First Impressions

 

Vocabulary

saying	chance	impression
obvious	physical	appearance
initial	judge (2)	perception
hire	survey	influence
reveal	decision	whether
essential	consultant	relationship
view (2)	personal	personnel
add	capacity	determined
indeed	win over	credibility
assume	conscious	deliberate
affect	standing (2)	statement
instance	groom (2)	appearance
cover	instance	responsible
exert	count (2)	briefcase
element	briefcase	accessories
detail	resolve	charisma

 
 

 

First Impressions

There’s an old saying that you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.

The fact is that when you first meet someone, he or she makes a unconscious judgment about you in just one second.

Indeed when personnel consultants who hire people for large companies were surveyed, they revealed that they generally made a decision whether to hire a person within 30 seconds after the start of an interview.

Personal Relationships

Making a great first impression is essential to success in building sound personal relationships.

In sales or business, the amount of influence you have over people is determined by your level of credibility, which is connected to how people feel about you.

With regards to this, EVERYTHING counts. Everything that you do or don’t do either adds to or takes away from your credibility—and your capacity to win someone over.

Outer Appearance

The way you look on the outside—your physical appearance—plays a big role in how others judge you as a person.

We generally assume that people make personal statements about themselves by the way they choose to appear in public.

The most obvious element of this is through clothing and hair style.

Clothing

According to psychologists, your clothes and hair account for 95 percent of the first impression that you make on others simply because, in most instances, these cover 95 percent of your body.

Accessories, such as purse or briefcase, watch, tie, rings, pens and other elements, also make a statement that can help give you a positive standing with others.

Clothing and Grooming

While it’s difficult to affect your physical features, you do have total control over the way you dress and your grooming.

You should therefore resolve to present yourself as a charismatic, influential person in all your business and professional activities. Take complete control over every detail of your personal appearance and grooming.

 

Questions

1. What do the numbers 4 and 30 refer to?

2. What happens if a “good” person makes a bad first impression or vice versa?

3. In sales and business, people with good credibility have an advantage. Is this true or false? Give examples.

4. Can physical appearance influence a person’s credibility?

5. How can people control or affect their standing with others?
 
 
A. Do you remember your first impressions of your friends, colleagues or boss? What were they?

B. Are first impressions accurate? Are first impressions fair?

C. I have met people who I first thought were great…but later turned out to be “bad”. Yes or no?

D. Have you met people who you first thought were bad, but who later turned out to be nice, interesting or likeable?

E. People spend too much time and effort on their outer appearance, and not enough on their character, personality or merit. What do you think?
 
 

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