It’s not your actual competence that counts. It’s how people perceive your competence that makes the difference. You can apply impression management techniques, tools and tactics to convince others of your competence. Persuading others gives you a tremendous advantage over people who are equally competent but can’t differentiate themselves.

Impression Management

Powerless speech indicates a lack of status. On the other hand, power talking suggests elevated social status. To speak powerfully, avoid the “uhs.” Don’t repeat yourself. Make your speech – and speech patterns – crystal clear and direct.Women routinely fall into “powerless speech patterns,” including showing hesitation, trivializing phrases such as “you know” or “pretty good,” and excessive politeness, for example, “Won’t you please close the door?”

Your Speech Patterns

Reliably determining competence in others is a valuable skill. This takes on crucial significance when it comes, for example, to selecting a lawyer, a surgeon or a financial professional.Because accurately determining someone’s competence is so difficult, try to judge his or her intelligence instead. Intelligence directly relates to and points to competence.

Judging Other People’s Competence Is Hard; Recognizing Their Incompetence Is Easier

More than any other technique, “power talking” will enable you to maximize how others perceive your competence.Success or failure has surprisingly little influence on the perception of competence. One can appear to be competent despite vast failure and seem incompetent in the midst of immense success.

Master Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

<ul><li>To convince people of your competence, use the “impression management” tools of the “eight pillars of competence.”</li><li>Competence and brilliance aren’t necessarily self-evident; you must showcase your qualities.</li><li>Manage people’s anticipation, so they will expect you to be competent.</li><li>Associate yourself with good news.</li><li>Showcase specific elements of the “competence formula”: performance, ability, motivation, dealing with difficulty and luck.</li></ul>

Prove Your Competence & Win People Over

Personal attractiveness has been a compelling factor for humankind since the Stone Age.  Keep in mind how people perceive beauty. Remember four factors when it comes to physical attractiveness:<ul><li>For women, what counts most is physique – your weight vis-à-vis your proportions.</li><li>For men, what counts most is facial attractiveness.</li><li>When it comes to women’s faces, most people prefer features like full lips, big eyes and a small nose.</li><li>In general, people consider blonde women more attractive than brunettes.</li></ul>

Physical Attractiveness

Many perceptions rely on symbols. Status symbols such as a company car, a title on a business card, a frequent flyer card and a corporate credit card will shape what people think about you and how they act toward you. You can control some of the powerful symbols that help define you to the world.People use habitus to determine someone’s status, and it’s the most reliable measure of a person’s competence. The habitus elements you choose will define you to the world. Your clothing, your lifestyle choices, and so on will affect how others perceive you and your competence.

The Power Of Symbols

Highly intelligent people generally:<ul><li>Speak clearly and cogently without any hesitation.</li><li>Establish strong eye contact during conversations with people.</li><li>Possess ample self-confidence.</li><li>Stay alert and react quickly.</li></ul>

How To Spot Intelligence

You can’t directly assess the factor by which competence contributes to successful performance and/or achievement. Many aspects play a part in any successful outcome. Elements of the competence formula include performance, ability, motivation, dealing with difficulty and luck.

The Competence Formula

Competence, even brilliance, isn’t self-evident. You must showcase your skills, expertise and competence, so they resonate most strongly with those whom you want to impress.Brilliance does not speak for itself. You can, in fact, be the best in the world and no one will notice.

Showcase Your Skills

In 1980, Senator Ted Kennedy campaigned for the US presidency. During a high-profile TV interview, newsman Roger Mudd asked Kennedy, “Why are you running for president?” Ten incredibly long seconds passed – an eternity of dead air – before Kennedy came up with an answer. This was the precise moment when Kennedy’s presidential campaign inexorably started downhill. Prime yourself to answer probable questions from bosses, clients and job interviewers. Have clear answers ready.

Ted Kennedy Didn't Know Why He Was Running For President

Ingratiation – People like you more the more you compliment them. This is true even of obvious flattery. Starting your compliments with the right introductory phrasing makes them seem more credible.Opinion Conformity– People like people who agree with their opinions. But if you go overboard, you’ll come across as a toady.Self-presentation – Most people intuitively know how to win the favour of others. Being kind and courteous is a great place to start. Underline the similarities you share with others.

Increase Your Popularity

<ul><li>Does the person ask intelligent questions?</li><li>Can the person separate important from unimportant factors?</li><li>When you present a particular issue that needs resolution, does he or she respond with the most logical, appropriate answers?</li><li>Is the person able to consider all the possible options for resolving the issue?</li><li>Can he or she properly weigh the pros and cons for each option?</li></ul>

The Intelligence Checklist

Positive news radiates positively over every other aspect of a person or event, and bad news does so negatively.Always deliver good news face-to-face, not by phone or email. If you make a presentation sharing good news, stretch it out as long as possible. After your presentation, don’t immediately retreat from the podium. Every second you stand there will solidify your association with that good news.

