Greeting someone with enthusiasm can make a difference to their day
On one presentation and public speaking course I was running a few years back, we were doing an exercise where we asked the small group of participants to think about an experience which they had found moving in some way. We then recorded them on describing this on video, in order to help them understand how underlying feelings can, and should, affect how we look and sound when communicating. Whilst most people chose quite serious subjects, a young lawyer in the group told us about going to collect her young son from the nursery.
He would be playing away quite happily with his friends and then suddenly spot her. His eyes would grow huge and, dropping anything in his hands, he would immediately run towards her, arms outstretched, “Mummmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!” She said it was the most wonderful feeling every time he did it and he repeated it every time he was collected. She and her husband (“Dadddeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”) literally fought over whose turn it was to fetch him.
We enjoy being appreciated. We enjoy and respond to genuinely enthusiastic greetings – and people – wherever we encounter them. Be that in an interview or work situation, with your family or friends or with complete strangers. Even a simple smile can make someone’s day and enrich your relationship with them.