BY MINDA ZETLIN, AUTHOR OF ‘CAREER SELF-CARE: FIND YOUR HAPPINESS, SUCCESS, AND FULFILLMENT AT WORK’@MINDAZETLIN

For Inc.

Photo: Getty Images

What’s the smartest way to make a great first impression when you meet a customer, investor, or anyone else? Ask them for advice. It may be counterintuitive, but asking for advice will make you seem smarter.

Unfortunately, many of us believe the opposite is true. If we want to impress a new acquaintance with our smarts, instead of asking for advice–or asking anything at all–we talk about ourselves and our accomplishments. Unfortunately, this approach usually doesn’t work.

That insight comes from bestselling author and CNBC contributor Joanne Lipman, and it’s based on a series of studies by researchers at Harvard Business School and Wharton. In the studies, Lipman writes in a piece for CNBC.com, students were assigned the task of answering IQ test questions while interacting with a supposed partner (really a computer simulation). At the beginning of the test, the “partner” sent a message wishing the student good luck. At the end of the test, the computer-simulated partner sent a second message, saying either “I hope it went well,” or “I hope it went well. Do you have any advice?”

With nothing to go on other than these messages, the students were then asked to rate their partner’s competence. They rated the partners who asked for advice as more competent.

Most people have the wrong idea about making a good impression.

If asking for advice makes you seem more competent, why don’t more people do it? Because most believe the opposite is true, the research shows. In another phase of the study, the Harvard and Wharton researchers gave students questions from an IQ test to solve, again while interacting with a partner that was really a computer. This time, some students were told they’d be rewarded only for getting right answers, and others were told they’d be rewarded depending on how competent their partner rated them. At the end of the test, they could send their partner one of two messages: “Hey can you give me any advice?” or “Hey, I hope you did well.” Or they could send no message at all.

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