Great Body Language in Communication
I get asked about body language quite a bit. Rather than get into the specifics of every possible posture, for the most part you are better off not to thinking about your body language. You don’t want to become self-conscious. Instead, practice speaking from a place of confidence. When you emotionally connect with the words you are saying, your body naturally knows what to do. If you are having trouble finding your confidence, I have four other insights for you to help discover more professional body language.
1. Look Confident
First, you will want to adopt a confident posture. Stand up straight. Make eye contact with the audience. For an extra boost of confidence, find a few audience members who seem to like you. Look to them for support throughout your presentation. Their positive energy can help you feel more upbeat.
2. Avoid Distracting Behaviors
Secondly, avoid doing anything with your body that’s distracting. With novice speakers, fidgeting is a huge issue. Tugging at your hair, stuffing hands in your pockets, toying with jewelry: all of these behaviors can draw attention away from your message. Even season speakers can become so comfortable within audience that we started to get sleepy. As I get older I have noticed that I have this annoying tendency to shuffle from one foot to the other, instead of standing still, and a colleague of mine has started stuffing his hands in his blazer pockets and playing with his keys. Young or old no one is immune form picking up bad habits, it takes awareness however to eliminate any distracting habit you may have picked up.
3. Watch Your rehearsals
Record and watch your rehearsals, when you do this, you will be the first one to notice anything distracting you might be doing with your body. Whether you are new to speaking or a season pro, get in the habit of recording your rehearsals.
4. Write Content You Believe in
Write believable content, authentic body langue tense to flow from great content. When you feel confident about what you are saying, your body language will reflect bad feeling, you will see more natural and believable.
Don’t try to adopt specific body postures to accompany your words, it almost always looks unnatural. Instead focus on developing terrific presentation content. When you are emotionally connected to the words you are saying, your body language will become more authentic and believable.