The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sanders's message in this follow-up to his bestselling Love Is the Killer App isn't exactly a revelation: people who are well liked are more apt to get what they want out of life than those who are disliked. However, Sanders does offer a valuable look at the four personality traits he says contribute to a person's likability—namely, friendliness, relevance (do you connect on interests or needs?), empathy and "realness" (genuineness or authenticity). Sanders, a Yahoo! leadership coach, is able to deconstruct complex subjects such as personality traits, and the book's value is in guiding readers toward understanding that likability isn't an accident of birth but a skill that can be learned (exercises are included). No doubt every reader knows someone they'd like to give this book to, and perhaps people who suspect their own L-factor is low will find their way to it, too.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Conventional wisdom insists that it’s more important to be respected than liked. In this book Tim Sanders challenges that notion and reveals the awesome power of likeability. He shows us that if we want to garner support from our associates, earn the loyalty of our employees, lead our followers to a better future, be healthy, and finally achieve our life’s dreams, we must first be liked. In this important and necessary book, Sanders tells us why our likeability is the foundation of our success, and shows us how we can increase our own.” —Marcus Buckingham, author of First, Break All the Rules and The One Thing You Need to Know. . .

“I think Tim Sanders hits the nail right on the head. If you just make them love you, they’ll be happy to love you. And I learned early in life that if you want people to love you you gotta make sure you love them back.” —George Foreman

“Tim Sanders provides an insightful look at how developing likeability can allow you to influence others and be more successful. The Likeability Factor should be a part of everyone’s success library. It is a fast-paced, readable book. Grab a copy to use on your success journey!” —Peter Handal, CEO, Dale Carnegie & Associates Inc.


From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press (April 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400080509
• ISBN-13: 978-1400080502
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (47 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #40,685 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #27 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Communication
  #53 in	Books > Business & Investing > Organizational Behavior > Workplace
  #80 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Personality

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars People like to do business with people they like, March 17, 2007

By	Ted Demopoulos (Durham, NH United States) - See all my reviews

Tim's first book, Love is The Killer App, is one of the most influential books I've read in the past few years. The Likeability Factor is another winner from Tim Sanders.

The big idea of this book is that being likeable is extremely important because:

"The choices you make don't shape your life as much as the choices other people make about you."

People make choices using the following three steps:
1) Listen - people can chose to listen to you
2) Believe - people can chose to believe you
3) Value - people can chose to value what you offer

Likeability affects all three.

There are four elements of likeability:

1) Friendliness. Friendliness is the threshold of likeability
2) Relevance, how you connect with another person's wants or needs
3) Empathy (not sympathy)
4) Realness or authenticity. Lack of realness, like lying, hypocrisy, or insincerity can suck your L-factor down.

The second half of the book covers raising your L-factor. While I will probably not get a leather "L-factor Journal" and carry it with me at all times, or repeat my "friendliness mantras" every morning, I found this part of the book the most fascinating. The exercises to raise your L-factor are not simple, and require quite a bit of introspection. I'm not remotely a soft skills touchy feely guy, but I really enjoyed the last part of this book.

If this book has a downside, it's that I was already sold on likeability being important. Tim cites many examples and research in the beginning of the book, and it was like preaching to the choir for me.

I like it, I'm glad I read it, and I recommend it. I will doubtlessly re-read parts again, and may even do many of the touchy-feely exercises!
You can check it put in more detail at Amazon:

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On a scale of 1-10, Tim's book is an 11, June 28, 2005

By	John Schuler (Tualatin, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams (Hardcover)

On a scale of 1-10, Tim's book is an 11. Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" gave us the macro message: "Be Likable". Tim Sanders explains the micro details of how to actually "BE" likeable.

As a business consultant, I'd rate myself these days as a 6 moving toward 7. Ronald Reagan was probably a 10 or 11; Merv Griffin is right up there, too.

As a young man raised in a toxic environment, I was probably a 4 on the likeability scale. For many years, beginning with "How to Win Friends ...", I read everything from Freud and Jung to Games People Play and Transactional Analysis. As a loner, I took engineering courses and was "respected", but not socially successful.

After much "psychological bootstrapping", I got my first sales job at the relatively late age of 33, selling expensive, complex electronic test systems. Looking back on those times where I lost a job, alienated a co-worker or upset my wife, I realize now that I sorely needed a book like Tim's.

"The Likeability Factor" is more than just a book; it is like a Scouting Manual - a handbook for those of us who want to tie more social knots with people far and near, and enjoy the improvement in our lives that its tools make possible. It shows us, step-by-step, exactly how to leave behind the isolative and counter productive emotions of Anger and Apathy and move toward a life of filled with Empathy and Enjoyment.

On page: 42, Tim sums the problem of being "unliked": "Being unlikable is like expelling toxic waste into your social life". Then, in Chapter 6, he begins our education in "Likeability".

In a perfect world, this handbook would be spiral-bound and handed out as required reading in every school and company. Or perhaps it should be kept in secret vaults and cost $50 on the black market - so that young people would move heaven and earth to get a copy, then read and discuss it into the wee hours in coffee houses and dorm rooms. (;-)

John Schuler
Portland, Oregon
June 28, 2005

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and Necessary Book for Life and Business, May 30, 2005

By	Tony Jordan (Vancouver Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life's Dreams (Hardcover)

I loved this book - for one simple reason. Sanders has written a new book that is needed like rain on a dry desert. Good people need to be reminded that being likeable matters and how we treat each other in business is not just good manners and being considerate - it is also GOOD business. We can be happier and healthier by being likeable; and surrounding ourselves with likeable people. Tim Sanders is reminding us that the old ways of respect, caring and being likeable are admirable traits. In the near future - books like this will be remembered as the beginning of a quiet renaissance inside the business world.

Why isn't this book and others like it - appearing as a a daily column in a national newspaper? Sort of like "good biz news for the day" to be posted on the water cooler or the white board....

I like the way Sanders outlines these ideas in a clean style with excellent research to support his ideas. The citations and research makes convincing reading. An easy intelligent read. This big world needs more messages such as this 2005 book. A simple message that needs repeating. Keep writing, Tim Sanders!