Episode #327: Leader First Impression Success

In our presentation training classes we ask the participants, “how long does it take for you to make a judgment about someone you are meeting for the first time?”. How about you?

How long do you take to make a judgment about someone you are meeting for the first time?

People in our classes would say 30 seconds, others would say up to a couple of minutes. Today, the answers are down to three to five seconds! What does that mean for us in leadership? People judge everyone who works in our company on the impression they form about us.

If we are impressive, then they think the rest of the troops are impressive too. It goes the other way of course. If they meet someone from our firm who is a dill, then they think we are all dills down there. Now as the leader we set the tone, the standards, the expected behavioral norms for our operation and this includes everyone’s personal presentation. Based on this new three second norm, we all have such a small window to make that good first impression. Are we prepared? Are you and the team really planning your first impressions or are you all leaving it to random chance?

This is not a discussion on whether we all have to be in expensive suits or whether we can go smart casual at work. There are slobs aplenty in suits in Japan. Just take a good look around on the subway any morning. Crumpled suits, scuffed shoes, ancient food stains on ties. There are also people in casual attire who are very well appointed.

Let’s look at some areas where we can build an excellent first impression.

Dress:

Here is an important caveat. In this instance, I am focused on men, because I don’t have the expert knowledge, confidence or guts to talk about dress for ladies. I am also pulling my points from my observation of what I see here in Tokyo.

There was some famous research done on how we form impressions by Professor Albert Mehrabian. He found that under certain conditions, we make assumptions about your professionalism, reliability and trustworthiness based on how you look. What does that mean then in business?

As the boss are you happy with the following list of sins as it applies to the male members of your team? Shoes are scuffed and not polished like a mirror; dirty food stains on ties that haven’t been dry cleaned; hair is unruly and messy; clothes don’t fit well anymore because they have put on some weight; worn pants belt which should be replaced; belt colour doesn’t match the shoe colour; tie knot is loose and not tight against the collar. These are not difficult things to fix, however, the lack of self-awareness in people who look like this is fairly vast. As the boss, if we want to ensure everyone produces a good first impression, we need to pull them into line.

Initial Contact:

We should all pay attention to our first greetings in Japan. A bow is expected of course, but how about a smile just before the bow. Yes, we can have a serious expression on our face and do the bow, but being easy to do business with is an advantage in this competitive market. So let’s train everyone to smile more when they meet people for the first time. You would think this is hardly revolutionary or even worth a mention, but next time you meet someone, check their facial expression before they bow and I will bet it doesn’t look friendly. By the way, you can be a serious businessperson and also smile. They are not mutually exclusive!

Also, make initial eye contact when you first meet people, but do it for no longer than six seconds. Japan is not keen on making eye contact, so everyone is busily looking at people’s throats, chins or foreheads instead. Engaging people for that initial six seconds isn’t outside of cultural boundaries here, so we can apply it to build a stronger connection with people we meet. Longer than six seconds however and we will have a problem, so let’s make that length the maximum.

Voice Tone:

Here are some things to avoid: mumbling, lifeless voice quality, voice too soft or voice too loud. We convey a lot through our tone of voice, so we have to make sure that when we meet someone for the first time, the tone is clear and friendly. As a best practice, we should try to immediately use the name of the person we have just met using a friendly tone. This helps us to remember their name and also makes the initial contact feel more personal.

Insightful Remark:

When meeting new people it is always a good approach to get them talking as soon as possible about their business. This helps us to know if there is some useful information we have which we can impart to them and make ourselves valuable to them in some way. If you are visiting their office and there is something eye catching in their environment, don’t just say it is eye catching. They work there and they already know that. Ask to what degree this feature has had a positive impact on their business or their staff or their customers etc. This will lead to an interesting business discussion about their firm and that is a great way to get to know their current situation.

Obvious things are not always obvious to the people who work for you. The boss has to be the arbiter of the good first impression and school the team on its importance. That means we have to lead from the front in the way we present ourselves and we have to speak to people who don’t get it. Have a strategy for building first impressions and don’t leave this to random. Allow your competitors that privilege.