Identifying And Classifying Genuine People.

Whether you’re building a business, a network, or friendships, you always want to look for people who are genuine. After all, nobody wants to work or hang out with a phony. On the flipside, that goes for you, as well. Bet you never considered that. In case you’re wondering, genuine means actual, real, sincere, honest. Genuine people are more or less the same on the inside as their behavior is on the outside. Unfortunately, it’s a tough quality to discern. The problem is that all human interactions are relative. They’re all a function of how we perceive each other through our own subjective lenses.

Being genuine is also a rare quality. In a world full of phony fads, media hype, virtual personas, positive thinkers, and personal brands – where everyone wants what they don’t have, nobody’s content to be who they are, and, more importantly, nobody’s willing to admit to any of that – it’s becoming more and more rare all the time. To help you identify this rare breed and to get some basic ideas to differentiate the genuine souls from the pretentious ones, which is otherwise pretty hard to do, I have shared a few tips in my post Genuine and Fake People.

Here are some more ways to know how genuine people behave.

The Genuine Smile

Genuine people smile genuinely. A genuine smile spreads across the face including the eyes. A smile that doesn’t involve the action of many facial muscles is not a genuine smile. If a smile is fake, the most visible difference is in the tightening around the eyes. This action around the eyes is extremely difficult to fake and is the main signal you want to look at if you think somebody might not be telling you their real feelings.

The Forced Smile

This is the smile of someone who is just trying to be polite. People with a put-on smile or a forced smile use only the muscles around the mouth and the top half of their face remains virtually unchanged. A forced smile is less likely to be showing the person’s teeth. Such a smile could also mean that the person is not telling the whole truth.

Psychology

When we smile, our body releases endorphins. Endorphins send a message to our brain that makes us feel good, satisfied and confident. Physically, if you try to smile and feel sad at the same time, you would not be able to achieve it. When someone smiles at us, our natural reaction is to smile back; that is a genuine smile. Another sign of genuine people is that they will smile at you first, without caring about what your reaction to them was.

Attention

Genuine people don’t seek attention. They are content within themselves and don’t need constant reinforcement of their own ego. A fake person is constantly seeking attention. Where attention seekers have a hole that constantly needs to be filled, genuine people are already filled with self-confidence and self-awareness.

Being Liked

Genuine people are not concerned with being liked. They know they are good and they do not go around impressing people. They do not see the need to manipulate other’s emotions. Confident and authentic people are simply themselves. If you like them, fine. If not, that’s fine, too. They can also tell when others are full of themselves. Younger, less mature folks can be easily fooled, but genuine people are not naïve. They’re grounded in real, mostly even at a young age. This gives them a baseline that enables them to be good at judging people. Genuine people are comfortable in their own skin.

I have always said that a business network comprising of selective and qualified people that you can count on, tap into and rely on for support, direction and insight is much better than a thousand followers on a social networking website. A very good way to form a network of genuine and dependable individuals is to invite them to connect on your company’s website. You may contact HyperEffects to know more about our one-hour free consultation session to all business owners to help them understand ways to grow their business relationships. We also work with your specific needs to create a website that may help you connect with your desired audience at a personal level.

More about growing your business in my next post. Keep checking back!