“If you’re high in warmth … and you’re high in competence, you’re like Lisa Simpson,”
We all know people who are congenial and affable. We also know people who are freakishly intelligent and capable. How many do we really know that are both? Very few I’d imagine. Surely we all want to be in that top-right quadrant. The interesting thing is, we can if we pay attention to a few details.
“What people tend to do is really try to show how competent they are — they try to talk about their skills and abilities and what makes them awesome — and they neglect to send warmth signals.” In the absence of these signals, “you end up appearing cold. And cold and competent is Mr. Burns.”
We tend to over emphasise qualities such as intelligence, courage, appetite for risk, ambition, drive etc as reasons for success and forget the so called soft skills. I think we must consciously aim to connect with people as much as we try to impress them. All we need to do is:
- Have genuine interest in others
- Try to relate and see from their perspective
- Not be judgemental (on others and ourselves!)
Just be careful not to flip over into the Homer quadrant!
Brainchatter 