Why Likability Works

If people like you, they feel natural and comfortable around you. They will give you their attention and happily open up for you. Likability has something to do with how you look but a lot more to do with how you make people feel. My old nanny, who brought me up to be passionate about people,used to talk about having "a sunny disposition." She'd take me out on the promenade, and we'd spot the people who had sunny dispositions and all those who were "sourpusses." She told me we can choose what we want to be, and then we'd laugh at the sourpusses because they looked so serious. Likable people give loud and clear signals of their willingness to be sociable; they reveal that their public communication channels are open. Embedded in these signals is evidence of self-confidence, sincerity and trust. Likable people expose a warm, easygoing public face with an outgoing radiance that states, "I am ready to connect. I am open for business." They are welcoming and friendly, and they get other people's attention.