One of my favorite recent trends on social media has been people using GIFs or other images to tell the story of how their day is going; how they feel about winter approaching; or, how they feel after raiding their kids’ Halloween candy! It’s a tasty little visual morsel to help convey feelings when we are limited to virtual communication, and I’m a big fan!
My cousin and his wife do this quite often and the results are often the highlight of my day (Seth and Alison – I’m talking about you)!
This week, Alison posted a little video clip in which Britney Spears is answering an interview question. Alison presented it as, “Seth’s answer when asked if he’s going to get a buck this year.” In the video clip Britney quickly answers, “no” and then looks down, obviously overcome with emotion, and starts to slowly shake her head “no” before she looks up with a little tear in her eye as she softly says, “no…no, I don’t think so.”
That, in and of itself was funny enough. However, in the comments, Seth posted a little clip of a deer who is up on it’s hind legs dancing around. It was obviously edited, but still pretty funny.
However, when other people got involved it really turned hilarious. Seth’s sister, my cousin Ashley posted a short clip of a deer viciously attacking a hunter armed with a shotgun. This video was not edited at all, which perhaps made it even more funny. This deer would rear up on its hind legs and paw with its front feet and the hunter was trying to run backwards to escape. He would stumble and fall but that deer just kept going after him!
Then someone else responded with a short video of a fawn and a kitten who are curled up in a bed and the fawn is snuggling and licking the kitten.
This whole thing just reminds me about how much we have to put our best foot forward. We can feel however we feel, but we sometimes have to choose to use a behavior that does not reflect how we truly feel about a situation. Affirm those feelings, folks. Then choose your behavior. It’s a big part of The Mandt System and something we talk a lot about. This is a valuable discussion to have with your employees – and help them realize that there may be some aspects of their job that they will find frustrating (or overwhelming, or perhaps even frightening). Those feelings are valid. However, it is our professional responsibility to make a conscientious choice about how we will use our behavior as we respond in those situations.
Nikki Wince – Mandt Faculty Supervisor
