Cliché: You only have one chance to make a first impression.
Clichés are both true and exaggeration. So, in the spirit of the cliché, we call your attention to a Fast Company posting on handshakes. Complete with videos and examples, the online article talks about how the handshake is a critical part of job interviews, first meetings with clients and normal social interactions.
The handshake is part of what communications trainers talk about as the critical non-verbals – eye contact, posture, gestures, clothing, facial expressions – that are part of the critical component of the overall communications.
At CommCore we have often used statistics from an Albert Mehrabian’s Silent Messages that argues that up to 55% of what the audience receives in communications is body language. A recent tongue-in-cheek video entitled, “Busting the Mehrabian Myth” suggests that 55% is overblown.
Whether it’s 55% or 20% or somewhere in between, the reality is that how we come across through body language and voice tone is critical to our credibility and what others think about us.
Come on, don’t you notice when someone has a strong, convincing handshake AND they look you in the eye when you meet them? Don’t you notice when all you get are a few fingers and not the full hand? I do.