Are you wondering how you can improve your relationships with your friends and family? Are you curious how to get or keep the job of your dreams? Do you want to become a more popular person? This book will show you how to do all that by raising your likeability factor—or how much other people like you.After all, life is a series of popularity contests. The choices other people make about you determine your health, wealth, and happiness. And decades of research prove that people choose who they like. They vote for them, they buy from them, they marry them, and they spend precious time with them.The good news is that you can arm yourself for the contest and win life’s battles for preference. How? By being likeable. The more you are liked—or the higher your likeability factor—the happier your life will be. This book will show you how to raise that likeability factor by teaching you how to boost four critical elements of your personality: •Friendliness: your ability to communicate liking and openness to others •Relevance: your capacity to connect with others’ interests, wants, and needs •Empathy: your ability to recognize, acknowledge, and experience other people’s feelings •Realness: the integrity that stands behind your likeability and guarantees its authenticity What happens when you improve in these areas and boost your likeability factor? •You bring out the best in others •You survive life’s challenges •You have better health—and even improve others’ health, too •You outperform in your daily roles •You win the popularity contests that define your life Join me for a few hours and I’ll share the results of hundreds of thousands of pages of research, numerous seminars, and hundreds of interviews with people just like you! Together let’s build our likeability factor and improve our lives!
If you're like most people, you're neither at the top nor the bottom of the likeability scale. If you were at the top, you'd know it, because your many friends would constantly tell you what a charmed life you lead--and you'd have to agree. You can imagine what this life might look like: You'd still have your share of bad news and bad luck, but it would seem as if all of life's close calls fell firmly in your favor.
But what would life look like if you were at the low end of the likeability scale? Probably something like this:
You wake up, roll out of bed, shower, dress, and leave for your job. On the way you have an eight thirty appointment with your internist, Dr. Smith. Dr. Smith is, as always, overbooked and harried. You sit in her waiting room for what seems like an eternity, yet you know that only one patient was scheduled before you. You're angry because Dr. Smith always seems to give other people a great deal of time, and in fact, when the patient emerges, you see that he and the doctor enjoy a solid rapport--they're chatting amiably, exchanging restaurant recommendations, and Dr. Smith is promising to call him later that day.
You, on the other hand, snapped at Dr. Smith during your last visit because you were so angry that it took so long to see her. Now you do it again, and after a brief and unpleasant appointment, you're out of the office with a quick diagnosis and an absentminded promise to call you sometime in the future. (1)
You drive off to work. Already upset, you're dreading the day's first appointment, which is with your assistant. Your company's direct competitor, the Widget Corporation, has been on a hiring binge. Both your assistant and your coworker's have been offered jobs with better salaries at Widget's headquarters. Yesterday you found out that your coworker's assistant has decided to stay, because the two of them are truly bonded--the assistant loves her boss and knows he'll try as hard as possible to match Widget's offer.
You're hoping your assistant will make the same decision because he is industrious and effective and you don't have time to train someone new. Unfortunately, he tells you that he is taking the Widget offer after all. You wonder if the fact that you humiliated him in front of his peers last week has anything to do with it, but you doubt it--he deserved to be dressed down. You sigh and comment about how hard it is to find a loyal secretary. For the umpteenth (and last) time, he reminds you that he is not a secretary. "Whatever," you mutter. (2)
Your mood increasingly foul, you now march off to your late-morning meeting. Here you find that your client has given you low marks in your annual account performance review. You can't believe it--you think he's scum, and the idea that he thinks the same of you is shocking. The world is so unfair. And it seems more unfair when your boss tells you that there isn't enough money in her budget for the raise you were expecting. (3)
The rest of the day is unpleasant. Ever since you happened to mention to that horrible assistant in legal that she could lose a few pounds, she seems to have had it in for you, and you can't get your contracts back from her office in a timely fashion. Whatever happened to professionalism? you wonder. (4)
But you really crash when your insurance agent calls to let you know that the settlement from your recent car accident will be less than you'd hoped. The hearing was as contentious as you'd expected, but now you wonder whether you lost points with the judge by suggesting she return to law school for a refresher course. Why is it that so few people can take constructive criticism?...
Reviews
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Being well liked means more money in your pocket, a happier workplace, and more love in your life. Yahoo! leadership coach and bestselling author of LOVE IS THE KILLER APP reveals four aspects of likability, which you can measure and improve. Reader Stephen Hoye's honeyed delivery is a perfect example of how listeners lacking in likability can best communicate. Readers will have to press pause on their players to complete the exercises, not possible while driving, but just thinking about how you can raise your likability factor will pay off with new communication skills and greater business success. R.O. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules and The One Thing You Need to Know. . ....
"Conventional wisdom insists that it's more important to be respected than liked. In this book Tim Sanders challenges that notion and reveals the awesome power of likeability. He shows us that if we want to garner support from our associates, earn the loyalty of our employees, lead our followers to a better future, be healthy, and finally achieve our life's dreams, we must first be liked. In this important and necessary book, Sanders tells us why our likeability is the foundation of our success, and shows us how we can increase our own."
George Foreman...
"I think Tim Sanders hits the nail right on the head. If you just make them love you, they'll be happy to love you. And I learned early in life that if you want people to love you you gotta make sure you love them back."
Peter Handal, CEO, Dale Carnegie & Associates Inc....
"Tim Sanders provides an insightful look at how developing likeability can allow you to influence others and be more successful. The Likeability Factor should be a part of everyone's success library. It is a fast-paced, readable book. Grab a copy to use on your success journey!"
