Saw this article by Dr. Travis Bradberry on LinkedIn last week.

The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control. One of their greatest gifts is the ability to identify toxic people and keep them at bay.

“People inspire you, or they drain you—pick them wisely.” – Hans F. Hansen

Toxic People to avoid for career success

It was a warm Indian Summer night on October 29, 2015 when the one and only Wayne Whittingham gave in to insurmountable pressure and decided to publicly declare his membership in FOCM Networking.  I believe this took place at Restaurant 1900 on Eastwood Rd in Wilmington, NC.

The dates: October 26 -27, 2015 will long live in the annals of FOCM, destined to be recorded in the Library or Networking Congress.  Multiple esteemed and worthy individuals received their FOCM membership cards in the traditional (and emotional) ceremony befitting such an honor.  Fortunately, there was a cadre of photographers capturing the events as you will see below.

Catherine Ginzer, Oracle received her card at a DIA in a group ceremony orchestrated by Chris Dapolite probably two years earlier.  Catherine is one of FOCM’s most enthusiastic members.  Another member in good standing: Nadine Maag was in attendance and served as sponsor for her co-worker Lucas Miller.

Those who went through the ceremony at this conference were: Craig Mooney, BMS; Debra Riley, Pfizer; Alyssa Gilliam, ICON; Lucas Miller, ICON; Chris Driver, Cenduit; Martha Devine, Astellas and Maria Napoliello Humagain, Shire.

I believe networking and working with people we know makes business interactions more enjoyable and less uncertain.  So I like sharing the history I have with my connections.  Maria Napoliello Humagain and I worked together at ICON Clinical Research’s Interactive Technology Group in the 2000’s; Martha Devine, Chris Driver, XY, Debra Riley and I met for the first time at this conference.  Craig Mooney and I have known each other for 7+ years; Nadine Maag and I have known each other for ~10 years

While I am not attending SCOPE for the first time in a couple years, FOCM representatives can always be found.

I received pics from a couple of FOCM members as seen in these two pictures.  Bryan Clayton, showing the FOCM card is with Temitope Keyes.  Brian Langin, who carries both the 1st and 2nd generation FOCM cards is with Nithiya Ananthakrishnan, Rob Nichols and my most favorite FOCM member, Deb Jendrasek.

Jeff Weiner is CEO at LinkedIn and he recently posted about the people he most likes to work with.  His article got 20,000+ likes.  His Venn Diagram sums it up quite well.

People you enjoy working with

Weiner writes on the topic of how to have fun:

It then occurred to me that I’ve known a number of people who embodied the ability to dream big and get sh*t done, but who also proved very difficult to work with. Perhaps shielded by the immense value they brought to their respective organizations, they never cultivated the ability to manage compassionately, or even cared to. Rather, they did things their way and expected everyone around them to adapt accordingly. More often than not, that’s exactly what people did.

This is one of the most important things for me – working with people that know how to have fun.  I admit to having a sarcastic, smart-ass sense of humor or I notice things that are sound funny in the middle of a serious meeting.  I remember early in my career being in a meeting and hearing someone say something like that will be a new paradigm.  To which I replied, that’s worth 20 cents.  He said, what? I replied, “a pair of dimes is 20 cents”.  He laughed hard and then you could see the look come over his face, that he was thinking, hey wait we’re in a business meeting talking about serious stuff, i mean, i like laughing and all that but we need to act serious.

I think you can and should have both: be serious about the business problem or strategy you’re working on AND have fun.  It’s not like we’re doing brain surgery.

I do not know how or why I overlooked posting this.  I know I posted the pic or pics on Facebook of the beach scene.

So here it is: on a warm August day in sunny North Carolina, Stuart Munson received his FOCM card.  Stuart and I have known each other for close to 30 years.  We worked together in the late 80’s in RTP, NC and in the 90’s when he moved to Seattle to work for Microsoft we stayed in touch.  Through my business travels, we were able to meet up a few times in Seattle and now he’s back on the east coast about a 6 hour drive from here.

Swarming Stuart at the beach are Gayle Grandinetti, Sheryl Browne and Wendy Revenaugh.  I am pretty certain Stuart enjoyed the day at the beach.

As some of you noticed, I got rather behind on posting FOCM related events; I am over 12 months behind!!!

This is being corrected; seen below are from August 31, 2015 – when FOCM member Debbie McCoy was in Wilmington and we met for dinner at the Fork and Cork (great hamburgers).  Debbie and I have known each other for 11 years having first met and worked together at ICON Clinical Research.

Followed by that is September 15, 2015; I’m not sure where we were but FOCM member Warren Fischer and I met up, probably at a conference.  Warren and I probably first met when he worked for ClinPhone at a conference, but didn’t get to know each other until we worked together at ICON back in late 2010.

Then on October 14, 2015, at I’m betting was a conference in or around the King of Prussia, PA area; FOCM member Erica Hill and I met for dinner.  I’ve known Erica 14 years; we both started at ICON within a couple months of each other.

Okay, I vow to do better from here on.