How you stand, place your arms and feet and hold your head are indicators of how self-confident you are and whether or not you will be taken seriously. The first step in successful body language that conveys confidence is your standing position or posture. If you feel like it, stand up and get intoneutral position:
Place equal pressure on both feet (no shifting from leg-to-leg). Your feet are hip width apart. Your knees and thighs are relaxed. Your shoulders are back and down. Your hands are comfortably at your sides. Your chin is up and parallel with the floor.
Do you want to be called a “Polished Speaker?” One characteristic of a polished speaker is enunciating clearly!
The acceptable pronunciation of any word is determined exclusively by its usage in the general population. But a dictionary can be a valuable tool to learn how to pronounce words. Pronunciation in the dictionary is represented by symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). If you’re not familiar with IPA, each symbol in the IPA stands for one sound. This is different from our regular alphabet in which one symbol stands for many sounds. For instance, the sound /a/ can be produced as in bad, bade, and ball. Mastering the IPA system will assist you in many ways, particularly when you need to look up a word.
“Trust is a powerful force that builds loyalty, increases credibility and supports effective communications. It gives you the benefit of the doubt in situations where you want to be heard, understood and believed.” From How Leaders Can Communicate to Build Trust, Ivey Business Journal
Let’s face it….likeable people are trustworthy. No one will buy into your ideas, products or initiatives if you aren’t likeable. Of course, you can’t force anyone to like you and you don’t want to sound insincere. Here are some ways to enhance the” Like-ability Factor” so that you are instantly more trustworthy through your speech, language, and voice skills.
Do you ever feel like you have a great message to share but just can’t quite communicate it adequately to get people to act or be inspired? Maybe you feel no one listens and you don’t get the respect you want from your colleagues and managers. You aren’t alone if you do.
There are many potential reasons that interfere with a solid presentation. I like to think of these reasons as distractions. When a distraction is present, there is little hope of getting your message across because your listener will start paying attention to that. And once they are paying attention to a distraction, they are no longer listening to you. And once they are no longer listening to you, you have lost credibility and influence. Here is just one example of how a distraction interfered with a young executive’s credibility.
How you stand, place your arms and feet and hold your head are indicators of how self-confident you are and whether or not you will be taken seriously. The first step in successful body language that conveys confidence is your standing position or posture. If you feel like it, stand up and get into neutral position:
Do you want to be called a “Polished Speaker?” One characteristic of a polished speaker is enunciating clearly!
