March 1, 2023
Greetings, and hello to March Madness, International Women’s Day, Pi Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and whatever else this month has in store for us!
If you follow KMA on LinkedIn, you might have seen that we launched a new interview series called The Stakeholders, with seasoned professionals sharing their perspectives on leadership. Our first two Stakeholder contributors were Zeemel Croft, Senior Enterprise Account Executive at Paylocity, and Dave Eid, Sports Director at WGME-13. I’m honored and grateful that Zeemel and Dave were willing to take a leap of faith with us and be open, vulnerable and brave.
Seeing the outpouring of love, appreciation and support on social media for what they each shared validated my belief that our social connections play a crucial role in our overall health and wellbeing. Lately it seems everyone – from actor and activist Jane Fonda to Scott Galloway of Prof G Media – has been weighing in on the correlation between friendship and health and happiness.
As Galloway put it in his weekly newsletter No Mercy/No Malice, “In the United States friendship is on the decline. Since 1990, the percentage of Americans who report having less than three close friends has doubled, from 16% to 32%. The share who report having no close friends at all has gone from 3% to 12%.” This is alarming! Galloway cites the devastating impacts of the loneliness epidemic on well-being, particularly among men who often have a harder time making and maintaining friendships.
But in a recent interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, Fonda offered some practical advice on making friends – even later in life, “You have to pursue people that you want to be friends with. And you have to say, ‘I’m intentionally wanting to be your friend.’ And it works. People hear that and then stick around, and you develop new friendships.”
It’s well worth the effort, as proven by a Harvard University study, which followed people over a period of 80+ years, and found that strong personal relationships were a key factor in both physical and emotional health. Those who had close relationships with friends, family, and romantic partners reported higher levels of happiness, were less likely to suffer from chronic diseases like heart disease or dementia, and had stronger immune systems. This is because close relationships provide a source of emotional and practical support, which can help us manage stress and cope with life’s challenges.
We all know life is busy and demanding, and it can be challenging to prioritize time with friends and loved ones, but think of pursuing and investing in friendships as an investment in your own happiness and well-being. It’s a win-win.
I don’t know what I would do without my friends. I hope you’re inspired like I am to reconnect with old friends, and to be intentional about making some new ones!
Cheers,
Kim Anania
President and CEO
KMA Human Resources
Here’s what else is going on at KMA:
We are recruiting and successfully hiring for our clients!
If you’re a job seeker, or you know one, Browse our job openings, and keep in mind that you can always upload a resume for our future reference, even if you don’t see anything that’s quite right for you.
Making a bad hire is a costly mistake for your company, and it’s also unfair to the candidate. In this webinar, we will discuss best practices for interviewing, and cover how to ask the questions that elicit the answers you’re really after, some red flags to be on the lookout for, gray areas to avoid in your questions, and how to uniformly evaluate candidates for their experience, skills, capabilities and potential for success. Please join us!
Read Kari Meillat’s article on pay transparency:
More Than Law, Pay Transparency is Becoming a Cultural Norm
Speaking of friends, our colleague Mandy Levine of Mandy Levine Consulting has just launched a monthly e-newsletter with information and resources on diversity, equity and inclusion. You can (and should) subscribe to it on her website here.