What You Don’t Say Matters

I must admit, if this was 3 years ago, I would have difficulty believing that something as simple as body language could be costing you thousands of dollars. Thankfully, we’re constantly learning and I’m now capitalizing on body language and will share how you can too.

In my public speaking coaching, a significant portion is dedicated to non-verbal communication. How you stand, face the audience, and gesture can make an audience be engaged and follow your lead or could make them feel disconnected and lose all trust in you.

I have attended numerous presentations where the speaker has lost the audience and unfortunately, has no idea that a few subtle actions has cost them sales. When you attend an event, there is one goal:To gain information from an expert that will assist you.

To be viewed as an expert, there are 3 components you must be:

Known

Liked 

Trusted

Being on stage, you will be known, so let’s focus on becoming liked and trusted with these two body positioning areas : Posture and Stance.

Do you know someone that walks around at work with poor posture? You know, with their shoulders rounded in and dropped. They spend most of their time looking down, making it difficult to maintain eye contact. When you see this, how do you judge them, does this inspire trust? Absolutely Not!!

The way you walk, speaks volumes, it shows people that you are confident or feel insecure. We’re viewed and judged before we open our mouths, so gain an advantage by walking upright and proud.

Many of the techniques I teach for successful public speaking convert to everyday success and posture is no exception. When you speak, the ideal stance is to be properly aligned, like in this image. The second part to this, is to open your chest to the audience and face them directly. This open stance, non-verbally tells the audience that you are to be trusted because you’re not shifting your body and have the confidence to face them. This also demonstrates vulnerability, as turning away, shows you are trying to shield yourself. The secret is that by being vulnerable, you actually gain massive audience trust because being vulnerable is a sign of true strength.

How To Command Respect At Work

1. Before you enter any workplace, do a self-check on your posture, how are you standing, is your head up, shoulders back and down. Open up your chest by visualizing your collarbones spreading wide.

2. How’s your stance? Make your feet hip distance, try bending your knees, this will give you a marker to see if your feet are the correct distance apart. Ground your weight into your heels, this will center you and provide a solid base, imagine you’re a skyscraper  the stringer the foundation, the less likely you will be knocked over in your day.

3. Get an attitude:) What I mean by this is get a swagger, feel confident and remind yourself of how strong you are. One lesson I have learned is that people largely view you and judge you based on how you judge yourself. If you believe in your core that you are important and provide value, they will follow along, the most difficult part is often convincing ourselves of our greatness.

Take these steps and put them into action immediately. Test it by becoming more aware of your posture and stance and see if people treat you differently, perhaps with more respect.

Best wishes and please comment below your observations.