The Manager - 106 - First Impressions
THE MANAGER - BY ROB LAMBERT
Hi,
I hope you are safe and well.
As you read this email I should have launched “Agility Week” on my YouTube channel, where every day this week, I share a short video on an aspect of Releasing Agility. I’ll be sharing them on LinkedIn as usual – and my blog also has a page where these videos (and more) are. https://cultivatedmanagement.com/agility-basics/
First Impressions
Willis and Todorov discovered that you get around 1/10th of a second to make a first impression.
Not long right?
We do it all the time. We are constantly judging, deciphering and making decisions based on first impressions. It’s a natural human trait – and one that has served us well.
Is this person friend or foe? Are they out to help me or hurt me?
Think about the first time you meet a new candidate for a job. Or that group of hooded youths across the street. Or the smartly dressed person at the railway station.
We make decisions about people instinctively. Therefore, it pays to make a solid first impression to those that matter.
What’s more revealing about the Willis and Todorov research is, that although we make a decision about somebody within about 1/10th second, we then use confirmation bias to re-enforce that first impression throughout our interaction with them.
Not only may our first impression be wrong, but we then see and hear what we want to - to re-enforce that first impression. Good or bad.
So if we have a poor first impression of somebody, we will find reasons to re-enforce that. The same goes for those who make a good first impression, even if they aren't actually that good at what they do.
There are two things here.
Firstly, try to remove as much bias as possible when making decisions about people. It’s exactly why I recommend the following for two common situations managers and leaders find themselves in:
Interviews – always have at least two people in each section of the interview – and have three sections.
Totalling 6 different people – all asking behavioural based interview questions – this should go some way to making the process fair, less biased and more objective.
When taking on a direct report from another manager in the business – try to avoid listening too much to the previous manager’s opinions, observations and hand-over notes. Try to draw a clean line and start observing from there.
Secondly, learn how to make an amazing first impression!
My communication workshop is all about effective communication, and one aspect of that is great first impressions. They matter – and they are communication.
After all, you cannot NOT communicate.
The way we look, our mannerisms, how we carry ourselves and our overall non-verbal communication says a lot about us. And it also creates first impressions.
Here are some ideas:
Your appearance makes a difference. Think about what you’re trying to communicate – and wear appropriate clothing.
Most people focus here on dressing smart. But that all depends who you are and what you’re trying to communicate.
What’s your purpose, audience and context? Choose clothing appropriate to that.
Stand and sit as tall as you can by putting your shoulders back and holding your head high.
Not only does research suggest that standing tall creates all of the right chemical balances in your body, but it also shows you are confident and assertive (even if you’re not).
Smile.
Smiling is a warm and welcoming facial expression.
Not only that but research suggests that smiling shows confidence and intelligence. It’s a great way to make a good first impression.
Palms open and by your side
I always teach this in my class – as it’s a warm and welcoming arm position - even if you’re sat down.
Make eye contact
If you’re actually meeting somebody, then make eye contact and be consistent with it.
In our world of online connections right now, these 5 points are still relevant.
Dress appropriately for the situation and the purpose of your communication.
Shoulders back on the Zoom call, smile, open your palms (as it rotates the shoulders which may be more visible on the call) and make eye contact (weird on a conference call, but obvious to the other person when you’re not even looking at the screen).
And consider – 1/10th of a second is nothing. You've barely just caught eyes on someone – and you're making decisions about them already - before they may have done or said anything.
Try to fight that as a manager and leader when dealing with other people but embrace it as someone who wants to make a great first impressions.
Until next time
Rob..
What's new on Cultivated Management?
This week I released two videos:
This week I did a blog and video on the 5 main reasons why your business strategy may be failing.
FOOD FOR YOUR MANAGEMENT BRAIN
1. Good article on replacing "belonging" in the work place with "equity". If you're trying to build diverse, equal teams then this is a good read indeed - https://medium.com/@bloomblog/its-time-to-replace-belonging-in-the-diversity-and-inclusion-conversation-f9f4fff9f90d
2. Start thinking about "focus" rather than "productivity". Think about this from a management perspective - instead of measuring "productivity" what would happen if you measured how much time people have to "focus" (no pointless meetings, no interrupts) - https://medium.com/the-innovation/stop-thinking-about-productivity-and-start-thinking-about-focus-d54d9008c622
3. How to be indistractable - good article by Nir Eyal on working on your inner self to become focused and productive - https://psyche.co/guides/to-become-indistractable-recognise-that-it-starts-within-you
4. How to have successful employee development conversations - https://lattice.com/library/how-to-have-successful-employee-development-conversations?
5. Is that the most important thing? Another good post by Seth Godin on people bringing up topics to argue about - rather than addressing the deep thinking needed to solve the really important things - https://seths.blog/2020/09/is-that-the-most-important-thing/
6. How to be an introverted leader - https://elpha.com/posts/p8gjkrtb/how-to-be-an-introverted-leader
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Thanks
Rob..