Associate Yourself with Good News

BIRGing– a technique that enables you to impress others with minimal effort, though it has nothing to do with competence, perceived or otherwise.  BIRGing means that your status automatically goes up if you can demonstrate a connection – however slight – with someone of greater status. For BIRGing not to backfire and make you appear to be namedropping, offer your connection with tact and subtlety.

BIRGing - Basking in Reflected Glory

To demonstrate your competence, use “expectation management” to direct other people’s anticipation and shape positive perceptions of your competence. When you help people reduce or eliminate anxiety about dealing with a stranger – in this case, you – you benefit. Demonstrate confidence in yourself. Subtly refer to your past successes in areas that matter to those whose support you require.

Manage People’s Anticipation, so They Will Expect You to Be Competent

During his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the graduating students about the severe hardships he faced before he became a business legend. “I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple."

The One Good Meal At The Hare Krishna Temple

The greater your attraction and popularity, the greater will be your perceived competence. Project tact, authenticity and self-confidence.The more popular you are, the greater will be your perceived competence. The same is true about being more attractive. Popularity and attractiveness are positive indicators. Thanks to the halo effect, these factors enhance all other personal attributes, including perceived competence. The better you can increase your popularity and attractiveness, the more competent you will seem.

The Halo Effect

Master verbal and nonverbal communication.The greater your attraction and popularity, the greater will be your perceived competence. Project tact, authenticity and self-confidence.Use the “power of symbols” to build the most reliable measure of your competence: your habitus – the way you look and act.Judging other people’s competence is hard; recognizing their incompetence is easier.

Communication Matters

Use the technique of priming your audience by projecting competence from within. For example, suppose your boss asks you to stand in front of your colleagues and answer several questions. “What are you…good at?” “What was your greatest professional success?” “Why should you, of all people, take on the responsibility for an upcoming project?” “Why should anyone be led by you?” Prime yourself by developing answers in advance to these and other likely questions.

Projecting Competence

Mentalist Jack Nasher offers tips to help you appear more competent, attractive, intelligent and important.

Competence does not speak for itself! You can't simply display it; you have to draw people's attention to it. World-renowned negotiation and deception detection expert, business professor, and mentalist Jack Nasher offers effective, proven techniques to convince others that we are talented, trustworthy, and yes, even brilliant. Nasher offers the example of Joshua Bell, possibly the world's most famous violinist. In January 2007, at rush hour, he stepped into a Washington, DC, subway station, dressed like any street busker, and began to play a $4,000,000 Stradivarius. It was part of an experiment staged by a journalist of the Washington Post, who expected Bell's skill alone to attract an immense, awed crowd. But Bell was generally ignored, and when he stopped, nobody applauded. He made $34.17. The good news is that you don't have to accept obscurity: you can positively affect others' perception of your talent. Whether you're looking for work, giving an important presentation, seeking clients or customers for your business, or vying for a promotion, Nasher explains how to use techniques such as expectation management, verbal and nonverbal communication, the Halo Effect, competence framing, and the power of nonconformity to gain control of how others perceive you. Competence is the most highly valued professional trait. But it's not enough to be competent, you have to convey your competence. With Nasher's help you can showcase your expertise, receive the recognition you deserve, and achieve lasting success.

Understand yourself and those around you.

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Competence does not speak for itself! You can't simply display it; you have to draw people's attention to it. World-renowned negotiation and deception detection expert, business professor, and mentalist Jack Nasher offers effective, proven techniques to convince others that we are talented, trustworthy, and yes, even brilliant. Nasher offers the example of Joshua Bell, possibly the world's most famous violinist. In January 2007, at rush hour, he stepped into a Washington, DC, subway station, dressed like any street busker, and began to play a $4,000,000 Stradivarius. It was part of an experiment staged by a journalist of the Washington Post, who expected Bell's skill alone to attract an immense, awed crowd. But Bell was generally ignored, and when he stopped, nobody applauded. He made $34.17. The good news is that you don't have to accept obscurity: you can positively affect others' perception of your talent. Whether you're looking for work, giving an important presentation, seeking clients or customers for your business, or vying for a promotion, Nasher explains how to use techniques such as expectation management, verbal and nonverbal communication, the Halo Effect, competence framing, and the power of nonconformity to gain control of how others perceive you. Competence is the most highly valued professional trait. But it's not enough to be competent, you have to convey your competence. With Nasher's help you can showcase your expertise, receive the recognition you deserve, and achieve lasting success.

Jack Nasher is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Jack Nasher has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Jack Nasher's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.