What does a job seeker, the speeddating
single woman, the salesperson
or the party dude have in common?
Be it an interview, a date, a customer
call or a social occasion all of them
have at least one objective in mind—
they all want to create a good first impression
on their target audience so as
to achieve their goal (get the right job/
find Mr. Right/make the sale/get that
dream girl’s mobile number). The
need to make a good first impression
is an integral part of what we do in
our daily lives. From the way we
dress to the way we speak, we make a
conscious effort to create a good impression
the first time we meet a
person(s) in any social situation.
A
good impression increases our
chances of success in getting what we
want from others. But what happens
when we are on the other side of the
table? How are we affected by first
impressions of other people, things
or situations?
After the hugely successful Tipping
Point, Malcolm Gladwell comes
out with his work about the power of
first impressions. This book gives us
a good insight about how first impressions
affect our thinking without us
being aware of this. As the subtitle of
the book says it is ‘the power of thinking
without thinking’. Have we at
times suddenly come upon something
or someone and felt that things
were not right?
The author calls this
a Blink moment. Essentially this
book is about those two seconds of
the Blink moment—how it works to
our benefit and how at times it can
make events go horribly wrong. It actually
makes us to think deeply
about how we take decisions, the
perils of market research and some
of the mistakes we are likely to commit
in stressful situations.
Overall, it
has practical implications for the
way we lead our lives, run companies
and society as a whole.
This book seeks to convey its message
in three parts. The first part illustrates
that quick decisions are almost
as good as decisions made after thorough
deliberation and analysis. The
second part cautions that we need to
be wary of our instincts and the decisions
based on them. There are times
when our instinctive reactions can be
influenced by other emotions and
sentiments. The final and most crucial
message that this book conveys is
that though we cannot avoid first impressions
and quick judgments, we
can effectively channelize and control
them. There are plenty of interesting
real life examples and research studies
quoted to communicate these messages
to the readers in an engaging
manner. |
