WHAT YOU SEE IS NOT WHAT YOU GETI like this candidate or didn't I? It's sad, but unfortunately it's
true.
I asked Mr. Pfister how, in a business situation, one can make
the right impression. How, for example, do you send out a subtext
of confidence?
Smile, was his first suggestion. "Someone gets up to address a
board meeting, and often he or she is too flat, too nervous, or
just frightened. The board senses that, just the way animals sense
fear. The same is true for one-on-one meetings."
Remembering Philip Marchand's advice to Dan Quayle, I asked
Mr. Pfister how he reconciled this with his own advice about
smiling.
"That's a special case. Of course the wrong sort of smile, the
too eager and boyish one, may send out a subtext of callow youth.
In that case, you either change your smile or ease up on it.
"In any business situation," he stressed, "it's very important
to look as comfortable as you can. A smile certainly helps. Another
way of transmitting comfort and ease is to use the other person's
first name. The first name, far from offending, puts the other
person at ease, and creates a subtext of friendliness. To keep
that subtext going, be conversational. Don't speechify or lecture,
even if you're addressing a group. Remember, the shorter your
talk, the better. It's not so much what you say as the way that
you say it!"
I wondered if it didn't take a lot of practice for executives to
learn these rules, but Mr. Pfister shook his head. "You'd be amazed
at how quickly executives in large companies learn. Executives
must be leaders. The better they are at communicating, the more
they know about transmitting the exact subtext they're after, and
the better they are at leading. The executive in the ivory tower
is a thing of the past."