Book Review: The Likeability Factor

I have been indifferent about writing a book review on The Likeability Factor (thus, the late post). Tim Sanders as usual is a great author and I have gained a lot of insights reading this book. In the end, Kevin told me he learned a lot from a couple chapters (different ones that I thought were useful), then I was fully convinced that we all need to read this because we need to find out what is acceptable and, of course, we can work on our likeability factor anytime!

Four elements of Likeability:
1. Friendliness – ability to communicate liking and openness to others

2. Relevance – capacity to connect with others’ interests, wants and needs

3. Empathy – ability to perceive another person’s situation/experience/feeling with accuracy. Sympathy is a sweet emotion, but it’s not a connecting one like empathy.

4. Realness – ability to stand behind your likeability and guarantees your authenticity.

Some nuggets that are noteworthy for me:
– On page 45, Tim quoted Howard Rheingold’s study about our grandparents who were actually part-timers. A true case of nine-to-five-jobs and an average of 20 to 24 hours work in a week. In comparison to today’s society, we work an average of 58 hours a week counting the work done in the car, at the home office, and anywhere else we can get internet connections on our electronic devices. His point is: It’s tough to flourish at home when you have to cope with the distractions of unpleasant workplace. It’s equally hard to succeed in your career if your unlikeability provides you with a miserable personal life and all the accompanying agitation.

– What I find is also so true: Our nation is so focused on efficiency and productivity that we forget that likability is truly our lifeline. People who are likeable, or who have what I call a high L-factor, tend to land jobs more easily, find friends more quickly, and have happier relationships.

– Tim made a note that likeability will make the difference between success and failure. Even though our skills and knowledge are very important, likeability play a bigger roll in people’s job and life success. Employers want to encourage, motivate and promote employees who will bring so much more than just great ideas to the table. When we are knee-deep in making a living/giving a solution, we often forget that likeability is important.

– The thing about likeability, people will have a tendency to believe you and form a bias about you (they want to believe that you are correct until you are proven otherwise). This gives everyone a huge edge in life if recognized and applied daily.

-Patricia Fisher of the Rodale Center for Women’s Health advised this in her article: “Make yourself likeable. Likeability is a talent… one we must hone.” Isolated people (no community ties or friends) had the highest death rate of all.

Other books that I read (for the course of two months) and would suggest you to read as well (will not be doing any post on these):
Nonfiction: Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? by Yancey  |  E-Myth Mastery by Gerber

Fiction:  A Voice in the Wind and An Echo in the Darkness by Rivers (learned a lot of background history that were not written in the Bible!)

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Jenn

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