Image source - Pixabay
When you meet someone for the first time, regardless of the reason for the meeting, be it business or friendly or accidental. You notice that you have that instinctive urge to what to figure them out. That's just human nature, we're all very curious by nature. A good read of the person that very instant can prove to be very useful. It can save you a lot of stress in the future, and it can bring you great opportunities in the future as well.
For most people, they think that what people say is what's important. But several research over the course of time have found that is just not true. Somebody could be telling you one thing and meaning a different thing entirely. Research has it that body language is the most important thing to look out for when a person is talking to you. Next to body language is the tone of the person's voice. And lastly, is what the person is saying.
So when you're in a business meeting or in general you just meet a person. You should be looking closely at the person's body language if you want to have a good read of the person. If you see someone that loves what he/she is talking about, you'll always notice that the person makes so much body movements while talking. Now, if someone tells you that he/she loves what they're talking about but look so still and not making body movements when talking about that thing, then you can tell that something is definitely wrong.
Image source - Pixabay
If you've noticed, your voice goes up, when you're very sure of what you're talking about, and goes low when you're not sure of what you're talking about. That's the same for other people. As an entrepreneur, you want to be paying attention to the tone of a person's voice. What people say could be very deceiving, nonetheless listen, but pay more attention to their body language and their tone of voice.
As always, appearance speaks a lot about a person. When you meet a person you can tell to a great extent what kind of person he/she is by the very way they appear. Nice tie, clean clothes, good shoes, speak a lot about a person. Unkept hair, rough clothes, bad shoes also tell a lot about a person. Although, sometimes looks can be deceiving, but that's on very rare occasions. It takes a lot of effort to look good, if somebody looks good, then that tells you that such a person indeed knows how to put in effort to start with.
Have you ever heard the statement - The eyes are the window to the soul - there's a lot of truth to that statement. The eyes can hardly tell lies. If someone is not being straight with you, you notice they avoid looking at you in the eyes. The eyebrows also hardly tell lies. A person's eyebrows doesn't move for no reason. Usually, the eyebrows move up to show fear, worry or surprise.
In conclusion, to have a good read of a person, you want to pay good attention to the person's body language, tone of voice, and then what the person is saying. You also want to look at the person's appearance. Indeed, appearance tells a lot about a person. And lastly, the eyes tell a lot, you can have a good read of a person by observing the person's eyes movement and eyebrows as well.