Make Body Language Your Superpower

foreign what makes one an exceptional presenter is it flashy visuals is it the tone of voice is it the actual message or content or does it have something to do with body language or gestures and our stance today we want to talk to you about this latter Point how do we use our body effectively to communicate our message because we have so many great ideas here but if they remain in our head don't actually link up with the audience our message will not derived it won't be our red message will not have resonated with the audience so body language plays a powerful role in how we communicate and unfortunately body language can also distract we've seen this clip before of Michael Bay right he speaks the teleprompter he loses sight of what's happening the telephone doesn't sync up and he struggles and all you see is his body moving around and he's nervous he's exuding it so I want to give some color commentary as we watch as a class what is happening so it stands at the beginning it's okay but his hands he's meshing them and now he's starting to turn from the audience again his hands are clasped he's looking a bit down not at all of you the audience and he spins he shows his back audience and he can't regain composure he's swaying back and forth he's looking down he's avoiding the audience his nerves are coming out again his hands and now I think he's looking at the back of the stage that's the exact opposite place and where did you want to actually live he's incredibly nervous and now we exit stage we all want to avoid our own Michael Bay moments when we communicate the last thing we want at a startup pitch or meeting is to have that happen is to have the body language take over from the message if we lose sight of what our body is doing all people can pay attention to is the body itself right it'll take over so that comes down to not only can It distract but the body language can it is your superhero right that it can change it's your superpower sorry not a superhero you're the superhero but it's your superpower in the sense that we can utilize it to enhance and communicate with every person in the audience we want to talk about that today from three Vantage points Colin is going to get us started in talking about how posture breeds success Jung Joon is going to talk about how gestures to strengthen your message finally Jennifer is going to close us out with how we think about the body posture of you the audience and how to interact with that Colin take us away communication begins before you even open your mouth to speak your audience's first impression of you is your posture and your position and so it's important to know both how to stand as well as where to stand and perhaps it's fairly obvious but you should stand facing the people you're talking to don't stand facing your visuals and turning your back to the audience that's not what we want to do we can't communicate that way it's also important to know where you're standing in the room a position of strength in this room is somewhere in this Center box as long as you're moving around in the center you're doing pretty well where you don't want to be as often the corner cowering or especially in front of any distractions and this this room is pretty good it doesn't have that many distractions but there is a window and outside this window there are cars there are buses there are bikers and when I was standing over there probably about half of you could see in your peripheral vision outside the window and if a car were to drive by your instinct your reaction would be to look out the window and that would break your concentration and our conversation and we don't want that either and now that you know where to stand it's important to know how to stand so we're going to demonstrate a few positions a few bad positions that we've seen from us and some of you guys and even from the presentations earlier today that you shouldn't do the first one is hands in your pockets this comes off as nonchalant your shoulders tend to roll forwards and it's very difficult to convey a strong message from this position the second one is hands on your hips when your hands are on your hips you tend to look overbearing and Powerful and the third one is the Fig Leaf this is where you're protecting your family jewels with your hands and while it also looks timid it's especially bad when you decide to gesture from this position I want to show you something you look like you're flashing the audience and that's not a good thing so how should you stand and if I could actually get all of you to stand I'll lead you through a short demonstration on how to find your face posture so once you've stood be mindful of the people next to you and place your feet hip width apart close your eyes and look up towards the ceiling and lift your hands above your head get a good stretch underneath your shoulders and let your arms drop to the side when you open your eyes look down this is your base posture thank you very much for participating you guys can sit down now found your base posture this is where you should gesture from and it's where you should return to when you're finished gesturing it may not feel the most comfortable but it looks the most comfortable to your audience remember that your posture and position are the audience's first impression of you but now that you know how to stand still it's time to learn how to move gestures are important because it helps you communicate there for example if you use dress juice the audience remembers twice as much it also helps you with future