Showcase Your Skills

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,...

Highly intelligent people generally:

• Speak clearly and cogently without any hesitation.
• Establish strong eye contact during conversations with people.
• Possess ample self-confidence.
• Stay alert and react quickly.

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....

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 thei...

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 ...

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...

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 imm...

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 yoursel...

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 wa...

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...

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 mome...

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 intelligen...

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.

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:

• For women, what counts most is physique – your weight vis-à-vis your proporti...

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...

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 imme...

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...

• Does the person ask intelligent questions?
• Can the person separate important from unimportant factors?
• When you present a particular issue that needs resolution, does he or she respond with the most logical, appropriate answers?
• Is the p...