A unique characteristic that makes me an awesome employee.

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.