Harvard Business professor Amy Cuddy spent 15 years studying how business leaders can make a good first impression. She distilled her research into two questions people subconsciously ask when meeting someone.
Can I trust this person?
Can I respect this person?
Primary Greatness is who you really are – your character, your integrity, your deepest motives and desires. It is achieved by those who have a mission and a purpose to serve that is higher than themselves, a lasting contribution to make.
Primary Greatness is principle-centered; God-centered; based on a Biblical worldview and is where your private victories come from.
Private Victories is a result of exercising your primary greatness and always precedes Public Victories. Work on character first. Personality will naturally follow.
Shallow, immature people work on personality. They are constantly “selling” themselves to others. To focus on personality before character is to grow the leaves without the roots.
Secondary Greatness is what the world acknowledges – popularity, title, position, fame, fortune, honors, possessions.
Three ‘C’s of Primary Greatness:
Competence: Demonstrates authority. Can I respect this person?
Character: Demonstrates integrity. Can I trust this person?
Communication: Demonstrates clarity of competence and character so people listen and want to follow your advice. You can have character strength but lack effective communication skills – and that will effectively negate competence & character.