PART: 2 How Body Language Affects Your Persona

We saw Importance Of Body Language While Communicating in our earlier article. Let us find how you can benefit from it as well.

According to the psychologists in order to complete a sales task from the beginning to the close is a mental game.The index and the reference of the game arecommunicated through many subtle representations for e.g. your facial expressions, standing/sitting posture, choice of your tone and the way you emphasize the important words. How do you feel from within reflects easily outside however, even while you plan to work with great positive outlook your faulty or weak body language can work against your purpose. If the sales person is smiling at you but is standing with a stoop shoulders it strongly sends the message of no confidence (in this man or in his product). Such minor mistakes send wrong signals to the customers which in turn can create a communication barrier and might result into failure of a good prospective lead. This wall is formed because the customers make certain interpretations and assumptions according to your body language and it robustly influences their behavioral pattern.

As in case of commercial sales, body language plays a major role all other spheres of life as well. As we are social beings and since we keep on interacting with our family, friends, colleagues, each time we socialize we tryto convince the other person with either our ideas, concepts, beliefs or our personality so that we can create our own identity around. And hence, the subtle communications through body language play a pivotal role for achieving success in all the sectors of interaction, big or small.

The good news is that there are positive vibes that you can send through subtle signals or body language postures. These signals shall exude positive vibes around and create a sense of goodwill about you.

Some easily adaptable body language skills are listed hereunder for you to adapt and benefit from:

1. High level of physical and mental energy is denoted in your every stride and walk. A person walking with confidence, with eyes fixed to his target and shoulders matching the direction of the steps denotes positive attitude.
2. Stand with your head erect and your posture tall. It says you are trustworthy and that you know your game.
3. Smile not just with your lips but smile with your eyes; it sends in a warm welcome signal. A good sense of humor along with gentle smile always goes on for miles. Too much of wide smile is also ungracious so practice to tone it down a little.
4. If you are making awkward (unfamiliar or opposite) gestures, it makes the person across you more uncomfortable or frustrated. Hence, your gestures should be very easy and comfortable so that the person with whom you are communicating feels at ease while discussing things with you.
5. Welcoming gestures always represent that you are open minded towards people whereas rigid body language such as crossed legs or folded arms creates a kind of barrier between you and the other person due to which the communication becomes restricted.
6. Make sure that you are well-dressed for the formal or celebration occasion and you are behaving according to the behavior expected for your position and you attire must complement your position.
7. When you feel low lean back in your chair and place your hands behind your head. Assume an “eminent authority” state in your mind. Be in this position for two minutes and your confidence will get a good boost.
8. Appear attentive. Do not check your emails, messages or watch when you really want the other person to talk to you. Lean forward, make direct eye contact and keep your face and body directly facing the person you are interested in communicating to. Do nod when you agree to their perspective and tilt your head when you are further more interested in other persons version of talk.
9. Ensure that there are no physical barriers such as pen stands, cup and table lamps, etc when you communicate across your desk. Physical barriers are in particular unfavorable towards shared mutual endeavors.
10. If you are talking to someone at the coffee table, keep you cup and saucers as low as you waist and not at your chest. You hold your files and cups high when you are nervous.
11. Do a gentle, warm yet firm handshake. Do not press other persons hand too hard. A warm firm handshake for as little as 1/40 second connects people with human bond. Keep your hand straight and not below. The position of your hand communicates the message you want to pass on; Hand below – I am less ready to communicate to you; Hand above- I am smarter than you think and far above you; Straight firm hand – I am confident and open to communicate.
12. To communicate your authority, use the authoritative arc in your tone. It means that your voices should starts on normal note, raise the pitch by a note in the middle and through rest of the sentence and drop it back down at the end. Keep your voice down – Louder means weaker, confused, and not confident, etc.
13. If the person you are interacting with is sending negative body vides (he/she is not interested in your proposal) through crossed arms, crossed legs or looking away, etc – Take a break. If you cannot practically take a break, do so at least in your topic. Drop that topic for that moment and pick up another one that you know the other person will open up with. You can come back to your topic once you pick positive tone and nonverbal signs from the other person.
14. Feet are equally important. To understand other person’s state of mind you need to take their entire body language in account. If they are sitting back in the chair but they have crossed their feet, they are not in total agreement with you. When we feel stressed, nervousness or anxiety, we often move our foot. We fidget or shuffle our feet when we are nervous. When we are stressed we usually wind our feet around each other or we round them around the nearest furniture. When in total agreement to each other, feet of both communicators are softly placed on ground facing the other person directly.
15. When you wish to show your agreement or disagreement to the other person all you need to do is take the open or closed to communicate body stance of the other person.

Keenly observebody language of highly successful people and also your regular acquaintances. You can study various behavioral patterns and judge the mindset of different people or opt to learn the topic in depth by going through extensive trainings, videos and books.

Rome Was Not Built In a Day: Keep on Practicing!

Nothing can replace the rewards of hard work and practice. Hence, to practice positive body language and also to understand the attitude of others through observation you need to keep on practicing it consciously, everyday. Remember, a good body language goes a long way in eliminating the complications that are caused by faulty or weak body language. At the onset of liberalization it has become quintessential that all of us learn and practice body language skills for success. Mere verbal communication is not enough to break the barrier of awkwardness or rigidity.

A good positive body language here functions as the conduit between two people from different communities. Noteworthy is the fact that many people in the world connect with each other even when they do not understand each other’s language at all. It is so because their body language communicates for them. Hope you understand communication is about connecting to the other person and not just about passing information. If you follow these ten simple and powerful body language tips, I guarantee you’ll increase your nonverbal impact in 2012.