It’s not something that people tend to notice right away
about me but when they do, they stop and watch me. Usually this happens when I am taking notes
or doodling. Sometimes I have to explain to people
when I need something that isn’t usually required by others. Typically, it’s related to a work set-up or a
seating arrangement.
Have you figured it
out yet? I’m left-handed.
Curious to know more? To start lefties are rare, (only about
10% of the population is left-handed) since I am a woman, and left handed, I am
even more of a rarity.
Lefties have to live in a world designed for and by
right-handed people. I often get
surprised looks or incredulous stares because I use a computer mouse on the
right hand side but upside down. I am told that many
lefties will switch it to the other side.
Adaptability is a forte of us lefties.
Let’s go back to the mouse example; the problem I found with
using the computer mouse on the left was that the cursor was less mobile, and
that each time I needed to use the computer, I had to move the mouse to the
left. Leaving it on the right meant that
I had difficulty controlling the cursor and pointing it where I wanted it to go
because I was not on the “opposite side” after fiddling with left versus right
– the solution came to me. Turn the
mouse upside down on the right and operate it with the right hand. This offered me the best of both worlds. I could control the cursor and also keep it
on the right. It eliminated the need for switching the mouse and mousepad over
to the left each time I wanted to use the computer. (I still would love to find another leftie
that does this! So far no one I’ve encountered has encountered other lefties
who do this!)
Going back to the work place, conditions change all the
time, new products are introduced, staff changes, and policies change. Change is good, it means that the company is
evolving to take advantages of opportunities and paying attention and avoiding
trouble.
In one of my prior roles I did regulatory reporting. Each report had different requirements and
those requirements were apt to change slightly from year to year. To establish cross-functionality within the
team our manager had a watch it, do it, teach it approach to training. As I was assigned new reports, I would sit
with team members and learn how they handled things, once having it down I was
able to apply my skills to making the report easier to do, and then eventually
I would pass the report to another team member and show them how I did it. One set of reports I took over from a team
member was done in a very manual process, so when it came to me to do, I looked
for a more simplified way to the end result.
I did this by writing queries to obtain and validate the data and then
put it through a VB macro that a co-worker had written to export the data into
the format it needed to be in.
Later on another report required a similar format and
data. Since I already had a tool built,
I was able to adapt it in order to work for this other report. The end result was the reports were accurate
and ultimately reduced the time spent working on those projects.
Being left-handed has made me more PERSISTENT.
I knit for a hobby, something about playing with soft fluffy
yarn and sharp pointy sticks just appeals to me. Especially since at the end I have a warm
fluffy object to wear. Learning to knit however was challenging
because everyone who could teach me how to knit was right-handed.
In order to understand the complexity of learning a dexterous process as a left handed person, take anything you do well with your dominant hand and try to
transfer the skill to the non-dominant one. Pay attention to how your mind is
working while you are doing this. Using
writing as an example, you are going back to thinking how to form each character
so that it is legible. As you write with
your non-dominant hand there are a lot of things happening at once. You are trying
to control your pen or pencil, and remembering each step involved in forming the individual characters and spelling the words as you write.
Learning to knit was a similar process for me, eventually, I found that by emulating the process for right handed knitters allowed me to think through the mirrored actions of the left-hand. It took some practice,
but I became good at knitting with some practice.
This persistence applies to my work life as well. As an example I had taken a temporary role in
collections for a construction company. Making collection calls isn’t for everyone,
and sometimes customers aren’t always willing to pay, however I was able to
make in-roads with many of the delinquent accounts and worked with them to
resolve their outstanding invoices while providing great customer service. In the end I was able to reduce past due
collections by over $400K within a few months.
I’m a natural “Translator”
This might just be me, however, as someone who has had to “translate”
dexterity, I find it easy to elicit user requirements and understand the
technicalities behind their requests.
Just like some may see magical transport from one place to the next on
Star Trek. What I see is something
similar to TCP/IP protocol that breaks down the matter, sends the matter in packets
and reassembles it with a check-sum to ensure that all the required parts are
there.
On the flipside I have a tendency to get excited about new
ideas (Quantum Computing) and want to share that with others. After reading an article in Scientific
American about quantum computing I shared it at lunch with some of my
co-workers. I’ve learned that unfortunately that not everyone is as excited
about Star Trek-esque technology as I am.
