Mind Tools Newsletter 50 - 06 June 2006

Be Positive: Make a Great First Impression! This newsletter is published by Mind Tools Ltd, of 2nd Floor, 145-157 St John Street, London, EC1V 4PY, United Kingdom. To contact us, please email us from this page. You have received this newsletter because you have subscribed to our double opt-in newsletter.To unsubscribe, just click the link at the bottom of the email se sent you. If you are not already a member and you would like to subscribe, please visit http://mindtools.com/subscribe.htm.

Be Positive: Make a Great First Impression!

Welcome to our June 6th Newsletter!
from James Manktelow & Kellie Fowler of MindTools.com.
Mind Tools: Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!

Contents: In This Issue... Be Positive: Make a Great First Impression! Mind Tools Store Shape Up Your Career Using Holland’s Codes A Final Note

In this 50th issue of the Mind Tools Newsletter, we have some great new tools for you!

Last issue, we brought you the first article of a series entitled "Be Positive", with a tool that helps turn negative conflict to positive effect. This week, our "Be Positive" article, written by Kellie, is on first impressions.

First encounters, business or social, can be daunting. Kellie provides some great tips on how to be positive in this situation, create a great first impression, and so lay the foundations for building a good relationship with the other person.

The second of our featured new tools helps with your personal career strategy. Are you totally fulfilled by your career? For most of us, there is usually "room for improvement".

By better understanding your work interests, you can zero in on what good and what's not so great in your work and career. Often some simple changes to the way you work can make quite a difference to job satisfaction and fulfillment. Our article on "Holland's Codes" helps you analyze your interests and so realign your job with these. Try it for yourself and let us know what it does for you!

As well as the featured tools, there's also a fun new article for you at the Mind Tools site on memory games. Memory improvement is an ever-popular area for our readers and our article will help get your memory in training whilst having some fun too.

I hope you enjoy this issue as much have we have putting it together. Enjoy the read, and enjoy Mind Tools.

James

James Manktelow and Rachel Thompson
MindTools.com
Mind Tools – Essential skills for an excellent career!

To find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded, click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

New tools on the Mind Tools site

• 2nd June 2006 - Memory Games - Have fun while you improve your memory!
• 31st May 2006 - Using "Holland's Codes" - Shaping your career to suit your interests
• 26th May 2006 - Making a Great First Impression!

Find out about new tools on the Mind Tools site the moment they’re uploaded! Click here to subscribe to the Mind Tools RSS feed (you'll need an RSS newsreader installed), or here to find out more about RSS.

Article Series and New Tool:

Make a Great First Impression!

By Kellie Fowler

It takes just a quick glance, maybe three seconds, for someone to evaluate you when you meet for the first time. In this short time, the other person forms an opinion about you based on your appearance, your body language, your demeanor, your mannerisms, and how you are dressed.

With every new encounter, you are evaluated and yet another person's impression of you is formed. Studies show that these first impression are nearly impossible to reverse or undo, making those first encounters extremely important, for they set the tone for the all the relationships that follows.

So, whether they are in your career or social life, it's important to know how to create a good first impression. This article provides some useful tips to help you do this.

Be on Time

The person you are meeting for the first time is not interested in your "good excuse" for running late. Plan to arrive a few minutes early. And allow flexibility for possible delays in traffic or taking a wrong turn. Arriving early is much better that arriving late, hands down, and is the first step in creating a great first impression.

Be Yourself, Be at Ease

If you are feeling uncomfortable and on edge, this can make the other person ill at ease and that’s a sure way to create the wrong impression. If you are calm and confident, so the other person will feel more at ease, and so have a solid foundation for making that first impression a good one. See our section on relaxation techniques to learn how to calm that adrenaline!

Present Yourself Appropriately

Of course physical appearance matters. The person you are meeting for the first time does not know you, and your appearance is usually the first clue he or she has to go on.

But it certainly does not mean you need to look like a model to create a strong and positive first impression. (Unless you are interviewing with your local model agency, of course!)

