Are You Faking It?

Are you being genuine with how you communicate with other people?

For this analogy I will simply place fakes into two different categories.

Fake number one is the person who is learning and adopting new skills that have not yet become natural. This is forgivable since we have to begin somewhere. Learning how to connect with someone properly and with the correct energy is vital to sales, business and new opportunities In order to improve, we have to practice.

This falls between Conscious Incompetence and Conscious Competence in the learning stages. They are consciously aware of what they are trying to do and practice but the skills have not become second nature.

You may have heard the phrase, “Fake it until you make it.”

For example, Dale Carnegie advises:

If we want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.

Fake number two is the person who is entirely in it for their own gain. Their motive is to win and the people who can’t help them don’t matter and are a waste of time. Many times these people know what to do and the correct words to say but it comes off as insincere and calculating.

Words that describe this person are disingenuous, crafty, fake, deceitful and dishonest.

This type of communication will lead to broken trust and destroy professional and personal relationships.

In order to avoid making this impression, it is important to understand that we must treat people the way we want to be treated and have their best interest in mind.

Genuine communication and long term relationships are built from good character and virtue.

Virtue is defined as behavior showing high moral standards.

Developing great people skills takes practice and may feel uncomfortable in the beginning but will become natural over time. It may even feel like your faking it at first but if your motive is pure, they will never know or care.

Have a great week!