Monday 20 April 2015

The importance of likability in all professions

Human touch is a sheer necessity to co-exist in a social stage. Especially, a workplace needs an ambiance of positivism that acts as a factor to drive enthusiasm among co-workers and team members. Without such environment, workplaces become clogged with communication lapses, which become the reason for failure of execution of operations. If not a failure, glitches in processes are inevitable. What is the aspect that turns a workplace to be with blended with positivism and the vibe to work? The answer is ‘Likability’. This characteristic in any professional or individual can induce a positive vibe in others and motivate them towards themselves. Currently, as workplaces are stuffed with people from diverse ethnic background, hailing from different locations across the world, human touch is a factor, which is quite impactful in uniting them as a team.
Credibility to be liked is of much importance in any profession. This is the warmth in human behavior that works as a lubricant to frictions in professional relationships. However, ‘Likability’ should not be confused with the propensity to take sides for personal gain or to get ‘relieved’ from responsibilities. Mutual respect, behavior, mindset and thought process are the prime factors that determines Likability of a person. In the same time, these features also define the personality of an individual. Therefore, it is observable that personality has a lot more to do with likeability of a person. However, there are a number of subtle differences between the two. Personality is about the ingrained characteristics of an individual. Likeability is more about what others expect of a person. In addition to this, personality is harder to change and it requires much time to get accustomed to an environment. In contrast to this, likability can be achieved in a short time within a professional environment. This only requires the quality to act and response to others in appropriate times.
Emotional Intelligence is an aspect that triggers likeability. It is found out that emotional conduct is helpful in workplace as they help in productivity. Emotionally intelligent persons are prone to be liked by others. Positivity, self-awareness, empathy and social skills are the basics of emotional intelligence. These are also the features, which help to maintain a good social environment.
Likability is a success mantra across various industry verticals. It is not only impactful in workplace, but also across various industries and professions such as marketing, business development and sales. In business development, success is not merely dependent on the product; it is more a factor of an approach to the product. This, in turn is dependent on the attitude of the person who represents the product and eventually Likability of the person becomes a pivotal element for the transaction. Many a times, this feature of Likability turns out to be the only driving factor for success in sales and marketing.
It is an observable fact that in workplace personal feelings and attitudes are becoming more important than competence. A person who is an expert may be approached by anybody, but if the same person does not know how to behave properly, people would have to think twice before the act. As a result of this very situation, the person would have difficulties in dealing with others and receive those ‘professional favors’. Contrary to this, if a person keeps positive attitude towards anybody, enthusiastic and is ever ready to help, he or she will find less difficulties in dealing with people and vice versa. Friendliness, Relevance and Realness are the aspects that define likability of a person. The ability to communicate, integrity of thoughts and authenticity of emotions makes a person likable. Likability becomes a success factor, as these characters in a person are the primary requirement of quality professionalism.
Likability plays a major role in being hired. In addition to skills and competency, personal traits such as behavior and attitude become the major determinants. The prominence of Likability can be observed from the fact that, a skillful person who is arrogant has less chance to be hired than an incompetent person who is lovable. This is because teamwork and collaborated tasks have gained prominence in modern work space and personality rather than skills plays the quintessential role.
Higher the position of a person upon the hierarchy, greater is the need of likability. Managers who are likable can convince the team about the strategy and drive them towards the objectives. The same is with advisers and higher positions in the circle such as VPs and Chief Officers. More likable a person is more is his or her potential to win confidence of the decision makers. While a person is speaking, people are more inclined towards the arguments and the way the topic is presented rather than what is being delivered in reality. This sheds lights on the importance of personality of the speaker more than what is being spoken.

Likability has psychological implications. When the ingrained traits of a team are directed towards a common goal, it becomes easier to achieve the objectives. Likability of a person induces positive traits on group behavior and hence renders a workplace a better environment. This is important across any profession because it gets the work done more than anything else does. To break the barrier of human mind and ego is the toughest job. What likability does is eliminating these very obstacles as the primal  step of a relationship. 

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