I’m going to give y’all the inside look of my people analyzing brain.

When I step at a table, the first thing I think is, “Who is the Alpha?” Who’s the leader? Who will be doing most of the communicating with the stranger wearing the uniform?”

Sometimes, the answer is quite obvious. One colleague shared that the guy in a couple did all of the talking including ordering all of the food. Easy answer there.

Here’s a more complex situation. At a table that had three generations, the 2nd generation male, did all of the communicating. I made an error in judgement. I thought the 2nd generation male was the Alpha. Oops!

When it came time to pay for meal, the situation got a bit intense. The Alpha male, who had been silent through most of the dinner, insisted on paying the bill. This happened after the Beta male and I started to settle the tab. He stood up with this aggressive look on his face and said quite loudly to his son that he was taking care of the bill. The son disagreed and he stood up to confront him! Oh Lord!

The Alpha male saw the handheld device that I use to complete credit card transactions. The thing is worth at least a week’s pay. He was going to wrest the device from my hand! So now I’m involved in this!

I shrieked, moved the device out of range, and turned my back in a protective posture. If he broke that device…Lord help us all!

The Beta male saw our interaction and handed me his credit card. I took his card and completed the transaction. I then went to the kitchen to grab a quick drink of water. True story!