With these nine tactics, you will look more approachable right away

It is entirely up to you whether you appear friendly or not.

You can take advantage of this property of sympathy: In the end, it is up to you how sympathetic you appear to your counterpart - and you can change their opinion at any time. As mentioned earlier, sympathy is closely related to trust. Authenticity, charisma, and tolerance are other essential keywords. So which characteristics and soft skills should you work on, and how should you behave to be perceived as more personable in the future, not just in your job - with all the positive consequences that follow? We have compiled the most important dos and don'ts for you:

#1 Charisma:

Charisma is an important quality - if not the most important one - for your professional (and personal) success. And it has a positive side effect: those who are charismatic are perceived as likable. Some people were born with the charism and have been able to wrap everyone around their finger since childhood without any problems, in a positive sense. If, on the other hand, you are not blessed with this gift, you can still train your charisma and thereby indirectly improve your status as a person of sympathy.

#2 Tolerance:

Another fundamental trait related to sympathy is tolerance. On the one hand, people appear more sympathetic, the more tolerant towards your counterpart. On the other hand, passive behavior makes empathy possible in the first place. As already mentioned, people tend to feel antipathy towards people they perceive as "different" in some way. But it is not uncommon for it to be a mistake. So be careful, but be skeptical of your first impression. Give people the chance to transform your antipathy and gain your sympathy. So tolerance is the cornerstone of compassion - on both sides.

#3 Authenticity:

After all, you too do not want to be pigeonholed by your counterpart, but to be accepted and even better liked as the person you are. This brings us to the next point: authenticity. The more authentic a person is perceived, the more personable they appear. This does not mean that you should let every emotion run free in your professional life and say everything that comes to mind. But authenticity in the sense of inner serenity and unadulterated news is guaranteed to go down well with your counterpart. In addition, you would be unhappy in the long run if you always had to play a role in your professional or private social environment to feel valued and loved in a personal context. This would be highly stressful in the long run if at all possible. The result: You feel stressed, dissatisfied and maybe even exhausted - and this also radiates to your counterpart. On the other hand, if you are happy and at peace with yourself, you automatically appear more personable. Therefore, authenticity is a key to more sympathy and indirectly to your happiness.

#4 Honesty:

Authenticity has something to do with honesty - towards yourself and your social environment. The more honest you present yourself, the better your counterpart can assess you (realistically), and accordingly, you will appear more sympathetic to them. How so? Because trustworthiness can only be achieved through honesty.

#5 Trustworthiness:

And, as is well known, sympathy is closely related to trust: the more we trust a person - for whatever real or unrealistic reason - the more sympathetic they appear to us. Conversely, you will always feel antipathy towards a person whom you distrust.

#6 Criticism:

People with a high degree of critical ability are also perceived as likable. This means that you accept criticism of yourself and can implement it and has a lot to do with the way you criticize other people in your environment. You appear more sympathetic if you only blame the matter and never criticize people. In a conflict, this property can decide whether a disagreement can be resolved without consequences or whether it causes permanent damage. Do you see the difference? So in the future, pay more attention to your words when you criticize in a professional or private context - and you will be consistently perceived more sympathetically even in conflicts.

#7 Listening:

Whether and in what way you listen also determines the degree of sympathy your interlocutor feels for you. In principle, all people want nothing other than to be heard and feel understood and accepted. So put your smartphone down, do not concentrate on what you want to say next, but look carefully into the eyes of your counterpart and listen. Then pause for a moment, think about what you've said, then answer or ask further questions. Genuine interest and active listening are not only keys to more sympathy, but maybe even to true friendship.

#8 Name memory:

Another simple and effective trick to appear more personable is: Address your counterpart by name. Especially at the first meeting, for example, an interview, you make an impression with a good name memory. How so? Because it shows interest in the person that you memorized their name. In addition, it increases the trust between you and your counterpart if you address them by the correct name.

#9 Reliability:

To a large extent, trust also arises from reliability. So that you appear sympathetic not only at first but also at the second, third, and hundredth glance, you should stand by your words. The more reliable you are, the more predictable you appear in your environment. Your colleagues, superiors, or employees should also experience you as predictable and reliable concerning your moods, actions, or words. On the other hand, if you, as the boss, promise the employee a raise one day and break this promise the next, you will quickly find their antipathy - which leads us to the don'ts on our list.