speakers too because it helps your memory when you speak also beside the transition your hand and arm movement is the biggest movement that the audience can see you can either use it wisely or waste it on random and distracting gestures I'm going to show you three types of gestures the gift the show and the top here's an example this quarter at the GSP I went to this communications class it was so great I mean you could feel that your skills are improved I think this was the best class I've ever taken let's rewind and see what happened the give this quote at the GSP I went to this communications class so this gesture is used to give the audience the facts or the options remember to have your palms up not down we'll get to that in a minute the show I mean you could feel that's your skills I'm proving this kind of gesture has the largest variety and your imagination is the limit just remember that the gesture and the message has to match for example you can say profits are rising to the just collect so congruency and creativity the chop I think this was the best class I've ever taken so this gesture is used to deliver strong opinion you can either use it one hand or you can use both hands you can use both hands and do a larger job which will deliver a stronger message so next time when you do gestures think about these three types and plan ahead three types is they give the show and the chop I bet everyone in the room is going to remember this dress just work that's the message uh another subject is about having your palms up so I'll give you an example people on the right please rise and move to the left I'll do a slightly different this time people on the left right please rise and move to the left one more time people on the right please rise and move to the left you see the difference which one do you think would make more people move the first one yes according to study if you have your palms up 84 percent of the audience complied if you have your palms down 52 percent if you have your fingers 28 percent never use your fingers at your audience it looks just arrogant and only politicians use that Clinton used it I did not have sexual relations it looks bad back then looks bad now and last but not least avoid the terrorist gestures for example people on the right please rise and move to the left no matter what you do right I mean it looks silly so loosen up everybody always remember that gestures are there for you and the audience to make a deeper connection so far we've talked about the audience now it's time to focus on you the audience as Jung Joon and Colin and Matt described we've been focusing on the body language of the speaker but let's not forget who's the real hero here as we learned in our first week of class it's not me the speaker it's you the audience but what happens when the audience doesn't realize that they are on this hero's journey have you ever seen an audience that looks like this have you ever been that audience it's okay we all have whether we're playing on our phones falling asleep and nodding off looking at the clock and calculating can we make an escape from this room we've all done it but the thing is it's the speaker's responsibility to understand what's going on with their audience and body language is a powerful way to assess that as a speaker we can be so focused on our own body language that we never even notice what the audience is doing and it's important to change that so I want to share three strategies for how you can engage with your audience better by developing more observational skills so first of all absolutely be using the gestures and Body Language tools that we've talked about today and over the course of the quarter but the second thing is to notice of course you're going to be looking for eye contact but look Beyond it look at how your Bot how your audience members are sitting are they fidgeting are they moving are they leaning forward looking engaged and taking notes or are they zoning out if your body language your eye contact and your efforts at being compelling are not working then you can go deeper you can try to surprise the audience with a question or use some humor or you can disrupt the audience as students we hate being cold called but we know it's effective right Jason what's your favorite color okay very good you got that one as we all know it's the fastest way to re-engage with the conversation with the speaker so don't be afraid to use it it's so important to keep your audience on track because they're the hero and it's their Journey remember how Nancy Duarte told us that we are the Yoda to the Luke Skywalker and our job as a speaker is to keep the hero on their Journey with that in mind I think we've talked about three concepts that really remind each of us about how body language is your superpower use it become that superpower tell that superhero and we welcome any questions you have on how to stand strong gesture effectively and engage the audience thank you

Channel: Stanford Graduate School of Business

Views: 15,190,421

Keywords: body language, nonverbal communication, movement, gestures, stanford, stanford gsb, expressions, b school, eye contact, public speaking, socializing, social skills, charismatic, psychology, communication skills

Id: cFLjudWTuGQ

Length: 13min 18sec (798 seconds)

Published: Wed May 14 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/XHF2]

Now i know how to stand.

[u/[deleted]]

If you're interested in this kind of thing, Amy Cuddy (a social psychologist) did a great TED talk about body language. Better than this video IMO.