Step One: Increase Your Friendliness:
Friendliness is key in the workplace. Your ability to communicate with others is a huge part of how people look at you. Make an effort to be cheerful, smile often and adopt a friendly mindset through positive body language and words.
Step Two: Raise Your Relevance:
Your relevance about your wants and needs can connect you with others. The more relevant you are, the more people like you. Relevance has three levels:
Contact: Sitting next to someone at a party or visiting a neighbor will increase your likability with others using “functional distance.” It will leave them with a positive impression of you and maybe a new friend.
Mutual Interests: Having some of the same interests and experiences with others can be a way to open up and create conversation. The more you have in common, the better people can get to know you.
Value: Relevance is most strong when the value you offer meets another person’s wants and needs. This can produce positive attitudes in the person’s mind of you.
To become more relevant, find ways to connect with the interests, needs and wants of others. Know what they’re passionate about inside and outside of work. Be aware of their emotional needs and try to be there to help them out if they need someone to talk to.
Step Three: Show Empathy
To show empathy, try to see things from someone else’s point of view and relate a personal experience you have had to what they are going through. When you connect with someone’s feelings, they feel like they aren’t alone and they have someone there. Ask yourself, do I:
-Know how that person is feeling about his or her life situation these days?
-Understand what it must feel like to perform the person’s tasks day after day — be it caring for an elderly relative at home or managing a heavy workload?
-Share the same emotions about key issues?
By making yourself more emotionally available, your connection with people will grow dramatically.
Step Four: Keep It Real
It’s vital to be true to yourself and others. People can tell if your fake so to ensure you are showing people the real you, you need to:
-Do what you want to be doing in life.
-Live with purpose.
-Commit to the principles of your work.
-Be the same person on the outside as you are on the inside.-Be direct and honest with others.
The more you live by your values, the more people will see the real you! If people think you’re not real, they will discount your friendliness, relevance and empathy and will probably dislike you.
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