Imagine you are sitting in a new employee orientation at a Fortune 500 company. You are excited to begin work and looking forward to learning about the company’s mission, vision, and goals. Mark, a senior executive enters the room. At first glance, you notice his clothing.
He’s wearing ill-fitting, causal, khaki pants, a tight button down collar shirt with a small coffee stain, no tie and he has long, unruly hair. He begins speaking without introducing himself and talks in a quiet, monotone voice.As he is speaking, he seldom looks up and rarely makes eye contact. The moment Mark walked into the room, you began forming opinions about him and the company that just hired you. This powerful first impression may have caused you to second-guess your decision to join this company. Now imagine you are sitting in a new employee orientation and Samantha, a senior executive enters the room.
You notice that Samantha is very polished and professional looking. She smiles as she enters the room and introduces herself and her role in the company.Just a quick glance at Samantha and you are reassured about the leadership in this company. Mark and Samantha only have moments to present their company and themselves in a positive light. These first impressions are vital to your opinion about the company and it takes about three seconds for you to form a conclusion (Flora, 2004). In this scenario, Samantha knows that she is being evaluated and that her body language, appearance, and mannerisms are critical to setting the tone for her as a leader.
Her smile and professional look can influence and inspire you.Even if she behaves differently in the future, your first impression of her as an effective leader will motivate you to support her in achieving the company’s goals. Unfortunately, for Mark, the opposite is true. If a few weeks later you see him in a situation where his employees respect and support him as a leader, your first impression will still dominate your thinking. This new behavior as an effective leader will not change your opinion of Mark unless you see him in different situations over time that contradict your first impression (Science Daily, 2011).First Impression about John The persistence of first impressions affected me when I read First Impressions describing John as an extrovert and John as an introvert.
I read about John as an extrovert first. I immediately made an assumption about John based on the title, and the picture to the side of the article. The title described John as an extrovert, so I assumed he was friendly and outgoing. The picture of a man in a suit gave the impression that he was a professional. After reading the paragraph, I quickly sized John up as a confident, young, educated professional.
Since I read John is an extrovert first, this impression stayed with me when I read the second paragraph, John is an introvert. In this paragraph, I assumed John, the confident, young, educated professional, had a long tiring day and he walked along the shady side of the street because it was hot and humid. He didn’t interact in the bar because he had a lot on his mind. My impression of John didn’t change when reading the second paragraph, because my impression was solidified as soon as I read the first few sentences of the first paragraph.The order in which I read the paragraphs made a difference in how I characterized John.
When I read about John as an introvert first, based on the title alone, I made a quick assumption that he thinks before he speaks, and takes awhile to warm up to people. The paragraph and the picture on the right, where the man in the suit is alone, eating lunch and looking at his watch, supported my assumption that John is quiet and uncomfortable in social situations.Since I read John is an introvert first, I believed John still had introverted predispositions when reading the second paragraph describing him as an extrovert. Conclusion It’s human nature to form opinions about others based on our first impressions of them.
We are hardwired to make instant decisions about people’s characteristics and these conclusions are difficult to change. As leaders, it’s important to remember that people are always sizing us up and we need to make a good first impression, because first impressions are persistent.
