Why It's Important To Be Friendly For No Reason

Moments after the young man walked in the room I thought, "Oh, so now you want to act all friendly towards me?"

A friend owns several gyms. As a favor he asked me to interview applicants for front desk positions. He wasn't happy with how recent hires had worked out and wanted a fresh take.

The job itself is simple: greet members, show prospective members around and sign them up... but mostly do a lot of standing around and talking to other front desk employees while sneaking peeks at cell phones. (I keep telling him he should find more things for them to do.)

His front desk employees aren't trainers or fitness experts; their primary duty is to be friendly, welcoming, and likable. That's the main reason he kept hiring the wrong people. He chose candidates who had experience in client management software since that made their initial training easier, but hard skills can be taught. Attitude, personality, likeability — those qualities are impossible to teach.

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