The Value of a Smile in Business
After reading a
recent article in the Britain 2012 magazine I was pleased to see a write up on
what a genuine smile can do and how it can make us feel. Have a think how often do you smile or laugh
during the day! What kind of person do you
present as when seeing other people?
Following this
week’s events which have presented a whole heap of tough challenges, listening
to Mr Osborne and Mr King’s forecast of the economy, optimism and positive
feelings seem to have diluted most of us like a weak glass of orange
cordial. The feeling that no one in
authority appears to have a solid answer to a positive solution to make the
country better is a sober thought. But at
the same time we have a responsibility to continue in our daily lives and do
the best possible.
Back to the
importance of that smile – we’ve all heard the old adage it takes 20 muscles to
smile and 100 muscles to frown. I read
that researchers at Bangor University found that a smile can make a huge
influence on person’s decision making.
So can this make a difference on changing the financial value of a
choice – like when you’re out networking or selling your services and products
on a face to face basis?
So often you can
walk into a room of business people at an event and pick up an instant vibe of
negativity with the glimpse of someone in the room with a huge great big smile
– which direction will you go to speak to someone – the happy smiley person or
the grumpy frowning one? Or does it
depend on the day and how you feel?
In some ways thank
goodness for social media where business can be done online in a virtual
fashion. But it doesn’t satisfy and tick
every box as part of your marketing strategy – you still need to be seen!
It
was interesting to hear the BBC talking about government running a wellbeing
campaign to measure happiness. The Office for National Statistics are looking
to see how happy and content we are in the UK – should be interesting to see
how this data collected is channelled into health related targets.
As always my
philosophy is to surround yourself with like minded positive, cheerful, and
encouraging people that understand and are capable of turning difficult
challenging situations into opportunities rather than stark raving, tearing
your hair out problems. It really is
important that we all look back and see what achievements, walloping great
mistakes we’ve made over time and see them all as learning experiences.
Keep on smiling!
