At some point as a manager, employee, recruiter or job seeker, you will introduce people to one another: vendors and employees at lunch, acquaintances and colleagues at a networking event, new hires and senior or past managers.
Regardless of the situation, it’s crucial to get three things right:
1. The names
2. The pronunciations of the names
3. The job titles of the individuals
Small errors at this stage can spur resentment or hurt feelings and set a bad tone for the future.
Consider the woman whose boss introduced her to a well-known publisher and used her former title of Managing Editor. The boss wasn’t easily impressed by titles so deemed them irrelevant. But the woman, who wanted to make a good impression on the publisher, knew that her real title of Editorial Director not only carried more weight but also communicated something quite different to the publisher.
The slight was significant and, for a time, altered the relationship between the woman and her boss.
Bear in mind that for many people, names and titles are the placeholders of their identity. Get those wrong and you’ve just taken something quite precious away from them.
Besides, if you can’t get names right, you shouldn’t go out at all.
Just stay indoors and watch reality shows on TV.
it’s also important to remember the names afterwards so you’re not stuck looking like an idiot at a later date - this happens to me all the time - I meet someone and then I run into them again and forget their names - best practice I’ve found is to alwasy be the first with my hand out there and remind of my name.