Andrew B Morris
Making a positive first impression – the handshake moment – is critical in attracting people and building relationships.
Contrary to popular myth, we can make an accurate assessment within the first moments of meeting someone for the first time. According to research, within the first seven seconds we can make a balanced judgement on 11 key characteristics: wealth, political bias, credibility, religion, desirability, trustworthiness, sexuality, success, ethnicity, sophistication, and education.
Amazingly, this assessment will be 80% accurate.
This is not necessarily about superficial stuff, like grooming and dress sense, but more about our primeval instincts, where sniffing someone told us whether they were friend or foe.
So, if a first instinct suggests that someone is untrustworthy, keep a wide berth. But if intuition suggests they are credible and successful, keep talking.
Now consider what others see in you at that initial handshake moment.
About Andrew B Morris
Andrew is Chief Executive of the Academy for Chief Executives, helping businesses to accelerate growth through better leadership. As part of this role he chairs and mentors a group of exclusive central London Business Leaders in Academy Group 1.
Andrew describes himself as a creative businessman, who enjoys meeting people from all facets of life. His mantra is ‘take your job seriously, but not yourself.’
To find out more about membership to the Academy for Chief Executives contact us on: 0845 118 1028 or at: membership@chiefexecutive.com