How to become loveble (Guy Kawasaky´s perspective)
Psychoanalysis and psychology are also present in management areas, it is not limited to clinical or sports ... and it can help you achieve a successful career.
Creating relationships today is something elemental and fundamental for succeeding in the workplace, social areas and even in economics.
Guy Kawasaki is one of Mac´s architects, and maintained a close relationship with the late Steve Jobs.
Guy is a middle-aged man, is very friendly, and his facial expression is outgoing and honest.
How is it that this man does captivate the audience and the entire world?
In a lecture at Stanford University CA. Kawasaki outlines some strategies that people can apply to become more pleasant and "lovable" (likeable).
The first tip is that you have to be concise. Major exhibitors can make mistakes, if you're good and you lengthen in your comments is fine, but if you are not a full expert, a summary can get you to seem more knowledgeable. But if you cannot talk much then you're lost.
When Guy studied at Stanford, he saw many people driving a Porsche, and constantly thought that one day he would be one of those drivers. Today, when the businessman walks across campus, knowing that there might be young students thinking that someday they will become successful and could buy a car as luxurious as his ... Guy really focus on how great would it be to be a student at Stanford again
While this is a touching story, not only to move to my readers, but applies another important point of being loveable, and that is to always look to create an emotional bond with your peers, generating an emotional bond with the people you are surrounded with will help you big time.
Kawasaki has also lectured at General Electric, and to generate mutual identification with the audience, he asked her son to take a picture of the washing machine that Guy has at home… a GE.
Remember, we are not alone and we can´t do ANYTHING alone but just sink.
It may sound confusing or risky meaning that the CEO, CFO and each C_O think that if he or she shows his sensitive side, then their leadership and authority will be at risk, but studies have shown otherwise. Finding the opportunity to have an affinity with our leaders (in case of employees) gives the CEOs the possibility to have a closer bond, and that can translate into a better working environment.
Another tip that Guy suggests us is to be genuine. Do not have the smile of PANAM, Panam was an airline in the 70's that had their staff smiling all the time, but it wasn’t a genuine smile, and that made costumers feel awkward. Smile should not be, for example, articulated only with the mouth, it has to be accompanied by a small wink and a lift of the eyebrows, otherwise, the PANAM smile can be interpreted as a growl of an animal. You have to be natural.
Kawasaki also talks about the importance of greeting, which has to last two seconds, the hand shake must be soft, DRY, and the distance depending on different situations, closer or farther, have to be taken account to create an optimal environment for each situation.
The dress code is also something important to consider when one is in a conference or a meeting. A small study of how workplace culture perceives the dressing code concluded that getting too much dressed may denote that "I earn more money than you", being under dress or very casual may denote that the board, the audience have no importance.
Now, so far we can be nice, but that does not mean that we become reliable and lovable. This requires even a much more inner work.
People can be divided into two types. There are cooks and eaters. The dining room is the environment, and often eaters, people, are always thinking. What can I do in order to eat most of the cake? And what is not eaten is often considered a loss. The cook, on the other side, raises a very different question, and sees an opportunity to make larger cakes and more cakes every time. Eating is or let the other part eat a bigger bite is not the main thing, but having more and more to bake more cakes.
When you meet a person you have to be thinking about what you can cook for that person, not see what to do in order to eat more cake.
But if we always are cooks and givers we can become naïve and innocent, and others can suck blood from us from us ... about this Guy thinks the following: He says that most people (and he seriously believe that) are likely to be reciprocal, and if you find no reciprocity, then look the lost piece of cake as a good investment for discovering people that you don’t want in your inner circle
Another important strategy is that it must be a man or women who do things PICEE
Profound
Intelligent
Complete
Empowering
Elegant
Profound: create functional things, have thoughts, ideas, anticipate the needs of its people or its customers.
Intelligence: thinking, understand people.
Guy talks about a car he wanted to buy that it is very fast, but if he buys that car, then his son will gradually be driving it someday sooner or later. So Ford created a MY KEY which is a technological implement that allows the main user to set the maximum speed for other people who have access to the car. It is a smart product generated by someone intelligent.
Complete; think of everything, a bit like the MY KEY, a super car can be sell to a son or a dad.
Empowering, make synergy, not usurp GENERATE.
Stylish: as paying attention to the interface of a program, store decoration, dress code and self-presentation.
WHEN DO SOMETHING, ANY THING, ASK YOURSELF IF YOU ARE ONLY DOING IT, OR YOU ARE PRODUCING A PIECE OF ART.
Finally successful products and successful people do not become famous from a news article or a writing article in a magazine nor newspaper. The best advertising is made mouth to mouth ... is cheaper and WAY more efficient.
What can really make us successful may be something unexpected or something that is not very expensive, something that has to do with "willing" ... People from a village in Vietnam were known from his malnutrition in some of their children, a study was conducted and showed that the reasons that families have healthy children had nothing to do with money or political position in the villas. It had to do only with the "extra mile" that some parents “walked“ by taking a few shrimps from the sand banks of the river (which are abundant in the area and everybody had access to them) and putted some of them in the rice they were feeding their children so that they could have more protein in their diet.
Another point is to face adversity in a positive way, and this should no be understood as a cheap philosophy.
Studying what could go wrong instead of what went wrong can make getting to be able to respond to rough situations.
To be charming we must also see to who we have to be likable.
In matters of products and brands, before we thought that the consumers where family men then were observed more and switched our conclusion to women ... but today we have studied even more… and now we know the kids are the decision making in most of the shopping.
Guy has a daughter for example, which he would do anything to keep her satisfied. This in my opinion can be a double-edged sword because we cannot meet our children demands all the time.
Remember, you have to love the bakers not eaters.
In South Carolina, for example, a long time ago, a huge hazard could not be shot down, and the people of NY donated a fire truck, which was being sent from Europe, and the ship sank, so they had to order and pay for ANOTHER truck and later it was sent to their neighbours who suffered the fire .... This was a long time ago ... and when the 9/11 happened, Charlton South Carolina raised a half million dollars to support the city that once helped them with their own misfortunes.
Reciprocity is often rewarded. Be the baker, not the grieve eater.
You can also be the baker with your boss… So, this philosophy does not only when you are at the "top of the pyramid"
And the main point Guy tells us is ... "When your boss asks you something, drop everything you're doing and do what yoor boss asked you"
Whether you're about to end a financial analysis for a semester or a year analysis, if your boss asks you to do a PowerPoint presentation ... DO IT, not just do it, but as soon as possible, and go to your boss with a sketch or prototype of what you was requested to do.
This sends the message that what your bosses need are important to you, and he will feel important (yes bosses also need to feel that way).
Remember, you attract more flies with honey than with vinegar. Become a baker, not an ambitioned greave starving selfish eater.
If you want to hear the full paper, and in fact, I recommend the following Stanford podcast:
http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=2669