No. The key to a good impression is to present yourself appropriately.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and so the "picture" you first present says much about you to the person you are meeting. Is your appearance saying the right things to help create the right first impression?

Start with the way you dress. What is the appropriate dress for the meeting or occasion? In a business setting, what is the appropriate business attire? Suit, blazer, casual? And ask yourself what the person you'll be meeting is likely to wear - if your contact is in advertising or the music industry, a pinstripe business suit may not strike the right note!

For business and social meetings, appropriate dress also varies between countries and cultures, so it's something that you should pay particular attention to when in an unfamiliar setting or country. Make sure you know the traditions and norms.

And what about your grooming? Clean and tidy appearance is appropriate for most business and social occasions. A good haircut or shave. Clean and tidy clothes. If you're female, neat and tidy make up. Make sure your grooming is appropriate and helps make you feel "the part".

Appropriate dressing and grooming help make a good first impression and also help you feel “the part”, and so feel more calm and confident. Add all of this up and you are well on your way to creating a good first impression.

A Word about Individuality

The good news is you can usually create a good impression without total conformity or losing your individuality. Yes, to make a good first impression you do need to "fit in" to some degree. But it all goes back to being appropriate for the situation. If in a business setting, wear appropriate business attire. If at a formal evening social event, wear appropriate evening attire. And express your individuality appropriately within that context.

A Winning Smile!

"Smile and the world smiles too."* So there's nothing like a smile to create a good first impression. A warm and confident smile will put both you and the other person at ease. So smiling is a winner when it comes to great first impressions. But don't go overboard with this - people who take this too far can seem insincere and smarmy, or can be seen to be "lightweights".

(*Author Unknown)

Be Open and Confident

When it comes to making the first impression, body language as well as appearances speaks much louder than words.

Use your body language to project appropriate confidence and self-assurance. Stand tall, smile (of course), make eye contact, greet with a firm handshake. All of this will help you project confidence and helps both you and the other person will feel better at ease.

Almost everyone gets a little nervous when meeting someone for the first time. Which can lead to nervous habits or sweaty palms. By being aware of your nervous habit, you can try to keep them in check. And controlling a nervous jitter or a nervous laugh will give you confidence and help the other person feel at ease. Again, see out section on relaxation techniques for help with this.

Small Talk Goes A Long Way…

Conversations are based on verbal give and take. It may help you to prepare questions you have for the person you are meeting for the first time beforehand. Or, take a few minutes to learn something about the person you meet for the first time before you get together. For instance, does he play golf? Does she work with a local charitable foundation?

Is there anything that you know of that you have in common with the person you are meeting? If so, this can be a great way to open the conversation and to keep it flowing.

Your attitude shows through in everything you do. Project a positive attitude, even in the face of criticism or in the case of nervousness. Strive to learn from your meeting and to contribute appropriately, maintaining an upbeat manner and a smile.

Be Positive

Your attitude shows through in everything you do. Project a positive attitude, even in the face of criticism or in the case of nervousness. Strive to learn from your meeting and to contribute appropriately, maintaining an upbeat manner and a smile.

Be Courteous And Attentive

It goes without saying that good manners and polite, attentive and courteous behavior help make a good first impression. In fact, anything less can ruin the one chance you have at making that first impression. So be on your best behavior!

One modern manner worth mentioning is "turn off your mobile phone". What first impression will you create if you are already speaking to someone other than the person you are meeting for the first time? Your new acquaintance deserves 100% of your attention. Anything less and you'll create a less than good first impression.

Key points:

You have just a few seconds to make a good first impression and it’s almost impossible ever to change it. So it’s worth giving each new encounter your best shot. Much of what you need to do to make a good impression is common sense. But with a little extra thought and preparation, you can hone your intuitive style and make every first impression not just good but great.

