What’s Your First Impression?
15 seconds isn’t much time. But 15 seconds is all it takes to make an impression. Is 15 seconds long enough to start the judging process? Yes & no. Consider this: Did you know that a 500 megahertz Pentium III processor has a clock speed of approximately 500 million instructions/second? In 15 seconds it can read 7 1/2 BILLION pieces of information! Your brain is no slouch, either. You process at lightening speed, too.
Two weeks ago I put this to the test. I lead a seminar for over 400 business people. I asked them to each partner with a stranger. Then I said, “Stare into the other person’s eyes until I say stop!” The hotel ballroom fell silent. The staring began. Then people started to squirm & make faces. Then laughter started. I called time at 15 seconds. To most, it felt like an eternity! 15 seconds was way more time than they were comfortable taking to process basic information and form opinions about the other individual. Next, I asked them to tell their partner what kind of work they thought the partner did. They felt they had a reasonable chance to guess correctly. Many were right! And the room erupted into laughter again.
It’s smart to remember that when you meet someone, use your first 15 seconds to make a solid first impression.
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