Competence is one of the four keys to career and life success in my Common Sense Success System. I also discuss it in some detail in several of my books: Straight Talk for Success; Your Success GPS; and 42 Rules to Jumpstart Your Professional Success. If you want to succeed you need to develop four basic, but important competencies: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) becoming a consistently high performer; 3) dynamic communication skills; and 4) becoming interpersonally competent.
There are four key competencies that will help you become a career and life success:
- You have to be able to create positive personal impact.
- You have to be become an outstanding performer.
- You have to be a dynamic communicator – in conversation, writing and presentations.
- You have to build strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the important people in your life.
You create positive personal impact by doing three things. 1) Build and nurture your unique personal brand. 2) Be impeccable in your presentation of self – in person and on line. 3) Know and follow the basic rules of etiquette.
It’s Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the USA. It’s the biggest shopping day of the year as consumers begin their annual holiday gift shopping. However, not all gifts given this holiday season will be bought new. In tough economies like this one, regifting becomes more popular. And, as you might expect, there are some common sense rules on the etiquette of regifting.
In her great new book Don’t Be An Ugly Duckling at the Peacock Party: Why Waddle When You Can Strut, my friend Sharon Hill gives some great common sense advice on the etiquette of regifting. Check it out…
Regifting means giving a gift that was given to you to someone else, yet acting as if you bought it especially for your recipient. Sure, you saved money, but be careful. What if your recipient finds out you have regifted? Will that person put you in the ugly duckling category?
To avoid being labeled a regifter, follow these rules.
The most common regifting faux pas is to leave the previous gift card attached to the gift. The second most common faux pas is to regift in the original, now crinkled and possible torn wrapping paper or box. If the phrase, “Hey, this looks almost new” crosses your desperate ugly duckling brain, remember that the “almost” is a dead give away to the new recipient.
Don’t give hand-me-downs as regifts. A hand-me-down is an item you have already used that you would like to regift. One example is a dress from which you have removed the tags and worn twice. A regift is should be just that: a gift you have never used that you are giving away as though it were a new gift.
Keep track of who gave a gift to you first. You don’t want to you regift to go to the person who gave you the initial gift.
The common sense point here is simple. Successful people create positive personal impact. Being gracious is a great way to create positive personal impact – mind your manners and follow the rules of etiquette. As we get into this holiday season, you may be tempted to regift a few things that you’ve received in the past. Regifting is acceptable if you follow a few bits of common sense advice. Give only new gifts, something you’ve never used. Rewrap the regift in new paper. Make it look fresh. Make sure you don’t regift an item to the person who gave it to you in the first place. You can save a few bucks by regifting, but make sure you do it in a tasteful manner. Check out Sharon Hill’s new book Don’t Be An Ugly Duckling at the Peacock Party for some great advice on regifting and for creating positive personal impact. You might want to buy a couple of copies – one for yourself, and the other for someone you know who can use some great etiquette advice.
That’s my take on regifting. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us – if you’re not too stuffed with turkey, or too busy shopping. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
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