5 Powerful Ways to Impress People
The desire to impress others is something we all feel from time to time. We’ve cleaned up our homes, dressed nice, and acted our best so that people will be impressed.
That’s not to say you don’t do these things for yourself. That’s true too. Finding ways to impress others is about our preference to be appreciated and loved by people.
Perhaps we’d all agree none of us want to be looked down on or hated. Thankfully, there’s been research done on this topic that can help us out.
Here’s a list of research backed ways to impress others that will help you be very impressive to people.
1. Display positive body language
A Stamford Advocate article discussed how people make quick judgments just off of the initial presentation they get from you.
The psychological term used for this is thin slicing. The implication would seem to be that your body language is a key part of how you can make good impressions.
There are a number of ways you can communicate yourself positively with your body. A few of them include:
- Having a straight posture with your shoulders relaxed
- Keeping your arms relaxed to your side
- Keeping your legs apart
- Using your hands when you speak
- Giving genuine smiles
There are many other techniques to send the right message with your body language. It goes to show that how you come off is just as important, if not more, than what you say.
2. Mirror people
There’s a concept in psychology known as the chameleon affect. It’s the idea that when we copy each other’s behavior, that creates a feeling of comfort and liking with someone.
Research has been performed on this effect a few times. The results showed that people more often admired individuals when they were mimicking their posture and movements.
The next time you’re talking to someone new, try to follow their lead in how they move and display themselves.
You might find that you impress others more often as a result.
3. Be open about your flaws
You would think telling people your flaws would actually make others be less impressed with you. In actuality, it can make people more impressed.
Researchers call this the “beautiful mess effect”. In sharing our own vulnerabilities, we tend to view it as something negative, and think other people are doing the same.
In contrast, we see other people being vulnerable, we tend to look at that positively. A few examples of being vulnerable include:
- Confessing love
- Revealing imperfections
- Asking for help
If at any point you can do one of these things in your interactions, other people might have a more favorable few.
All that said though, I wouldn’t advise randomly confessing your love to a stranger.
4. Act like you like them
This is one of those techniques that’s kind of surprising how easily we can make others feel good about us.
If you act like you like someone, they’re more likely to like you back. In an article on reciprocal liking, it was found when people were given a positive evaluation by the partner they were assigned, they were more likely to give one back.
So, the key here is to be forthcoming about anything you like about someone in your interactions with others.
Don’t be too expressive to the point of flattery, but just be honest and genuine about anything positive that stands out to you.
If they feel you’re impressed with them, they’ll be more likely to be impressed with you.
5. Talk about your potential, more than your accomplishments
It’s funny how what we typically think would make a good impression, doesn’t exactly do that. We’ve all probably bragged about accomplishing something great to someone.
We do it with the idea it’s going to make someone admire us. But in actuality, your perceived potential, can be more impressive to people than your accomplishments.
A Stamford-Harvard study found that people had greater interest in those who had the potential to win an award for something, than those who already won something.
Focus more on what you bring to the table in a situation. It can be what you can bring to a job you’re applying for, or what you can bring to a relationship with someone.
It’s kind of like the idea of getting people to think past the sale. Make people see all of the upsides in you, and they’ll be more likely to have a positive impression after their interaction with you.
We try so hard to make people feel impressed with us, that we often end up doing the opposite. The main key in these tips is just making people feel good.
If you do everything to accomplish that with who you are and how you act, you’ve got a pretty good chance of being impressive to someone.