Your Personality is Your Business Card
People usually do business more frequently with people they like. You can tell if a business relationship is worth pursuing within a couple minutes. In fact, if you pay attention, you’ll find that you usually have a sense of possible success within a couple seconds – even before the “Hello”. It can be the way a person enters a room with a pleasing smile, or not. Maybe it’s the way they make eye contact to engage in a meaningful conversation, or not. Perhaps it’s the way they listen to your every word while being genuinely engaged in the conversation, or not. You see, it’s all about your personality. The dictionary defines personality as the combination of characteristics or qualities that form an individual’s distinctive character.
Knowledge, skill and ability are only part of the success package. You can be the best practitioner in your field, but if your personality is not engaging, your abilities will fall short of where you could have been and will deliver much less total value in the end. Why? Because it’s rare that any breakthrough of significant value occurs through the actions of a single individual without the involvement of others. Simply put, people engage better and more often with people they like. And people like to be around a person who possesses a welcoming personality. They feel safer in the exchange of ideas and in the recommendations of alternatives. When the exchange of ideas is better, the fruitful adoption of a shared vision is exponentially more likely.
Your personality lets others see the potential interaction and likability you could bring to their table. Your personality is your business card and it’s the most valuable thing you can carry with you.
