The Likeability Factor : How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams by Tim Sanders, Crown Business, 224 Pages, $23.00, Hardcover, April 2005, ISBN 1400080495

It can’t be stated more plainly: Unlikeability doesn’t work. Easy as that, folks. With that established Tim Sanders has kindly followed in the steps of his previous bestseller, Love is the Killer App, with a book that gives us the tools on how to be likeable. He didn’t pull it out of thin air either. Nope, it’s based on solid research; Sanders cites thousands of pages to prove it.

The author states that a morning show deejay asked him to give a lecture on how to be more likeable. After studying a particularly rude deejay, he came up with four things necessary to improve one’s likeability. This of course is effective in both professional and personal environments. This is what he came up:

Friendliness: seems like a no-brainer, but many people don’t think being friendly makes such a big difference. It does.
Relevance: try to matter to other people. Don’t just see what you can get out of them but rather what you can do for them.
Empathy: Care for people. Try to get behind what matters to them etc. Be interested in them first.
Realness: Likeability will not work if you try to fake it. Once people realize that your friendliness, empathy and relevance is real, you will see changes.

After he discusses the four elements of likeability, he moves on to share detailed guidelines on every single element. This is a very useful part of the book, with tips and examples on how to improve one’s likeability. This book will teach anyone how to bring out the best in others. Who doesn’t want that win-win situation? Pick up a copy today.

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