Watch your Expressions

Another observation I made while going through the recent road show is that because of the tension and the tiredness that everyone involved experiences, emotional reactions also tend to become more magnified and intense. So, when you are happy you experience a real buzz and show it, and when you are upset you feel terribly low. This dramatic range of emotions that you go through can play havoc in the next meeting if it shows up in your facial expressions and in your body language, and the buy side makes judgments based on what it sees in your face. On one instance during our road show, three consecutive meetings had gone particularly well, and when I attended the fourth one someone actually commented that I looked much happier than I normally ever do. While in this case I was happy because the previous three buyers had expressed interest in Kenexa stock and the fourth buyer picked up these positive vibes, it could well have gone against me had the situation been the other way round. The buyers, had they noticed a downcast or upset look, might well assume the worst—that our business isn’t doing well or that we are not confident about our products and services. So it is in life—everyone goes through ups and downs, but we need to be careful what we project on our faces as it might be misinterpreted to our disadvantage by viewers.