Put Your Best Foot Forward: Make a Great Impression by Taking Control of How Others See You - Softcover

Dimitrius, Jo-Ellan; Mazzarella, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068486407X ISBN 13: 9780684864075

Publisher: Scribner, 2002

Synopsis

Time-tested advice on projecting a positive image in any situation -- from the Internet to an interview -- drawn from scientific and popular literature about the clues people use to judge others

In Put Your Best Foot Forward, two experts in "people reading" identify the four qualities -- trustworthiness, caring, humility, and capability -- that form the foundation of every great impression. They explain how to convey these vital qualities through personal appearance, body language, voice, and actions, and reveal how particular environments affect the impression one makes. With hands-on tips and advice, they teach readers how to accentuate their positive traits and eliminate negative ones.
The "Impression Management" techniques you will learn in this book have been garnered from over 10,000 interviews and employed successfully by people from every walk of life, ranging from leaders of Fortune 500 companies to lawyers and other professionals and to business people at every rung of the corporate ladder and individuals who want to enhance their personal relationships.
For anyone who wants (or needs) to enhance the way he or she is perceived by others -- from executives to students, nervous suitors to chat room visitors -- Put Your Best Foot Forward is the place to start.

About this title

Review

First impressions are always difficult to shake. So why not help influence how others view you in the first place, thereby affecting the way they think of you in the long run? Put Your Best Foot Forward, by Jo-Ellan Dimitrius (who specializes in the meaning of appearance and behavior) and Mark Mazzarella (a trial lawyer), fully lays out a step-by-step program they call Impression Management, designed to do just that. Based on extensive individual interviews, literature reviews, and survey analyses, it begins by examining exactly how and why people make these initial assessments. It then explores the specific "qualities others find most important, and how each of the ways you paint a picture of your personality and values--appearance, body language, voice, communication style, the content of your speech, your actions, and environment--can be honed to project the best possible impression of who you are and how you are likely to think and act." Wisely, the authors never suggest compromising your integrity or surrendering your individuality. They instead recommend crucial but simple behavior such as choosing dark clothing to command authority, increasing "soft but sustained" eye contact, and avoiding "highbrow vocabulary and snobbish words." --Howard Rothman

About the Author

Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, Ph.D., the nation's leading expert on the meaning of appearance and behavior, has been a consultant for more than 600 jury trials, including the Rodney King, John du Pont, and O. J. Simpson cases. She lives in Los Angeles.

Edition details

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 068486407X
• ISBN 13: 9780684864075
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320