Theory of Incremental Advantage

Interacting with Others

Supremely successful people do not have to be charismatic. Charismatic people can be annoying if you have to interact with them on a regular basis. However, highly successful people almost always have the basic social graces. According to research conducted by Richard Wiseman, lucky people smile more and engage in more eye contact. Lucky people engage in three times as much open body language as unlucky people. Casinos instruct their croupiers never to cross their arms but rather to place them on their tables. The former gesture is offputting while the latter is inviting. Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, realized that he could gain tremendous popularity on his college campus just by being the first to say "hi" to all those that he crossed paths with.

Vendor Evaluation

When you are in the process of selecting vendors, it is better to meet them at their offices rather than at your offices. The reason is that by going to their offices, you will discover anecdotal insights into how their business really operates. If a potential vendor were to meet at your office, they can tell you that they have a lot of other clients and that they have conducted a lot of relevant research into the issues at hand (but they just neglected to bring such reports to the meeting). Meeting the vendor at their office allows you to see how much action really exists (how many phone calls they receive, how busy people are, etc.) and is more likely to force the vendor to substantiate other claims (such as have produced relevant reports).

For the opposite reasons, it is better for you when you seek new business to meet at the potential client's office. You avoid being interrupted and the client cannot see any of the inevitable imperfections that exist at every office. The prospective client is usually appreciative of the fact that you traveled to meet with them and they feel some degree of responsibility to be pleasant hosts, the positive energy from which carries over into the meeting.

Puctuality

I am sure you know that punctuality is important. It demonstrates common courtesy and respect towards those you are scheduled to meet. It also acts as a check on you over-committing yourself. If you commit to being punctual, you have to carefully consider if you really can keep that commitment. If there are too many demands on your time, you will have to prioritize. This process will force you to weed out the activities that are likely to be less accretive to advancing your career.

Also, many busy people believe that showing up for a meeting or speaking engagement exactly on time is sufficient. It is not. Show up at least five minutes early for a meeting and at least 15 minutes early for a speaking engagement. If you don't, your hosts will start to be concerned about whether or not you are going to stand them up. They will start to wonder if there was miscommunication in scheduling the meeting or presentation. Preceding speakers at a conference may have finished their presentations early and your host will want to avoid creating a hole in the program.

As you will be on your way to the meeting, they will not be able to contact you. If your hosts call your work phone, they will most likely reach your voicemail. They may not have your cell phone but even if they do, they probably won't be able to reach you as the parking lot or train station has limited cell reception. In short, the trauma that you cause your colleagues or hosts will backfire. They will feel the stress and the beginning of the meeting will reflect their angst. Despit however diligently you may have prepared for the meeting or your presentation, you will have ruined the critical first impressions others form about you. You will have lost any momentum you may have had with your colleagues and hosts.

If you are serious about doing business with someone, show up to your appointments a few minutes early. If you can't manage this, decline the invitation.

Make Your Meetings More Efficient

In his book, Discover Your Inner Economist, Tyler Cowen, discussed several compelling ideas for running meetings more efficiently. These ideas are:

• Make everyone stand up until the meeting is over.

• Hold the meeting over the phone, even when everyone inhabits the same corridor. This reduces the chatter and the side conversations.

• Give participants a chess clock to limit the number of minutes they are allowed to speak. When the allotted time elapses, the participant loses the right to speak any further. Quiet parties could donate their spare minutes – by passing their clocks – to articulate and helpful others.

• Another option is to calculate the cost of each minute of the meeting based upon the salaries of all involved. One can quickly estimate how much each participant earns each minute by building a simple excel spreadsheet. Once someone meanders for a few minutes, the leader of the meeting can say “You just wasted $1,875 of the company’s money by telling that ridiculous joke.”

Two ideas that I would like to add are first to schedule meetings successively and in close proximity to each other. This way you have a legitimate reason to enforce meetings at the designated time. Secondly, when meetings get off track, you should focus them on the common view of the customer. It is also helpful is generating candid discussion when the meeting facilitator is a person that none of the attendees report to.

Meet for Breakfast

Schedule business meetings for breakfast. When a business associate agrees to meet you for breakfast, he is making an uncommon investment of time. Breakfast is usually less expensive than a business lunch or dinner. The menu is simple, requiring less time to make a selection, which means more time for discussion. You don’t have to be concerned about alcoholic beverages. Breakfast saves your customer time. Choose a venue that is on the customer’s route to work; this eliminates one of the “from office, back to office” trips associated with other outside meetings. Breakfast meetings are less vulnerable to cancellations. They happen before a customer’s daily problems begin. And the customer is fresh, alert, and eager.