Sabotage | 5 mistakes that destroy a first impression

All productive relationships in your life start with an initial introduction. Regardless of whether the individual’s future relationship to you is business-related, personal or even familial, there’s always going to be a period of around 30 seconds when their initial impression of you will define how your relationship will begin.

In your personal life, you may have hours, weeks, months or years to cast off the shackles of the first impression, yet in business, the first impression may be the difference between a sale and a flop, securing funding and going out of business or even getting the job and being turned away.

And whilst you may well be an intellectual genius, your assessor will have already decided much about what they think of you before you ever open your mouth. Small things stand out before you’re even fully in view. For example, a 2011 study by Dutch researchers which was published in ScienceDirect found that regardless of any other factor, those wearing visibly name-brand clothes such as Lacoste and Tommy Hilfiger were seen as ‘higher-status’ than those wearing non-designer clothes.

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Meeting | You have just 7 seconds to make a good first impression. Here's how to do it well

"Perceptions did not differ on any of the other dimensions that might affect the outcome of social interactions," the authors noted. "There were no differences in perceived attractiveness, kindness, and trustworthiness."