Saw this on TheMuse.com written by Lisa B. Marshall and it reminded me of how important first impressions are.  She sets up the situation that we’ve all been in – introducing yourself at a meeting:

Like you, I attend my fair share of meetings. As a consultant, I’m often meeting with people I’ve only laid eyes on for the first time just moments before and, almost always, I’m asked to introduce myself to them.

“Lisa, tell us a little bit about yourself.”

Ugh. Why is this little question so hard to answer? Perhaps because we are complicated and we’re being asked—usually on the spot—to make ourselves sound simple. Or maybe because there’s an element about it that always makes me feel like I’m supposed to be selling myself.

She gives 3 tips for making a good impression:

1. Communicate your contribution (tell why you are there)
2. Set yourself apart, be memorable
3. Communicate culturally (be aware of where you and with whom you’re meeting)

You can read the entire article at the link below:

How to introduce yourself

Saw this on LinkedIn and thought it interesting.

Written by Steve W. Martin in Harvard Business Review

If you ask an extremely successful salesperson, “What makes you different from the average sales rep?” you will most likely get a less-than-accurate answer, if any answer at all. Frankly, the person may not even know the real answer because most successful salespeople are simply doing what comes naturally.

Over the past decade, I have had the privilege of interviewing thousands of top business-to-business salespeople who sell for some of the world’s leading companies. I’ve also administered personality tests to 1,000 of them. My goal was to measure their five main personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and negative emotionality) to better understand the characteristics that separate them their peers.

The main key personality attributes of top salespeople are:

1. Modesty
2. Conscientious
3. Achievement
4. Curiosity
5. Lack of gregariousness (a surprise finding)
6. Lack of Discouragement
7. Not embarrassable

Read the full article here:

Seven traits of successful sales people

Well, this sure has rung true for me in my career.  I have seen others get promoted when I was doing as well or better than they were.  What I noticed was those who got promoted engaged in self-promotion.  Not a bad thing at all, just that to get what you want you need to tell those above you what you want to do.  If you want to get promoted, you need to talk to your boss about it and ask what things you need to do in order for your boss to recommend you for promotion.  Being humble is admirable, but it can hold you back.

An excerpt from the article on this is below the link to the article.

Positive trait that can hold you back

In a perfect world, your completed assignments would speak for themselves. You’d work on friendly, collaborative teams with fair-minded co-workers, and each person would be free with praise and full of self-effacing humility. You’d never have to worry about self-promotion or navigating office politics to get your due.

But the reality is that you need to speak up. Generosity and a humble nature are great attributes to have, of course. They help you keep a team-first attitude, improve your leadership abilities, and generally endear people to you as a professional.

On July 14, while in the Raleigh-Durham area, I booked a boat through the timeshare boat club I belong to (Freedom Boat Club, (Freedom Boat Club) for Jordan Lake and took a few FOCM members out for after work boating.  Present were: Vince Hoefling, Michelle Jacobson, Gayle Grandinetti, Mike Burrows, Nick Macaulay, Carrie Gallagher, Wendy Revenaugh and Kelly O’Brien.  And a few of us went out to Tyler’s Taproom in Apex for additional refreshments.

 

As many of you know, one of the founding principles of FOCM Networking is “patience”.   Patience is required in several forms – patience to earn/receive your FOCM membership card and patience to wait for events to be posted to the international world wide web public record.  This posting is one such example.  On July 15, 2015 in one of the most emotional ceremonies ever – Brian Horan received his FOCM Membership card.  As I recall (and since it’s been so long, none of those in attendance can really remember how it actually happened), there was nary a dry eye to be seen.  Join me in welcoming Brian Horan.

Present at that evening’s event which occurred at Serena’s on Miami Blvd in Durham, NC were (front row then back row and left to right):  Michelle Pasiecznik, Brad Johnson, Pippa Wilson, Lauren Jones, Christina Alexander Smith, Brian Horan, Nick Macaulay, Rosina Pavia, Renee Brown, Jennifer Ausland, Sharon Braddy, Bernie Linner, a photo bomber and Lisa Monette.

 

September 3 would have been Peter Holthe’s 57th birthday.  On that day I thought of him and know he would be enjoying the evolution of FOCM.  I miss being able to talk with him.  I know he would have had some great ideas and great stories to contribute to this website.

Happy birthday Peter!

You can read more about how Peter influenced this website and the forming of FOCM in the link below or click on the “about” button in the tabs.

About

 

The FOCM logo has received its official Trademark/Service Mark approval from the US Patent and Trademark Office.   Many thanks to Alicia Kelley, FOCM’s unofficial paralegal for helping submit this and work through understanding how to get it through the process.

First impressions really matter.  I saw this article on-line from a Harvard Business Professor and her focus on first impressions.

Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy has been studying first impressions alongside fellow psychologists Susan Fiske and Peter Glick for more than 15 years, and has discovered patterns in these interactions.

In her new book, “Presence,” Cuddy says that people quickly answer two questions when they first meet you:

Can I trust this person?
Can I respect this person?

Psychologists refer to these dimensions as warmth and competence, respectively, and ideally you want to be perceived as having both.

Interestingly, Cuddy says that most people, especially in a professional context, believe that competence is the more important factor. After all, they want to prove that they are smart and talented enough to handle your business.

But in fact, warmth, or trustworthiness, is the most important factor in how people evaluate you.

“From an evolutionary perspective,” Cuddy says, “it is more crucial to our survival to know whether a person deserves our trust.”

It makes sense when you consider that in cavemen days it was more important to figure out if your fellow man was going to kill you and steal all your possessions than if he was competent enough to build a good fire.
First 2 things noticed when meeting someone new

A long time friend of mine, Michael Williams has joined Thrive 4-7.  Thrive 4-7 has developed a mobile phone app useful for tracking and managing mild depression, anxiety and stress.  The app is called Mevii and it was launched on Facebook and is available in the app stores for iPhones and Android

FOCM members are eligible for a Friends and Family Code Here is the link: Free Trial Mevii App

It’s a 7 day free trial after which it is available at a 20% discount for $7.99.  The Friends and Family Code expires August 31.  You can click the link, sign up, provide payment information, and you will not get charged until after the 7 day free trial ends. At the end of the 7 day free trail you can do nothing and become a regular subscriber at $7.99/month or you can opt out/unsubscribe on day 7.

Feedback on your experience is appreciated and can be done via commenting here or emailing Michael at Michael.Williams@thrive47.com

Alcami is looking to fill project manager (all levels) and program manager positions across all their office locations.   Alcami provides services for all phases of pharmaceutical development for small and large molecules through two laboratories located in Durham and Wilmington, North Carolina, as well as Germantown, WI, St. Louis, MO, Edison, NJ, Charleston, SC and Weert, Netherlands.

Go to the link below for more information and to apply.  I can provide job descriptions, write to me at chris@focmnetworking.com if you would like to get them.

Alcami Job Openings