How people stand is a strong indicator of their mindset. When you stand in this strong and steady position, with your feet about a shoulder width apart, it signals that you feel in control.

Wide Stance

Gesturing as if you were holding a basketball between your hands is an indicator of confidence and control, as if you almost literally have the facts at your fingertips hands. Steve Jobs frequently used this position in his speeches.

Holding The Ball

This gesture indicates openness and honesty. Oprah makes strong use of this during her speeches. She is a powerful, influential figure, but also appears willing to connect sincerely with the people she is speaking to, be it one person or a crowd of thousands.

Palms Up

The opposite movement can be viewed positively too—as a sign of strength, authority and assertiveness. Barack Obama has often used it to calm a crowd right after moments of rousing oration.

Palms Down

When people are nervous, their hands often flit about and fidget. When they’re confident, they are still. One way to accomplish that is to clasp both hands together in a relaxed pyramid. Many business executives employ this gesture, though beware of overuse or pairing it with domineering or arrogant facial expressions. The idea is to show you’re relaxed, not smug.

The Pyramid Hands

The next time you give a presentation, try to have it recorded, then review the video with the sound off, watching only your body language. How did you stand and gesture? Did you use any of these positions? If not, think about how you might do so the next time you’re in front of an audience, or even just speaking to your boss or a big client. Practice in front of a mirror, then with friends, until they feel natural.

How To Improve

Early in Bill Clinton’s political career he would punctuate his speeches with big, wide gestures that made him appear untrustworthy. To help him keep his body language under control, his advisors taught him to imagine a box in front of his chest and belly and contain his hand movements within it. Since then, “the Clinton box” has become a popular term in the field.

The Box

Our idea is importance, so do the gesture. A study had studied some successful leaders across a range of fields and identified several positions which are indicators of effective, persuasive body language.Here are the positive gestures:

Introduction

The right kinds of non-verbal communication did correlate with success.
How can you send out the same signals—and hopefully generate the same success?

Research says using these 6 persuasive body-language positions during a talk can lead to success. CHAPTERS 00:00 Your ideas are important–but so is your body language. 00:47 Position 1: The box 01:10 Position 2: Holding the ball 01:25 Position 3: Pyramid hands 01:52 Position 4: Wide stance 02:05 Position 5: Palms up 02:22 Position 6: Palms down The next time you give a presentation, try to have it recorded, then review the video with the sound off, watching only your body language. How did you stand and gesture? Did you use any of these positions? If not, think about how you might do so the next time you’re in front of an audience, or even just speaking to your boss or a big client. Practice in front of a mirror, then with friends, until they feel natural. Non-verbal communication won’t necessarily make or break you as a leader, but it might help you achieve more successful outcomes. Based on the HBR article by Kasia Wezowski: https://hbr.org/2017/04/6-ways-to-look-more-confident-during-a-presentation. This video is co-produced with @Emeritus . You can find more co-productions from HBR and Emeritus on the Emeritus app: https://emrt.us/HarvardBusinessReview Follow HBR: https://hbr.org/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/harvard-business-review/ https://www.facebook.com/HBR/ https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz https://www.instagram.com/harvard_business_review Sign up for Newsletters: https://hbr.org/email-newsletters #HarvardBusinessReview #Explainer #BodyLanguage Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

communication

Communication

Research says using these 6 persuasive body-language positions during a talk can lead to success.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Your ideas are important–but so is your body language.
00:47 Position 1: The box
01:10 Position 2: Holding the ball
01:25 Position 3: Pyramid hands
01:52 Position 4: Wide stance
02:05 Position 5: Palms up
02:22 Position 6: Palms down

The next time you give a presentation, try to have it recorded, then review the video with the sound off, watching only your body language. How did you stand and gesture? Did you use any of these positions?  If not, think about how you might do so the next time you’re in front of an audience, or even just speaking to your boss or a big client. Practice in front of a mirror, then with friends, until they feel natural.

Non-verbal communication won’t necessarily make or break you as a leader, but it might help you achieve more successful outcomes.

Based on the HBR article by Kasia Wezowski: https://hbr.org/2017/04/6-ways-to-look-more-confident-during-a-presentation. 

This video is co-produced with  @Emeritus . You can find more co-productions from HBR and Emeritus on the Emeritus app:  https://emrt.us/HarvardBusinessReview

Follow HBR:
https://hbr.org/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/harvard-business-review/
https://www.facebook.com/HBR/
https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz
https://www.instagram.com/harvard_business_review

Sign up for Newsletters: https://hbr.org/email-newsletters

#HarvardBusinessReview #Explainer #BodyLanguage

Copyright © 2022 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.

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Palms Down

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