The Mind Tools Store:

• Make Time for Success: Learn 39 essential personal effectiveness techniques that help you bring your workload under control and maximize your productivity, so that you can make the most of the opportunities open to you. More >>
  
  
• Design Your Life Design the life you want to live. Set the clear, vivid, powerful goals you need to live it to the full. More >>
  
  
• The Mind Tools E-book: All of the tools on the Mind Tools website in one convenient, easily-downloadable, easily-printable PDF file. We have excluded advertising to enhance clarity and have formatted sections to be easy to read, print and use. More >>
  
  
• How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You: Learn the 48 simple but essential skills you need to become a top leader in your industry. More >>
  
  
• Personal Coaching from Career Excellence Professionals: Find career and life direction, bring your job under control, build self-confidence and put yourself on the path to long term success with a Mind Tools coach. Our coaches give you the focused personal coaching you need to make the very most of your career and life. More >>

New Tool:

Shape Up Your Career Using Holland’s Codes

You know when you are in a job you like. You also know when the task you're doing just isn't right for you.

What lies behind our feelings of work satisfaction or dissatisfaction are our fundamental work interests: These are the things that we enjoy doing, whatever the industry or the job title. The trick to finding career satisfaction can be to identify those core interests and match your job to them.

For example, if you're a science person, you may not be happy working in a job that needs quick decisions, or where you need to use your "gut" to guide you. Likewise, artistic people would be driven mad in a profession that has lots of rules and procedures, or which demands a lot of number crunching.

Understanding the Theory: Holland’s Codes

In the 1970's John Holland developed a popular theory of interest development based around these six personality types:

1. Realistic (R):
These are people who like well-ordered activities, or enjoy working with objects, tools, and machines.

Realistic people:

• see themselves as mechanically or athletically talented, but may not be good with people.
• value concrete and tangible things like – money, power, and status.
• avoid “social” activities, those that need interaction with other people.

Common traits:

• Hard-headed, inflexible, persistent, materialistic, practical, and genuine.

2. Investigative (I):
Investigative people like activities that involve creative investigation of the world or nature.

Investigative people:

• see themselves as highly intelligent, but often lack leadership skills.
• value scientific endeavors.
• avoid activities that seem mundane, commercial or “enterprising”.

Common traits:

• Analytical, curious, pessimistic, intellectual, precise, and reserved.

3. Artistic (A):
Artistic people like unstructured activities, and enjoy using materials to create art.

Artistic people:

• see themselves as talented artists.
• value aesthetics.
• avoid “conventional” occupations or situations.

Common traits:

• Idealistic, complicated , introspective, sensitive, impractical and nonconformist.

4. Social (S):
Social people enjoy informing, training, developing, curing and enlightening others.

Social people:

• perceive themselves as helpful, understanding and able to teach others.
• value social activities.
• void activities demanded by “realistic” occupations and situations.

Common traits:

• Generous, patient, emphatic, tactful, persuasive, and cooperative.

5. Enterprising (E):
These people enjoy reaching organizational goals or achieving economic gain.

Enterprising people:

• see themselves as aggressive, popular, great leaders and speakers, but may lack scientific ability.
• value political and economic achievement.
• avoid activities demanded by “investigative” occupations and situations.

Common traits:

• Extroverted, adventurous, optimistic, ambitious, sociable, and exhibitionistic.

6. Conventional (C):
Conventional people enjoy manipulating data, record keeping, filing, reproducing materials, and organizing written or numerical data.

Conventional people

• see themselves as having clerical and numerical ability
• value business and economic achievement
• avoid unstructured or “artistic” activities

Common traits:

• Efficient, practical, conscientious, inflexible, defensive, and methodical.

The Model

Holland then arranged these six personality types into a hexagon (see figure 1, below) organized according to people's preference for working with different stimuli at work: people, data, things, and ideas. Holland's theory is that people with different personality types prefer working with different work stimuli, and that the distance between work personalities indicates the degree of difference in interests between them. For example Artistic people are least like Conventional people and most like Social and Investigative people.

Holland's conclusion was that for any personality type, the career most aligned with that type is most likely to be enjoyable and satisfying. For example, a Realistic person would be best suited for a Technical job and least suited for Social job. Jobs with Conventional or Operational characteristics would be the next best choices.

