Body Language for Leaders

Use Rhetoric & Psychology, Improve Gestures & Facial Expressions, Control Non-Nerbal Communication & Physical Signals, Learn Apperance Effect & Charisma

Simone Janson, Simone Janson, Simone Janson

• Publisher: Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®
• Year: 2024
• ISBN:
  9783965960541
• Edition: 4
• Topic: Éducation
• Subtopic: Enseignement des arts et des sciences humaines

Gesture facial expressions voice: the power of the right effect
// By Simone Janson

Are you also one of those people who work day in, day out and watch others making a career? Then maybe you should think more about how it affects others.

Showtime

Do you know Murphy's Law? It says: Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong! If you do not want to make mistakes, you're guaranteed to do them. If you have organized your schedule perfectly, something is definitely in between. And if you have actually managed to be a perfectionist, let the five get you! At such moments, you may feel that Murphy's Law is beating hard.

Do not be put under pressure by high expectations or other perfectionist colleagues. If you have realized that exaggerated perfectionism does not help you in your professional life, you should continue to follow the path of this realization consistently. Even if it's not easy, stay cool.

Do not get caught

Even if it sometimes seems that there is a cosmic law that makes things go wrong: in truth, there are usually good reasons why certain things go wrong. For example, if you want to avoid mistakes at all costs, you may be so stressed that the flaw is just a logical consequence. If your schedule is shaky, it's often because you, as a typical perfectionist, have packed your day off. And if your boss gets you "sloppy" - that's because you get caught.

Unfortunately, it does not suffice in everyday working life with its high demands to merely downsize the high demands on oneself. Because bosses are mostly satisfied only when they perform at their best. Or at least if it looks like that. So grab a trick: Make it appear that your services are flawless and perfect - even if you think there's a lot left to criticize.

Less is more - honest!

It's understandable that as a diehard perfectionist, you do not like trickery with a strong love of truth. You would rather honestly say that the requirements are too much for you and that you want to work less. Or you still want to work every day until late at night. Because only then is your boss probably satisfied and you have a clear conscience. But look at what your colleagues are doing: are they all working so long? With the same intensity? Or do colleagues have another way of convincing the boss of their accomplishments?

As once the two colleagues Ariane and Petra in comparison: Ariane suffers as an introverted perfectionist with a penchant for self-criticism of the high demands of their boss: "Never you can make it right, constantly demanding and he calls even more power!" She complains and therefore works every night until 21 PM or even longer. Your colleague Petra, on the other hand, is quite different: she has decided not to comply unconditionally with the requirements of her boss.

Good arguments

With some reasonable arguments, she was able to make it clear to him that working constantly until late at night would have a lasting adverse effect on their ability to perform and that it would be more sensible to have a regular end to work. In fact, the boss has understood that Petra can do her job much more efficiently and with reasonable daily working hours. He was even enthusiastic about Petras self-responsible action.

Petra now wants to convince Ariane: "You do not always have to do what the boss asks, you can also talk to him," she tells her again and again. But Ariane does not really dare. Instead, she asks annoyingly every night when Petra packs her things together: "How? You go already? "The hidden criticism in Ariane's words hits Petra, who has just freed herself a bit from her own perfectionism, especially. Every evening she feels caught and goes home with a guilty conscience because she leaves Ariane alone in the office. But Petra also knows that this is the only way not to break herself. "Eventually, Ariane will also see that!" She hopes.

The power of gesture, facial expression and voice

Ariane and Petra have each prepared a small presentation for an important meeting. Ariane until late into the night. She has researched all the facts and noted down all the arguments and the possible counter arguments of her colleagues neatly. After almost no sleep all night, Ariane is more than stressed out and in bad shape. When it's her turn, her voice trembles, she sounds strained and nervous, tugging at her hair. No particularly appealing idea. And Ariane wonders during the entire lecture why everyone else is looking at her colleagues so disinterestedly.

The answer is simple. It's up to Ariane's appearance, her gestures and facial expressions - and her voice. Because the appearance of a person is "treacherous". Studies show that the effect of a message actually depends on only seven percent of the content of what has been said. 55 percent are determined by body language. After all, 38 percent of our impact as a person is based on voice, tone, emphasis and articulation. Of course that does not mean that only appearance and appearance have to be right, and we can talk some nonsense. Because in a longer conversation or a presentation, we are of course measured by the content. But if body language is not right, others will unfortunately give much less faith to what we say.

Calm breathing helps

The Fatal: Especially perfectionist natures who strive to do the right thing tend to be stressed, hectic and dogged. This is usually interpreted as uncertainty. This negative impression is often compounded by the fact that perfectionists tend to put too much power and pressure in the voice and talk very fast, making them sound harsh and shrill. As a result, they also do not seem very competent.

Calm breathing relaxes the body, helps to act more deliberately and loosens the voice. A good exercise for this: Imagine that you are a fish woman and are with three to five other market women on the market and sell fish. Of course, yours has the best quality. However, you only praise your goods with the words "Bla, bla, bla". Make sure that you do not want to convince with volume, but with ease! Let your cheeks and lips loose.

Remove the pressure

You have probably already experienced this yourself: In some situations you have made a special effort to present a factual content perfectly. But because you were tense, you could not win others over for your arguments. The audience automatically believed that you were not quite sure of what you were saying, even if your arguments were so good. But you may also come up with situations in which you may not have had such a perfect line of reasoning in your head and yet could quickly win over other people. What was the reason? Presumably you were cheerful and relaxed in those moments.

Ariane also makes another mistake. Last year she did a rhetoric course and now unconsciously tries to copy the learned gestures and ways of speaking. This makes it unreal and unconvincing. The decisive factor in how a person acts on others is that, in speaking, he remains in his individual situation of indifference. This is the keynote of the voice that comes when your vocal cords vibrate quite relaxed and therefore you can very easily create with your voice. As you move your tone around it, you have better resonance and sound more expressive. Therefore, you are perceived by your audience as convincing and self-confident. However, if you move further away from this property, you risk your positive effect because you immediately sound tense and cramped.

Laugh yourself

Laugh on it and then reduce the tempo by saying "ha, ha, ha" or "ho, ho, ho" or "hi, hi, hi". Do you notice the small contraction in the diaphragm? You use this movement when speaking unconsciously. Learn to consciously use them by changing the volume of your hoohoho. In each case let the largest respiratory muscle "hop" and build up the power from below.

Pay attention to how it sounds when the laughter is not real. Produce it to delineate only with the larynx by pushing it out properly and give the abdomen little room to move. Do you notice the tension and effort? It is not only felt in your stomach, but also audible. You know immediately: This laugh is not real! Allow more movement and support the volume and dynamics of your voice.

Strike back verbally

The nervousness is also noticeable in other ways. Ariane can not quite remember her elaborate presentation, it is as if the right words were blown away. Therefore, she hides behind the laptop and wants to inspire the listener by the tricky computer animation, but stutters only through the presentation. After a few minutes, a colleague brings her with his throw completely out of step: "That's not really your opinion?" The colleague asks sharply. Ariane is prepared for factual arguments, but not for such an attack. "D ... d ... o..o..ch," she stutters softly, trying desperately to remember her reasoning. Instead of responding swiftly, she justifies herself and does not make a good impression.

A quick-acting reaction, for example, is to ridicule the critic who attacks you with such a taunting remark. To top it off his nonsense on the beachless: "That's not really your opinion?" - "Yes, I would even take an oath to it". Or: "You have the customer but bad advice!" - "Yes, he uses the washing machine as a hot tub." The procedure is simple. Choose a picture as absurd as possible and far aw...