04- How To Make Great First Impressions

Summary

In this episode, we discuss how to make a great first impression to build a strong personal brand.

Episode Transcribed

Career Smartcuts are about taking small, easy actions that make a big impact on your career. 1) Now, creating a great personal brand? That will have a big impact on your career. And how do you create your brand? 2) By making a memorable first impression. 3) And how do you make a memorable first impression? You prepare much more than you typically would. That brings us to this episode's smartcut. Prioritize first impressions. When meeting someone new, prepare more than you usually do.

A positive personal brand will advance your career immeasurably. When people know you and think positively of you, eventually your name will come up in that conversation about who would be best for this new job opportunity. A memorable first impression would be if the first time you interact with a person, they walk away thinking that you are knowledgeable and professional.

Let me give you a few examples of situations when you would follow this smartcut and prepare more than you usually would. It could be the first time you are with someone senior in a meeting, or maybe you are giving a presentation to a group of people and some of them don't know you. Perhaps it's a job interview. If it's someone more junior, or at your level, then you should still prepare more the first time you are meeting them. If it's someone senior, then you NEED to follow this smartcut. You need to go above and beyond to impress them. Some people call this managing up. Your superiors have more power over your career and your salary, so it is in your best interest to ensure they have a good impression of you. Even if they are not in your department, senior people may open doors for future job opportunities in the company. In addition, with senior staff, you must be on your A game because you will have fewer opportunities to impress them

One time I flew to Prague with a colleague for an important meeting. In this first meeting, we needed to get buy-in from this person to support the project we were working on. We needed to set a good first impression so that he would agree to work with us in the future. In order to prepare for the meeting, I spent hours in the airport researching the Czech economy, important facts about the country, and even famous Czech hockey players since I know hockey is a popular sport in their culture. My colleague only focused on the Czech economy and almost destroyed our credibility by not knowing a simple technology term. If this wasn't a first impression and the person already knew we were reliable, it wouldn't have been a problem, but this was the first impression and it takes a long time to recover from a bad first impression. Luckily, as we were about to leave the meeting without a mediocre conclusion, I was able to bring up the fact that I grew up watching Czech hockey players dominate the NHL. He told me he played hockey before work every Wednesday and we ended up having a great conversation and getting his buy-in. This was preparedness mixed with a little bit of luck. It also shows the power of having a diverse team over one person..

For another example of a situation where this worked, a friend of mine (who is also a young professional), recently told me the story of when she was interviewing for the position she is currently in. She was so prepared that she knew the names and background of the founders and CEO from reading articles, the profile of the people interviewing her from linkedin, and the new strategy of the firm from reading more articles online. She used 1) some of this knowledge during the interview, 2) some of it for creating great questions to ask the interviewer, and 3) some of the information wasn't used at all. - which is a normal outcome of being over prepared. You won't always be able to put everything to use, but at least you had what you needed and it may be beneficial down the road.

You may have heard that people make a first impression very quickly. Research shows that although the amount of time may vary based on the situation and the circumstances of the study, once the individual makes a first impression, the remainder of their time is spent working to justify it. This principle is known as the confirmation bias. Malcom Gladwell says impressions are formed within two seconds of meeting someone in his book "Blink". But assuming you already are dressed well and give a firm handshake, the first impression you make relies on your preparedness.

If it is your first time in a meeting with someone, try to do some research on the topic of the meeting beforehand so you are extra prepared and can bring some fresh new ideas. If you are giving a presentation, you should always prepare, but if there are people in the audience who don't know you, then you should prepare more. 1) Say the presentation out loud a few more times than you usually do. 2) Test the technology needed to display the presentation. 3) Have paper copies available for your presentees if requested. If it's an interview, you should always prepare as well, but if you are interviewing for an external position, you need to prepare more than if you are interviewing for a position internally with someone you already know. That means to research the person on linkedin and so you are prepared to ask them questions and get them talking about themselves. This also applies to any opportunity you have to impress people outside of the office. 1. Prepare for the event by practicing your elevator pitch out loud in front of the mirror. And 2. Prepare by looking up the senior people on LinkedIn to see their face, and know their background.

Of course you should prepare even more for someone who is senior and can help your career, but this applies to meeting anyone. Your reputation is a collection of what other people think about you, and the more people that share that impression of you, the stronger your reputation and your personal brand will become.

Conclusion

To summarize this week's smartcut. When meeting someone new, a little effort in preparation goes quite a long way in building your personal brand and reputation. You should especially do this when you are meeting someone senior, but this is helpful in situations with people less senior or even outside of the office.

Try this out the next time you are meeting with someone new. This could be a new friend, colleague, or professional in your field. Maybe you notice someone on a meeting invite you don't recognize. Prepare to wow them.