Malcolm Gladwell is a journalist and writer who contributed to the classifications of people into Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen.
Connectors are people who know a lot of other people and make friends easily. Connectors have many casual relationships, but maintain many weak ties among their social connections. Connectors know many different kinds of people from many different walks of life.
Condoleezza Rice is a great connector because she knew people through education, civil rights, government, and even through her musical talents as a pianist.
Mavens like to help other people by providing information. The word 'maven' is Yiddish for "one who accumulates knowledge". The motivation of a maven is to educate and assist, not to persuade. Mavens can serve as both teachers and students.
Martha Strewart is a great example of a maven. She is a maven by her need to show what she likes to the world, but never actually tell you that you have to do exactly as she does. Martha explains her talents to us in order to educate us, not to persuade us to do the project she displays.
Salesmen are people who use subtle, nonverbal cues when communicating that enhance persuasiveness. Salesmen engage in conversational and gesture "synchrony" or adopt ways other people talk and move. A great example of this is when a southerner's accent is heavier when they return to the south after being away for a while. They adopt the accent back once they are around it more. In many cases, salesmen do not know they are salesmen.
Bill Clinton is a great salesmen because her uses gestures with him speech all the time. Most of his most notorious quotes cannot be repeated without displaying one of his signature hand gestures.
But the real question is...
Which one are you?
After learning of the qualities each of these poses, I would have to say I am mostly a...
Connector. Although I am young, I have many friends from multiple aspects of life. When I think of all the connections I have with others, right off the bat I can think of a few 'groups' I have been apart of...
- Trussville - my hometown
- Traveling softball teams
- Travelling volleyball teams
- I lived in Nashville, TN
- Being a student at UA
- Connecting with professors
- interning at 2 different news stations
- Being a pianist and playing the drumbs as a child
- My dad being in multiple bands
- Having siblings and step-siblings to introduce me to other people
- Church
- Church Choir Tour around the country
- Mission Trips
- Vacations in many areas
- Multiple, multiple jobs throughout my life
- Sorority life
- Honor societies
- Greek societies
- Ambassadors to my college
And those are just to name a few off the top of my head. I have never been a shy person, and making friends always seemed to come pretty easy for me growing up. I always learned to accept everyone and be kind, no matter what. I was in many different "groups" or I guess you would call them "cliches", but I always did my best to talk to everyone. I was in multiple groups with very different people by the time I finished high school, and college has only expanded this notion. I always get involved and rarely say no to opportunities, which has led me to have more chances to make connections with different people. Although I make friends easily, not all are considered to be my close friends. Being accepting and friendly is easy, although it leaves me with weak connections among those I communicate with. I hold very few friends close enough to confide in. My Facebook might say I have over 1,000 friends, but only a handful of those I would consider to be my close friends.
Although I love helping others and one day aim to base my future career as a professor, I sometimes lack the motivation to accumulate knowledge, unlike a Maven would.
I also use gestures and other nonverbal cues quite frequently, but since studying nonverbal communication as a college student, I have become intently more aware of my cues and when to use or not use them. This has caused my gestures to be less frequent and not needed in everyday speech, making me less of a Salesmen.
Being a Connector can be seen as a positive step in life.
After all, they do say "it's not what you know, but WHO you know."
