Communication is exchanging information or news, or a connection between people or places. We communicate in different ways between our spoken language and our written language. But what about our nonverbal communication? Oh yeah, the thing that we never really think of. It’s there whether we want to be or not. Our body language is a giant, neon billboard of nonverbal communication. We’ve all made different facial expressions and gestures with our bodies to signify things. Our likes, our dislikes, as well as our neutrality. So what does this have to do with the business world?
What I want you to do right now is watch this video, it’s about 20 minutes. If you don’t have 20 minutes then fast forward to the 13:20 mark of the video and watch until the 15:40 mark. Go ahead, I’ll wait… Back already? Now that you’ve watched it you’re ready to take on the world, right?
The main point of the video that I want to address is the two minutes around the 13:20 mark. This goes back to my very first post about why I started this blog. This is one of the things that can make or break a job interview, our body language. When we act confident we begin to feel confident, and when we begin to feel confident we become confident. The idea of fake it till you make it is real, but like Amy Cuddy said in the video, you can fake it till you become it. This is an easy tool to keep in the arsenal of things that can set you above your opponents. When you see yourself sitting as if you’re moping, remember this and take the two minutes to help yourself become more confident.
Like Amy said in the video, you make yourself more desirable in those situations to future employers. The coders in the experiment made decisions just based on body language who they wanted to hire. No résumé, no cover letters, no background information, just your body language. So when you’re next job interview or presentation rolls around and you start freaking out if you have everything in order, remember to take two minutes to put yourself in a high-power pose to give yourself more confidence. Your employer wants to be confident in you so you need to be confident in yourself.
Dressed 2 impress 