Back
PM Forum - London
Personal Impact – the art of being taken seriously
We were forming judgements about our guest speaker, Steven Pearce, within the first minutes of his session in London on 22 April. But then he asked us to. And his point was that it’s only natural to look at all visible signals from someone you meet and start shaping a view. So the brand you project is really important.
Steven Pearce is a senior consultant with both City Jesters and The Results Consultancy; one of his specialist coaching areas is personal impact. At this session hosted by WSP he positioned how our visual impression, profile, networks and mindset all combine to shape the personal impact we make. These are critical factors in establishing credibility and influencing colleagues, line managers and clients.
Steven helped us explore visual cues; factors as important as our dress sense, our handshake and eye contact. So, within 10 minutes he had all 60 of us on our feet shaking hands, testing out opinions on strong and weak handshakes, and analysing whether our posture indicated we had really engaged and shown interest in the person we met.
Even our voice mail message says something about us. If your first exposure to someone is to leave a message on their voice-mail, you will have formed an opinion from the tone of their message as to whether they seem like the sort of person you want to engage with. Steven quoted a recent Harvard study that found there was a clear correlation between a surgeon’s tone of voice and the likelihood of them being sued for malpractice!
Next, we examined our networks. Steven declared that 70% of people will be ‘neutral’ towards you - they haven’t formed an opinion yet. A short exercise helped us identify our key stakeholders, what they gain from a relationship with us, what we gain from them, and when we last ‘worked’ that relationship. A challenging exercise that helps you recognise that you need to move people from acknowledging you to respecting, trusting and forming a bond with you.
Steven then positioned that our reputation is shaped by factors such as the strength of our relationships, our reputation, business understanding, client service and our ability to deliver. We charted our profiles on a graph to understand our strengths and areas to focus on.
We concluded by discussing the importance of mindset. High energy and a positive attitude will quite clearly enhance your personal impact. Meetings are an important part of our business life and our attitude in them and willingness to challenge, professionally, will shape the personal impact we make, our credibility and reputation.
This was an entertaining and thought provoking session, very relevant to professional people looking for a strategy to improve their personal effectiveness. After a glass of wine we left for our trains and buses with firm handshakes, steady eye contact, and a positive step!
Graham Munday
WSP Environment & Energy
Back
