Negative Body Language? - do you have it?

Quite naturally our friends are unlikely to provide negative feedback when our body language does not work for them. As a professional trainer in the area of corporate communications I have learned that providing people with accurate, useful and supportive feedback is a better choice.

One of the key concepts is reminding people that all body language is a manifestation of what we think and feel about ourselves, other people and our business. If we consider how we feel about critical functions in our business we can begin to identify areas that negatively affect our body language and our ability to communicate about our products or services. Identifying body language that undermines our effectiveness creates the opportunity for change.

However, trying to manipulate our body language is not a successful strategy over the longer-term. As I said in my previous article, surprise questions catch us off-guard at which point our non-conscious body language speaks for us. If you want to improve your body language then you might want to try the following:

BODY LANGUAGE EXERCISE: Consider the circle above. The centre of the circle represent zero and the outside edge represents plus 10. In this exercise, for each piece of the pie put a point in the appropriate spot that reflects how you feel about your ability in that area. Once done, connect the points.

If we want to increase our level of success, we have to accept that if, for instance, we love the sales process but doubt the quality of the product we are selling, we will communicate this doubt and people will not buy. Similarly, if we love the product but are concerned about our level of success, we will have trouble selling. Or, if you love the product but not the work environment people may not buy from us. Our body language communicates everything and where there is a conflict between body language and our words, people believe the body language over our words. So the first step is to identify our weak areas and the second step is to find ways of addressing this weakness.

If you own the business you might want to hire a business coach. Just make sure your hire a certified coach. Let them observe your communications and then suggest ways of addressing your challenges.

If you have employees, have them complete the exercise and then work with them to address their challenges. There is nothing more disastrous than having an employee who has little commitment to your business or who does not believe in the product or service you are offering.

In my 35 years of experience it is better to support your employees than simply fire them. They may be a critical source of information that will help you in identifying a major weakness in your product or in your communications process. For instance, if they have a negative attitude to your product but have not wanted to say so it may be true that some of your potential customers feel the same way. Now is a chance to fix that. Or, you might find that educating your staff changes their attitude to your business.

Our thanks to the Fabulous Corrine Ropp for this article.  Check out more on her website here: http://www.empowerment-seminars.ca/