How are you doing?

“How are you doing?”

“Great!”

This is the automatic and immediate response following the question.

But are you really?

Especially when it comes to your future particularly your career.

How well your leaders and peers perceive you indicates how “great” your performance is.

I hear marketing people say, “Perception is reality!” and it has a semblance of truth in it. Have you ever caught yourself saying, “I hated this person at first, but when I got to know him, my opinion changed”?

We make snap judgments all the time.

“This sales person brags and boasts.”

“The customer dresses like he or she cannot afford to buy my stuff.”

“The speaker looks boring.”

These are all perceptions and we carry these with us.

We hate unfairness. We abhor discrimination. We declare war against racism. But there are little nuances in every person that contradict the things I just mentioned.

There are places we like and places we don’t like. There are people we love to engage and people we try to avoid. There are artists we admire and artists we perceive as famous but untalented. What about politicians? We have never met them in person yet there are so many of them we dislike already and very few we admire.

This is called confirmation bias and it is present in almost every circle.

Now, the question is how do your bosses and peers see and perceive you?

At this point, Confirmation Bias pertains to your „likeability” or your ability to be liked.

Here is the truth about you, your career and your business: if you are not well liked then you will have a hard time achieving success and you may be on the receiving end of Confirmation Bias.

Sometimes, Confirmation Bias happens only once. And you never get a second chance to recover.

Take sales presentations or job interviews for example. Procurement officers or interviewers take only one look and immediately decide whether they like the person or not.  Those visual clues do not reveal the entire person yet they have a profound effect on whether a person will be hired or not.

And still, some people say, „I don‘t care, that‘s just the way I am and I don‘t care what people think or say about me.“  If you have this mindset then I have some very sad news for you. You may be good and talented but if people do not like you then your world will shrink and your doors will close.

Here is my question:  do you have high LQ?

We are familiar with IQ or Intelligence Quotient, EQ or Emotional Quotient, AQ or Adversity Quotient, SQ or Spirituality Quotient (or sometimes referred as Social Quotient) but how about our LQ, meaning Likeability Quotient?

LQ does not come naturally; we have to work for it.

Focus on others and help them succeed.

Give more than what you are paid for.

Show up early and do not be late for meetings and appointments.

Return calls and emails.

Do not badmouth people and compliment others for a job well done.

Never grab credit and steal accounts.

Respect your boss and the people who report to you.

Here is the gist of it, „do unto others as if you were the others...“ It‘s a modern day paraphrased version of the ancient Scriptures.

Work on liking others and then you will be liked. When your LQ is high, your world opens up and opportunities come your way.

Everybody wants to be liked, and that you have to work hard for it.

And as one person said, „of course you can change! You are not a tree!“

I would like to thank The Outstanding Filipino Awards 2014 (TOFIL) committee for including me in their roster of awardees. This means so much to my family and me. I want to share this celebration to my readers and to the many I had the privilege to meet. This award serves as an encouragement for me to continue and intensify my service for the country.

You can connect with Francis Kong through Facebook at www.facebook.com/franciskong2 or listen to his program called “Business Matters” from Monday to Friday at 8:00 am and 6:30 pm in 98.7 dzFE-FM ‘The Master’s Touch’, the classical music station.)