Power Of Likeability

June 11, 2012

Interview with Rohit Bhargava, author of the book Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action

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Mike Carruthers:
Being a jerk in life isn’t going to get you far. In fact it turns out being likeable that is a currency you can spend to buy your success.

Rohit Bhargava:
And I think ultimately what it comes down to is this idea that we want to do business with people that we like. And we want to build relationships with people that we like and likeability is actually a prerequisite for trust.
 

Rohit Bhargava, author of the book Likeonomics, says there are several factors to being likeable one is telling the truth or being unexpectedly honest.

So for me for example it was sharing the reality of how I spent my time on Fridays’ putting post-it notes onto a piece of board to write and research my book. For other people it might be the unexpected honesty behind how they actually do their day or where they work or what they do that can connect us to other people.

Interestingly being likeable is not just about being nice for the simple reason that…

One of the behaviors of somebody who is nice is that they’re afraid to tell you the truth because they just want to be nice. And if I you think about it in a professional context but also in a relationship context the person who is able to deliver that truth back to you - who is able to be up front about what they’re thinking that’s a much more powerful bond to create trust than being a yes man or a yes woman that just says, “Oh yeah everything’s great.”

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.