Quite often, no matter how good you are, your success is dependent on how other people such as your boss, peers, clients and customers notice your communication and responses. So when you come to people who make the key difference between helping you or holding you back, how can you influence and persuade them to give what you want.
Psychological research repeatedly show that people generally make up their minds on whether to help you or not based on whether they like you or not. It is human nature. What can you do about it? You need to make a good impression on others to ensure they like you and give you what you want. Research again shows that people give opportunities to the people they like best. In fact, most people actually make up their minds about other people in the first five minutes or less of meeting someone. These are called first impressions or "moments of truth. "
Once they make up their minds, they tend to be very unwilling to change their opinions. You hardly have room for error when making that first impression on a new acquaintance. Therefore, whether you are applying for a job, going for an interview, attending a meeting with your boss or peers, or serving a customer, you need to prepare yourself mentally and rehearse(排练) how you will manage the first few minutes of your interaction. This includes doing your homework to gather information and researching all possible issues so you will know how to deal with them if the other party (另一方)raise them unexpectedly.
It is amazing how poorly some people can come across at the beginning. The worst thing is that they do not even seem to realize it. Having good qualifications and an excellent work performance does not mean that candidates can succeed in making a good first impression.