The way that this works in practice is that people people use a personality test to identify their three top personality types. This gives their Holland's code (for example, ESA). This is then matched against the Holland's codes of people typically found within particular careers.

How to Use the Holland's Codes Career Model:

There are two good ways of using this model - either in helping you choose a career that suits you, or in helping you shape your existing job so that you maximize your fulfillment. To find your ideal career according to this approach, just complete steps i and ii below. To shape your job, use all of the steps we outline.

Using Holland's Codes is a straightforward process, which is made all the easier by some useful online interest evaluation sites.

Part One Identify your Work Personality

Step i: Read through the brief descriptions given above and find the one you most identify with. You may want to take an official Holland Code Assessment. There are many of these, costing different amounts – you can find them by typing “Holland Code Assessment” into Google.

Try one: Does the assessment say what you thought it would? If they aren’t, ask yourself why: Often we choose a personality type that reflects who we want to be, not who we really are. (If so, learn from this!)

Tip 1: Do try the online tests - they're not expensive (for example, one costs US$9.99) and a good one will show you the careers and professions that most suit your code once you've completed it. This can save you a huge amount of painstaking research!

Step ii: To further explore your “true” work personality, ask yourself, “How would my spouse, family, and friends categorize me?” Show some of your friends and co-workers descriptions of the types and ask them to categorize you. Here again, explore any differences between your assessment of yourself and theirs.

Part Two: Analyze your job in terms of your interests

Step iii: Look at your main tasks and responsibilities. Are they aligned with your work personality?

Step iv: List those responsibilities that are aligned in one column and those that are not in another. Use this to decide whether your job is a good fit for your interests or not.

Step v: For each of the job roles where your interests are not well matched, work out at least one way of bringing the two sides together. For instance, if you are a “Conventional” person working in an administrative position, many of your roles will be in-line with your interests. However, if you were asked to organize the Christmas party, you might be very uncomfortable about deciding about decorations, entertainment, and so on. These are more Artistic responsibilities, which are directly opposite to your Conventional ways. One strategy to deal with this is to delegate the Artistic tasks and assume responsibility for making sure the tasks get done. You maintain the Administrative duties and get rid of the Artistic ones.

Part Three: Set Goals to Bring Your Interests and Responsibilities in line

Step vi: The best way of making sure that something gets done is to set a specific, time limited goal. Identify two or three of the most important problem areas, and set realistic goals to change things.

Tip 2: Remember that this is a model - it's a useful way of looking at things, but it can't possibly capture all of the complexities of the ways that people behave at work. Make sure that you interpret any conclusions with common sense. Tip 3: Also bear in mind that as you develop in your career you'll need to extend your skills into new areas. In particular, as you take responsibility for people and then move upwards within an organization, you need to develop the "Social" ability to work with other people, as well as other skills that normally go with other personality types (if you're going to be a CEO, there's a lot of "Conventional" work that you just have to do, and do well.)

Key Points

Holland's Career Codes provides a useful framework for exploring your personal interests and the careers most likely to suit you.

Every occupation requires a particular set of characteristics. By identifying your particular interests you can quickly uncover the parts of your job that give your satisfaction. Likewise, you can identify areas of dissatisfaction and help you plan how to address these. This helps you develop your career in the right direction - one that will be a source of long-term fulfillment.

A Final Note From James

So will you be making some great first impressions and shaping up your career satisfaction? We do hope so - That's what Mind Tools is for!

We'd love to hear your success stories and any other feedback on these tools. And if you have any special topics you'd like us to cover, just ask and we'll do our best!

Meanwhile, the Mind Tools team is busy working on new tools and articles for upcoming issues of the newsletter. Next issue we'll bring you another tool in the Be Positive! series and an article on communication and working in virtual teams.

Wishing you a fulfilling and successful week!

James

James Manktelow

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Essential Skills for an Excellent Career!

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