Are Your Judgments Costing You Business?
Our judgments and evaluations happen instantly and are filtered through memories of our good and bad past experiences. We do this without any conscious thinking. We’re not aware of our how our judgments control our actions. We’re always judging everything and everyone. And most of the time our preconceived notions and judgment are incorrect! In business networking our preconceived notions and judgements may not always serve us. Here’s an example;Think about the last time you saw a cop following you in your rear view mirror. Exactly what went through your mind? Were you actually doing anything “wrong”?
Just like the police in your rear view mirror, when you see someone you judge whether they’re fat, or thin, loud or quiet, attractive or ugly, and darn near anything else about them. Your mind is reacting to a sequence of responses that it’s been pre-conditioned to. Which may not be good at networking events. Here, I’m not talking about your intuitions and inner knowings. They’re always accurate. We don’t always listen to our inner knowings and that’s the problem. Well I don’t.
Here’s a personal example of how this works. Halle Berry is my favorite actress. In both business and my personal life, this physical attraction has caused me problems. Whenever I meet someone that resembles ‘Halle Berry’, I ignore my intuition which usually goes something like this:’the inside isn’t as attractive as the outside’. I’ve had financial and emotional costs to ignoring my intuition. When we find someone repelling, it’s the same thing happening. Beginning to sound familiar?
Without even thinking we’ve made up our mind about the other person in three to four seconds. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” is a phrase I’m sure you’ve heard. This is certainly true. We have no control over how others perceive us, regardless of how we dress, look or present ourselves and that’s the problem. BUT, We do have absolute control over how we perceive other people.
This is the bottom line for your business. Don’t judge a power partner (business networking partner) by their cover.