Winning minds is something you would like to achieve very frequently. For example, you want to win someone's mind to get married, interviewers' minds to get a job, minds in meetings to influence your ideas, etc. Don't you want to get some tricks to be a mind winner? Here you go the trick.
The only trick you need to do is to master all inputs to the mind. DHAAA!! Well, let me simplify it a bit. Every mind has defined inputs which are called senses. Minds won't get any input form any other source but the senses. Hence, if you can get to minds smoothly through these senses, you are definitely a winner. Let's talk about these senses:
1. Sight
It's a famous saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". Since you know that, then why would you not like to have your picture talks thousands words about you? For example, if you are going for an interview, you should wear nicely with some contrast in the colors to show some power, while sitting calm controlling your body language, not shaking a lot, shivering or touching nose, eyes or hair every while. You also need to avoid weird things like itching, having food on your teeth, or begin sweating. Being good to they eyes and convincing them there is nothing bad in the picture they see; should open the door of the Sight way directly to the mind.
Haven't you ever been in a situation where you judged someone badly because the way he walks or acts, but the moment you get close to him/her you change your mind? Don't be the person who is judged badly from the first sight. Hence, you may keep a smile on your face the whole day. You may force yourself to have it for the first few weeks, until your face muscles get used to it and reshape your face with a smile with you spending the efforts.
2. Hearing
How about this "Speech is silver and silence is gold"? What's meant in here is you either say something good (positive or positively) or never talk at all. Who wants to listen to negative talks? who is interested to know about problems other than what they have? You don't want to be the one talking to your fiancée about all the troubles you've been through? You don't want to be the one talking badly about your x-company or x-manager in an interview, you don't want to be the one bringing problems to meetings rather than developing solutions, but you need to ensure every word and meaning getting through ears are really nice-to-keep words and nice to keep listening to. For example, why don't you say "I'm good" rather than saying "not too bad" when someone asks about your health.
You also want to have a clear sound and clear words to avoid having the other party stopping you every while asking you to say again. They may even lose the interest of listening to you and become passive listeners. Avoid swearing. Talk slowly if the other party is a slow listener or doesn't have your language as his first language.
There are lots of books about communications which I'm not trying to summarize in here, but I just wanted to give you some examples of winning the hearing sense and I think you got the point. Let me know if you have more doubts about this.
3. Smell
In brief.. don't smell :)
You need to adjust your smell to the place you go to. Read a little about perfumes if you don't have an idea, or ask in the perfume shops about which ones can be used during the day and which ones should be used at night and pick up what you like of each group. Use them everyday, use them when you meet people and use them whenever you want to get into someone's mind through his/her nose and through this sense.
Since your aim is to win minds and not to put perfumes, then make sure you don't put any perfume when you visit sick or allergic people
4. Touch
If you have a video tape of any cocktail party or gathering, try to play it with some speed to see there are some people who are kind of dancing around the whole area! Reason is someone would like to be very close to the other person or having lots of body touches while talking, where the other person would like to have a distance or to stop touches. And that goes on for the whole gathering.
Sometimes it's not just the person's believes or habit. It might be the culture itself. For example, I have noticed some people from south UK who would like to stand very close until I can't even look at them for being that close. Another example, if you have been into Arab countries, you may have noticed it is not recommended to have touches between opposite genders, even no hand shakes.
A friend of mine told me he lost a job because he was insisting to shake hands with the interviewer (lady) where it is completely not acceptable in her culture.
Knowing that, you need to understand a bit about other people while talking to them. Some like to keep kissing every time they see each other during the days, and others prefer no touches at all, nor even a tap on the shoulder.
When you understand that and know how to get into someone's mind through the skin, then you win that entrance as well. If you can't tell, then avoiding touching is the best way.
5. Taste
Tasting is another input to the mind that you can utilize very well. It doesn't have to be people tasting each other :) but it can be by offering others a very tasty sweet, food, etc, while meeting them. For example, take your future partner to a memorable-food restaurant, or offer some sweeties or flavored coffee at meetings.
When you do all above, you are surrounding the person you are talking with by a very nice dream that has a beautiful picture, nice smell, sweet talk, understanding the limits of touching, while even tasting something great. Only after opening all these doors and getting to the mind, the sixth door "Conjecture" will open automatically for you, where the person will have positive expectations from your side and will welcome you to his/her life whether it's a job, marriage, meeting, etc.
An actual example of using senses to win our minds is what some hotels do. They have an amazing furniture in the room (Sight) with a great smell (Smell). They either ensure you are isolated from noise, let the beach sound come to your room, or provide you with an iPod filled with great music (Hearing). They offer you great food (Taste). And they ensure your skin is treated very well, whether by providing soft towels, comfy bed, sofa and furniture or by providing you an access to a beach or a swimming pool with a worm sun and a nice wind (Touch). Hence, you leave the hotel with amazing memories and you either would love to go there again at the nearest possible chance or you advise others to visit it.
I hope you like what you've just read and that I won your mind :p
Being in IT market for more than 10 years, Wassim Amer has decided to share his experience and knowledge with the public. He is currently working on his book "Nasty Project Management". He has given many sessions about motivations, soft skills, positive thinking and achieving goals.