Success depends on the support of other people. The only hurdle between you and what you want to be is the support of others.
Look at it this way: an executive depends on people to carry out his instructions. If they don’t, the company will fire the executive, not the employees. Likewise a politician depends on voters to elect him.
There were times in history when a person could gain a position of authority through force and hold it with force or threats. In those days a man either cooperated with the leader or risked loosing his head. But today a person either supports you willingly or doesn’t support you at all.
But how can you get people’s willingness to support you? The answer wrapped up in one phrase is “ THINK RIGHT TOWARD PEOPLE”.
When a group of people has to consider names for a new post or a promotion, in 9 cases out of 10 the “LIKEABILITY” factor is given far more weight than the technical factor. “ I know he has a good academic and technical background, I don’t question his competence, but I am concerned about the acceptance he would receive" .
The above holds true even in selecting scholars for university professorships. Unfair? Unacademic? No. If the fellow isn’t likeable he can’t be expected to get through to his students with maximum effectiveness.
President Lyndon Johnson even developed a personal plan for thinking right toward people:
1- Learn to remember names.
2- Be a comfortable person so there is no strain in being with you.
BE AN OLD-SHOE kind of individual.
3- Guard against the impression that you KNOW-IT-ALL.
4- Cultivate the quality of being interesting.
5- Sincerely attempt to heal every misunderstanding that you have had.
6- Try to get the “SCRATCHY” elements out of your personality.
7- Never miss out on an opportunity to say a word of sincere congratulations upon anyone’s achievement, or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.
