First Impressions: Trust trumps Competence
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Harvard professor Amy Cuddy emphasizes that trust, rather than competence, is the key element in first impressions, which has significant implications for professional profiles. An analysis of hundreds of CVs and LinkedIn profiles reveals that most professionals fail to convey trust, focusing solely on competence and stability instead. The MEXT group's 'hutrust®' approach aims to improve trust in these profiles and highlights the importance of relationships and vision in building effective professional connections.
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First Impressions: Trust trumps Competence
- 1. part of the Asia Pacific mext/duxton group mext professional services practice: DOES YOUR CV AND LINKEDIN PROFILE BUILD TRUSTAT FIRST SIGHT?
- 2. In first impressions trust is more important than competence, finds Amy Cuddy, Harvard Psychology Professor and author of ‘Presence’. Harvard Professor Amy Cuddy has made a living out of telling people how to act in front of others. Indeed, she’s become so popular at it that her Ted talk on the subject is the second most viewed video on Ted.com, with almost 40 million views Harvard Professor Amy Cuddy has made a living out of telling people how to act in front of others. Indeed, she’s become so popular at it that her Ted talk on the subject is the second most viewed video on Ted.com, with almost 40 million views
- 3. In first impressions trust is more important than competence, finds Amy Cuddy, Harvard Psychology Professor and author of ‘Presence’. In her recent book, Presence, Ms Cuddy explains how you can make yourself feel more powerful and important ahead of an important interview or key meeting.
- 4. During her research Ms Cuddy found that self assurance and competence were the devices which helped people to engage the most with others – to win deals and get the best jobs. But, above all, she found that trust was key from the beginning, without it everything else tended to lose value. Interestingly, she even puts this down to the evolution of humans – who you could trust around the camp fire back in the day when Stonehenge was breaking new ground as architecture for sunworshippers. “It makes sense when you consider that in cavemen days it was more important to figure out if your fellow man was going to murder you and steal all your possessions than if he was competent enough to build a good fire” says Cuddy.
- 5. Recently, I’ve been reviewing hundreds of CVs and LinkedIn profiles from men and women in the professional services industries, and the observation I arrived at was that none of those professionals had been able to convey real trust. All those CVs and LinkedIn profiles focused almost wholly on demonstrating levels of competence rather than trust. Power posing rather than meaningful engagement. So what’s wrong with that?
- 6. Apart from your house, spouse, children and car (never in that order), LinkedIn is possibly your greatest asset as a professional. Recent studies have shown that of prospective clients and contacts – regardless of your industry – look at your LinkedIn profile after they meet you for the first time. Crucially, they also do this before checking you and your company out on your website. Most CVs and LinkedIn profiles convey only stability and competence as a trust factor, but it is the other trust categories that really matter to trust at first sight – back to the cavemen days. Exploring the staff and firm’s trust drivers; mixing and focusing them correctly maximises trust in the partner and the firm. ‘Recently, I’ve been reviewing hundreds of CVs and LinkedIn profiles in professional services, and none of those professionals had been able to convey real trust.’ Andrew Chilvers, mext UK lead and social media expert LinkedIn CV
- 7. Most professionals have a LinkedIn presence explaining their competence and rock solid stability, but without any of the core trust values such as relationships, vision, benefits for clients… and a large number have no LinkedIn presence at all. So, in short, most CVs and LinkedIn profiles have very little information for a prospect or client to see other than current status and background. Instead, a well designed LinkedIn profile needs to build various levels of trust the moment the page emerges. It builds on relationships, benefits for clients’ businesses, a vision supporting business development, client and stakeholder management and cross selling. So how long does trust take to build? Trust consists of 6 distinct categories. All CVs and LinkedIn Profiles analysed only focus on competence – the dimension Cuddy proved to be less important in first impressions.
- 8. Not long, actually. It only takes a few minutes to feel you trust someone, if they appear trustworthy. At mext we’ve found that we can determine almost exact levels of trust immediately. And improving that level of trust is our speciality. Having developed the HuTrust® approach with Professor W Salber, we analyse different ideas around trust building every day. From energy companies and investment fund pitches to professional services firms, we’ve worked with a host of clients to build trust that develops into more sales and more effective trust between professional within the company.
- 9. How do we do it? HuTrust® The hutrust model, its six facets of trust and the trust driver game are copyright and trademark mext/Ifm/Stefan Grafe and may only be used and replicated with express permission off-the-wall copyright holder.
- 10. HuTrust® This knowledge enables us to assess how well any CV, LinkedIn profile or content piece delivers against the right trust categories – then explore the trust drivers with the partner and translate this back into powerful trust building work. And that doesn’t stop at the CV and LinkedIn profile, but helps us determine with the partners, business development professionals and marketing what kind of topics, focusing on which trust category, need to be developed and how all this needs to be written. Not just a one piece content level, but strategically over time, across partners and the firm – and engaging the right clients, their influencers and prospects. Next time you’re warming yourself around a camp fire, take a closer look at the people around you. I’ll wager you’ll soon recognise – even unconsciously – which of the story tellers you can trust and which are simply power posing.
- 11. About mext and the author Mext are experts in helping clients globally build trust through their brands, services, communications and people to improve their performance. www.mextconsulting.com [email protected] (+61) 401 969 533 HuTrust® is the psychologically correct understanding of how trust works in our minds. It is scientifically correct, statistically validated and measurable, and practically proven with clients from Australia to Qatar and Airlines to Yogurt. www.hutrust.com Andrew Chilvers is mexts’s UK lead and a passionate driver of effective social media and communications solutions. Recently he has worked with organisations including UK police departments and leading global professional services firms. [email protected] +44 779 614 7030 grow with vision, precision and certainty®