I've been teaching people for years that one of the fastest ways to build your likeability is to match the facial expressions of the person in front of you. Some of those faces indicate that the person is moving from one mind set to another. But, there is a different kind of face that people make. It displays that person's level of emotional health.
Within the course of a one-minute chat, you should be able to determine someone's personality type configuration (in order), his weaknesses or insecurities, the extent to which he focuses on building rapport, communication style, level of negativity - and that's only part of it.
Let's turn the table on you. After a typical one-minute chat with a stranger, how much information do you know? Is it enough? Or, would you like to be more effective at reading people? I can promise you, if you get better at it, you will raise your level of success!
-- Michael Lovas
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Praise for Axis of Influence!
Most authors never get a review this good. For us, it's even better because the reviewer is also a well-known author!
Well-researched. Highly readable. Very practical - Much has been written about credibility--but not more comprehensibly than Lovas and Holloway in this book.
They have built upon the work of researchers such as Kouzes and Posner in their link between leadership and credibility and added one KEY factor to the equation: likeability. The authors' central message: Many credible people never find a ready audience for their work, and many likeable people never become credible. But marry the two characteristics--credibility and likeability--and you have a winning combination.
Further, the authors take the ingredients of likeability and credibility and make them tangible--and marketable. In short, their book tells sales professionals, managers, and consultants how their language, appearance, personality, hallway reactions, and marketing materials all reflect these two characteristics. -- Dianna Booher, Author of Voice of Authority
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Why is Credibility Important?
On Friday morning (Jan 16), Pam and I delivered a three-hour teleconference presentation to the Society of Financial Services Professionals. It wasn't supposed to be a tele-event, but frozen fog closed down the Spokane airport and I literally could not get to Tucson, where the conference was being held.
The point I kept driving home during the program was WHY. Why should you take your credibility seriously? And, the reasons is represented by two words: Bernie Madoff.
Madoff represents all the other financial people who have disgraced themselves and deeply hurt their clients. Consumers see this connection immediately: one bad apple embarrasses the entire industry. Dozens of bad apples destroys the industry's credibility. So, in the mind of the consumer world, financial advisors, portfolio managers, insurance agents, bankers - anyone connected to the money industry is a potential crook. Period.
That's a huge hurdle to overcome if you're in the industry. In order to step forward and work through that mess, you absolutely MUST remain vigilant of the consumer attitude and let that be your guide. You must take a proactive position and work to prove your value. But, again, it's a hurdle. The values you need to be conscious of are not your own. They are those of your clients and target markets.
Right now, the world does not care about you or your values. They don't believe what you say and are skeptical about your intentions. And they're justified in their skepticism because of the long list of negative headlines about the many different financial people who have bilked their clients out of their life savings. Bernie Madoff is just the most recent.
So, in your efforts to rebuild your reputation from the ashes, you need to learn what your prospect's values are. Then ask which of those values are also your values. It is the values you share that will be your most powerful connection with that person. That connection will buy you a moment in time, and in that moment you can begin to activate the process of developing credibility.
-- Michael Lovas
The point I kept driving home during the program was WHY. Why should you take your credibility seriously? And, the reasons is represented by two words: Bernie Madoff.
Madoff represents all the other financial people who have disgraced themselves and deeply hurt their clients. Consumers see this connection immediately: one bad apple embarrasses the entire industry. Dozens of bad apples destroys the industry's credibility. So, in the mind of the consumer world, financial advisors, portfolio managers, insurance agents, bankers - anyone connected to the money industry is a potential crook. Period.
That's a huge hurdle to overcome if you're in the industry. In order to step forward and work through that mess, you absolutely MUST remain vigilant of the consumer attitude and let that be your guide. You must take a proactive position and work to prove your value. But, again, it's a hurdle. The values you need to be conscious of are not your own. They are those of your clients and target markets.
Right now, the world does not care about you or your values. They don't believe what you say and are skeptical about your intentions. And they're justified in their skepticism because of the long list of negative headlines about the many different financial people who have bilked their clients out of their life savings. Bernie Madoff is just the most recent.
So, in your efforts to rebuild your reputation from the ashes, you need to learn what your prospect's values are. Then ask which of those values are also your values. It is the values you share that will be your most powerful connection with that person. That connection will buy you a moment in time, and in that moment you can begin to activate the process of developing credibility.
-- Michael Lovas
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