Successful people believe their success is attributable to a pattern of mutually beneficial interpersonal relationships, as much as it is due to technical skills or business knowledge. Your communication and the image you present create the first impression – often the lasting impression – on the people you meet. Want a more professional image? How you present yourself is the first step in building that mutually beneficial network of contacts.
Studies about people meeting reveal that most people make decisions about a new acquaintance within the first thirty seconds to two minutes of interaction. This does not give you much time to make a good impression. Studies by Dr. Albert Mehrabian at UCLA revealed that when we try to convey meaning through our communication with others, the majority of our message is communicated nonverbally and through voice and facial expression. Approximately seven percent of the message is communicated by words. His studies revealed that up to 37% of a first impression is based upon the speaker’s tone of voice. On the telephone, that number rises to 80% or higher, according to many communication consultants.
Let’s look at four areas that have a huge impact on your image and how you present yourself professionally:
- Appearance
- Interpersonal interaction,
- Written interaction, and
- Networking.
Professional Appearance Counts
The standard advice given by mentors and managers to people who want to advance their career has always been to dress for the job you want, not the job you have currently. Even in this day of more casual dressing for work, your professional image will serve you well when promotions, lateral moves, choice assignments and departmental visibility are available. A professional appearance sets you apart from coworkers who are less concerned about projecting a successful, professional image.
Speaking to Groups to Enhance Your Image
Do you know that studies have demonstrated that more people claim to be afraid of public speaking than they are of dying? Yet, public speaking, presentations at meetings and speaking eloquently in small groups can do more for your career visibility and promotability than almost any other opportunity.
Written Interaction
Your self-presentation via written reports, email, correspondence, and all other forms of written communication is the face you most frequently present your workplace or professional community. With email correspondence, informality usually rules. That’s a mistake. Email at work is a formal communication tool and should look like formal communication with a greeting (Dear Mary), a closing (Regards) and a signature file that tells who you are, your title, department, work address and telephone number. Networking is building professional, mutually serving relationships for the purpose of helping both parties obtain goals. The term originates in a dictionary definition: “a system of elements (as lines or channels) that cross in the manner of the threads in a net.” (Merriam-Webster) Your image and communication are critical in advancing your networking success.
Networking
People have always built professional networks informally, but attention in recent years, has focused on systematically building relationships with professional friends and friends of friends.
In his book, The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a person who knows many other people as a “connector” and he credits connectors with facilitating much of the interaction people have with each other. Whether it is a business associate’s knowledge, a job, a restaurant recommendation or a good book to read, connectors help others get what they need by connecting people who don’t know each other. This is also how you build a professional network.
If you’ve successfully developed a professional image through your face-to-face, written and spoken communication; your appearance and your presence, your career will soar. I trust these resources will help take you anywhere you want to go.
