Social Engineering Blogs

An Aggregator for Blogs About Social Engineering and Related Fields

A Lying Politician: Rob Ford

Some dub him as the “Lance Armstrong of Toronto Politics” while others bluntly call him a “bully” and a “liar”.

No matter what you label him, one thing’s for sure: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is under major scrutiny since he admitted on Tuesday, November 5th that he smoked crack cocaine, an allegation that he has vehemently denied since May of last year.

“I wasn’t lying; you didn’t ask the correct questions,” Ford said Tuesday. “No, I’m not an addict and no, I do not do drugs. I made mistakes in the past and all I can do is apologize, but it is what it is.”

According to the NY Times, in a tumultuous four-year term that will draw to a close next year, Ford has been accused of a litany of boorish actions, profane outbursts and insensitive comments — so many, in fact, that one of his critics felt the need to compile a spreadsheet to keep track of them all.

Take a look at two videos below. The first is of Ford denying his alleged drug use back in May of 2012. The second is of his press conference right after his admittance on Tuesday.

What kind of changes in behavior do you see between the first and second video?
Do you see any hot spots in the first press conference?

Rejection -The Insane Secret Sauce

Rejection

If you opened this post it is probably because you have been on the receiving end of rejection; a “No”, “Not this time”, “Let me think it over” or just a silent email account or phone call not being returned. 

Just the mention of the word ‘rejection’ triggers a reaction in our limbic brain.  The emotional control centre starts searching for the appropriate response; fight, flight or freeze.

However rejection is one of the best sharpening stones for our persuasive ability.  When you pitch an idea, make a request or lobby for change and get rejected, don’t drop your bundle.  Instead think “What can I have done differently?”

We have heard it before but Tim Ferris author of the 4-Hour Workweek was rejected 26 times before a publisher said yes; Stephen King was rejected 30 times before his book Carrie was accepted; and we all know that JK Rowling heard many many rejections before Harry Potter finally got his wand out at Hogwarts.

What therefore can we learn from a rejection?
1.   It Is Insane Not To Learn From Being Rejected

Einstein said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”.

If you get a “no” don’t do the same thing you have always done and expect a different outcome.

Break it down.  Look at your approach.  Look at the tools you used and find out why you missed the mark.

I have recently had the pleasure of collaborating with Cian Mcloughlin and Trinity Perspectives looking at the application of “Win/Loss Reviews”.  Cian is a great example of a guy who really gets it.

If you win, you need to know why?  If you lose, you need to know why?  The important thing is you need to have a process to fall back on to turn the “no” into a longer term success.

If you are getting rejected ask why.

It is a sign something needs to be fixed, something about your letter of introduction, your pitch, your offer, your website.  It’s broken so ask what you could have done differently and fix it.  Change one variable at a time so you can test and measure success.

2.  The Secret Sauce

But also think of rejection as your own special sauce.  The secret ingredients that will make your requests better than they ever have been before.

You can guarantee that you are not the only one getting rejected but how you deal with it will set you apart.

If others get rejected and drop out of the race, that means there is more opportunity for you.

If you missed the mark ask for feedback on how you could have improved.  If you missed out to a competitor ask how you could have approached it differently.  The answers you will get will give you an insight into the decision makers thought processes and will give you the blueprint for future persuasive appeals.

Ah-ha! The secret sauce!

Rejection is feedback telling you that you are not quite there yet.  Each time you get feedback, learn from it.  Each time you will get closer to the right ingredients to get to yes.

The other up side is when you get a rejection, it gives you time to focus on things you are good at and refine that to a higher degree.

Finally if someone tells you “no” it may be that they were not the right client for you!

 

Tell me what you love/hate about rejection.

 

 

The post Rejection -The Insane Secret Sauce appeared first on Social Influence Consulting Group.

Beauty and the Face

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Courtesy of StockVault

Why is physical beauty so important in today’s society, especially in consumer marketing?

Psychology Today reports on the unethical aspects of beauty as it is represented in main stream media.  They report that facial symmetry has been shown to be the key determinant in our estimating of what is seen as beautiful and what’s not.

The article asks a simple yet poignant question, “If you were to set your sights, say, on a shopping mall, a fast-food restaurant (vs. a swanky one), an amusement park, or just out on the street, what percentage of the people around you would you label “truly beautiful?”

That is, individuals sufficiently attractive enough for a modeling agency. Five percent? 10 percent? Maybe 15?

To clarify, the article is referring more to facial appearance than overall physical attractiveness when they notate beauty. This is because faces are what people are drawn to and focus on the most  in interactions with other people.

Extremely attractive people are over represented in movies and TV, so that we might begin to entertain the illusion that they depict something much closer to the norm than is actually the case. The article goes on to ask, should we compare ourselves to these “model few”, or does doing so create a complex about our ordinary (specifically normal) looks even if it is subconscious?

Research by Anjan Chatterjee and his research team demonstrated that although certain physical aspects of beauty may be culturally influenced, there’s a high degree of cross-cultural accord (both with adults and children) as to what’s seen as beautiful. These findings provide compelling evidence that these aesthetic perceptions are “encoded” by what’s common in our biology—that finally our biases are determined by factors both out of awareness and universal.

They noted (Chatterjee et al), “A person’s attractiveness influences social interactions in ways that extend far beyond domains in which attractiveness per se [e.g., modeling] is directly relevant.” Or, to put it somewhat differently, facial beauty—as it’s automatically, or genetically, “computed” in our heads—steers us toward a favorable cognitive bias independent of a particular person’s educational or social history, past performance, or character.“

As the article points our we can see the practical power of beauty as well as its random distribution as unjust…

How do you see beauty?  Do you see beautiful people as receiving perks in life? If so, What are these perks?