

exaltitude.io

21–30 of 110 posts

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#21

Gratitude, kindness, and explicit acknowledgement of appreciation for others really does go a long way. However, I feel like I've been meeting more people in the workplace who read articles like this and implement it in a robotic, forced manner. Like they're using it as a tool to get what they want out of others, as opposed to a genuine expression of how they feel. Genuine gratitude goes much further than just going…

I know a person or two who have a natural gift expressing genuine gratitude. I can also imagine that if such a gift was very common the world would be populated mostly by con men.

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#22

Gratitude, kindness, and explicit acknowledgement of appreciation for others really does go a long way. However, I feel like I've been meeting more people in the workplace who read articles like this and implement it in a robotic, forced manner. Like they're using it as a tool to get what they want out of others, as opposed to a genuine expression of how they feel. Genuine gratitude goes much further than just going…

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Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#23
post #15

There are a lot of personal attributes and social behaviors that unlock opportunities. In the US a positive attitude, gratitude, and genuine interest are among them. In general just being pleasant to be around and personable will get you far in the engineering world because those qualities are often times lacking. When people managers are making decisions about resourcing I think that they are not honest with themsel…

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Being pleasant to be around is very different from kissing ass. Being unpleasant is commonly known as being an ass in America ;)

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#24
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Being pleasant to be around is very different from kissing ass. Being unpleasant is commonly known as being an ass in America ;)

If I am pleasant to gain mobility or status, because, as you said, it provides opportunity, that’s being a kiss ass.

I am in no way suggesting walking around just being negative, instead, being negative, not unpleasant, but being negative, when appropriate is honest, and humble.

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#26
post #15

There are a lot of personal attributes and social behaviors that unlock opportunities. In the US a positive attitude, gratitude, and genuine interest are among them. In general just being pleasant to be around and personable will get you far in the engineering world because those qualities are often times lacking. When people managers are making decisions about resourcing I think that they are not honest with themsel…

Quoted post unavailable.

There's definitely a counter-culture of people in America who believe that being pleasant or warm is to lose some sort of dignity; that being nice is subordinate conformist behavior. Instead they proudly wear surliness and aloofness to show that they will not bend to norms or hierarchy.

The result is that they typically do not get chosen for more interesting projects, are passed over for promotions, and interview poorly. They largely are dead-ended in organizations far below their potential, but their potential fades as the years go on, and this personal sense of ongoing injustice ("why are these lower performers promoted before me, even when they are less intelligent, and have less experience") tends to settle into a sediment of bitterness that, after some time, is almost impossible to change.

Pick your poison, I suppose. There's no right or wrong path, but they do end in different places.

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#27
Before I had much of a network, and I was going through recruiters to find jobs, I would give them feedback on the interviews they sent me out on. A lot of times, they only had a vague idea of what they were filling, and this would help them out in narrowing their search.

I know this could have been prepping my own competition. I know that there are lots of opportunities going through each recruiter, and I want them thinking of me. It seemed to work well.

Sometimes you just have to train them, and I was training them to be a better recruiter in general, but also for me.

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

There's definitely a counter-culture of people in America who believe that being pleasant or warm is to lose some sort of dignity; that being nice is subordinate conformist behavior. Instead they proudly wear surliness and aloofness to show that they will not bend to norms or hierarchy. The result is that they typically do not get chosen for more interesting projects, are passed over for promotions, and interview poo…

I strongly concur that this is a thing. Toxic and senior engineer - particularly in the SRE/sysadmin space - almost were synonymous. Also saw it in QA some.

It's so much better to not do this.

Re: Gratitude is a secret weapon for attracting more opportunities

#30
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being pleasant to be around is very different from kissing ass. Being unpleasant is commonly known as being an ass in America ;)

If I am pleasant to gain mobility or status, because, as you said, it provides opportunity, that’s being a kiss ass. I am in no way suggesting walking around just being negative, instead, being negative, not unpleasant, but being negative, when appropriate is honest, and humble.

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