How to Overcome a Bad First Impression

What happens when the first impression goes wrong, does that mean that's the end?

No, that's not the end. There are solutions around every situation, no matter how bad it present itself.

Despite the fact that first impression works best during the first meeting, there are practices that can help you present yourself in better ways even when the first impression goes wrong.

Firstly let's mention some common factors that trigger bad first impression.

1. Nervousness

Being nervous has prevented many people from making the best of their meetings. They carelessly lost their lines, repeat words unconsciously, and mix things up for themself. This doesn't mean they are not prepared or less qualify for the meeting but they lost it to nervousness.

2. Bad Dress Mode

Your appearance says a lot about you. In most cases, people will address you as you've presented yourself. This has nothing to do with your expertise. Bad dress mode might prevent your opportunity to express yourself. Meanwhile you might be the best fit for the job but bad dress mode could possibly rob your chances.

3. Not Being Prepared

Preparation is key to success in every endeavor, it helps you get the best in every situation. Preparation gives the opportunity to imagine the situation before it happens. Some questions that could be asked. Their expectations of you and how you can help them understand why you're their best choice.

Your answers will help during the meeting. Some of the questions will be asked and your answer will earn you more points since you're prepared.

4. Arriving Late

Never arrive at a meeting late, especially job interview or business engagement. It's like giving an impression that you might deliver late. Come late to work if hired or deliver the project late, as a contractor.

When you arrive early, you'll be less nervous. As you continue to relax yourself, you'll gain self esteem that will help you deliver your lines with confidence. It also gives you an opportunity to meet the organizers before the activities begin. Arriving early gives you some additional time to prepare yourself at the venue.

5. Lack of Confidence

Displaying a high level of self-confidence helps people believe in you, that you can be depended upon to deliver as promised.

A man with lack of self-confidence might not be able to push hard towards what he strongly believe in it's possibility. He might quit at every little challenge he encounter and this will prevent him from maximizing his potential, preventing him from reaching his goals.

Never let lack of confidence ruin your chances in life. Confidence is a skills that can be mastered. I have an article that'll help increase your self-confidence, you might need to check it out.

6. Not Being Clear in Your Communication

Lack of clarity in communication is known for preventing people from expressing themself in a clear way that others will understand. When people don't understand your point, they might become reluctant taking actions towards your request.

Communication is a master skill that determines your success in business, relationship, and marriage. It helps you clearly deliver your lines to help your audience understand the point you're trying to make and the actions you want them to take after the conversation.

It's a skill that need to be mastered and I have created an online course that can help you improve your communication skills and help you become a master communicator that'll get whatever he wants from others through effective communication process.

Now that you know some of the common factors that triggers bad first impression, the questions is which of this attitude do you need to improve?

Start taking steps that can help you improve such attitude so you can always give first impression that'll last for ever.

Having said that, let's proceed to talk about how to overcome bad first impression.

Some of the common practice that'll help include:

Apologize Whenever You're Wrong

Most times people avoid accepting their wrong doings, try to cover up with excuses to justify their mistakes. Meanwhile, a mistake will always be a mistake, the best practice is to accept and be ready to make amendments where possible.

There are situations where you might not be aware that you're making mistakes until you're being told. Check the process to find out where you've possibly mix things up and take responsibility to improve in such area.

This shows to your audience that you're being sincere in your activities and ready to take responsibilities for your actions.

Explain What Happened

Once you've accepted your mistake, you might need to explain the cause for such mistake. But you don't need to dwell on such mistake, mention it briefly and start making suggestions on how to improve on performance.

There was a situation when some carpentry apprentice went to work and carelessly misplaced one of the tools. The guy responsible for protecting the tools admit immediately that it was his fault, he apologized for his carelessness and went back in search for the tool but unfortunately he couldn't find it.

He returned to his boss with disappointment of not finding the missing tool.

Before his return his boss already understand that the situation happened as a mistake and not intentionally so it was easy for him to let go. He bought another tool and they moved on with their business.

It was easy for the boss to let go because the person responsible for the loss already admit his carelessness and promise to be more careful next time. The situation could have been worsen if he was passing blames to others, trying not to accept his faults.

Suggest Another Meeting

Whenever you find yourself in a situation where you had a bad first impression. Accept your mistakes, apologize, and schedule another meeting. Your scheduled meeting is most likely to be accepted because you've taken responsibilities for your mistakes and you're ready to improve on getting better.

Let Them See the Real You

This time around, you have to go fully prepared, make your research about the subject and be sure to have enough fact to prove your point. You might need to read my article that talks about tips to make a good first impression.

Conclusion

Having a bad first impression doesn't mean it can't be amended. It's just an indicator that you need to improve on yourself so you don't keep making bad first impression at all time. Improve your personality, sharpen your skills and be the best you can.