Earlier this week, I invited an acquaintance to join me and another colleague for lunch. After saying that she had other obligations, she proceeded to tell me that she needed to go on a diet. I politely listened to her struggles with dieting and her reasons for needing to go on one. There was not much substance behind her words and I knew that she would fail. Why? Because diets always fail. Always. Diets focus on short-term goals. How many diets have you succeeded in completing only to see the weight come back? If you want to lose weight, you do not need a diet, you need to change your lifestyle.
While my acquaintance was speaking to me about her needs for a diet and the fact that no diet has ever worked for her in the past, I was getting frustrated. However, it was inappropriate for me to go ahead and tell her my feelings. The realization that she needed to change her lifestyle could not and should not come from me. What made things more frustrating was that the colleague who was joining me for lunch was standing right in front of her. She had gone through a dramatic weight loss last year and kept the weight off. Why? Because she changed her lifestyle, including exercise, diet, and socializing. The perfect example and model for success was right in front of my complaining acquaintance, but she could not see it.
Whether my acquaintance needs to change her eating habits is up to her. Right now, her solution to her desire to change her body composition is flawed and only focuses on short-term gains. How am I ever going to trust her to make the right decisions at work when she cannot make the right decisions in her own life? What I do know is that I do not want her on my team for anything that is mission critical. Every day is an interview.
Everyday is an Interview 