I'm a big believer in teaching by positive example focusing on what you should do not wish you shouldn't
do.
But I do want to address what I consider to be the three big myths when it comes to body language in
the workplace and body language in general.
The number one myth out there and I hear this every single week when I'm conducting public speaking
media training workshops with clients individuals groups all over the world someone will bring this
up and the issue is hands.
What do you do with your hands when you're speaking presenting in a briefing talking on Skype video
or zoom.
The big myth out there is that somehow it's distracting to move your hands and it's more professional
to hold your hands down.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Now I monitor audiences all over the world.
I test audiences and what I have found regardless of the culture regardless of the industry is that
people respond much more favorably to an individual in a business situation speaking presenting talking
when that person moves his or her hands.
The second you freeze your hands you freeze your arms body your vocal cords and you are going to sound
more nervous stiff monotone and you're going to look stiff.
So huge huge myth out there.
Now in theory is it possible to be wildly gesticulating and distracting.
It's possible.
All I can tell you is that for 30 years I've trained 10000 people all over the globe from six continents
I've never yet had anyone wildly moving their hands too much.
But every week sometimes every day and week I have people stand up to give a presentation and they do
this or this or grab a lectern.
Their hands are frozen.
They look stiff uncomfortable nervous.
So I want you to get rid of this notion that somehow you're not supposed to move your hands.
Have I ever seen someone move hands too much.
Yeah.
Will Ferrell in a movie where he's being interviewed after winning a race car he's like I don't know
what to do with my.
It's funny if you're a comedian but it's not a problem that affects people in real life.
The second big myth out there that there are certain poses you can take to make yourself more comfortable
confident commanding the most pernicious of all is this one floating around on the internet.
I won't talk about the proponent by name but he says if you just stand with your arms and your hands
on your hips like Wonderwoman you'll be filled with so much confidence it'll help you in any presentation.
This is complete nonsense in my professional view because if you don't have anything interesting to
say.
And then when you get in front of people for that speech or talk or presentation or job interview you
then tense your body up again standing like this for a minute.
Is it going to do anything.
So get rid of that notion and the solution we'll talk about later in this course.
You have to practice speaking presenting talking asking questions on video.
It's not as popular as standing like Wonder Woman but it really does solve the problem.
Now the number one myth out there when it comes to body language.
Drum roll I guess the number one myth is that somehow 93 percent of all communication is your body language
your voice what you do with your body only 7 percent your words your content.
This is a myth that's been going around for decades.
It has been widely debunked.
It all stems from a study at UCLA by a professor of Moravia and he was studying something very different.
His results have been perverted by bad so-called body language experts.
Public speaking experts ever sense purports to show that how you move your body what you do with your
voice is infinitely more important that what you say and that your actual content in your actual words
are only 7 percent widely debunked.
If you hear any so-called public speaking expert talk about this you know they are a complete fool.
I'm going to put the citation below and you can also google this and you can see what I'm talking about.
Here's the ultimate test if you doubt me.
If really everything is body language and your voice and content is only 7 percent that means you could
give a sales presentation to someone who doesn't speak your language.
They would still understand 93 percent of what you're talking about.
That's obviously patently absurd.
They wouldn't understand anything you're talking about if you're speaking to them in a language they
don't understand.
Now I obviously think body language is important or I wouldn't be teaching this course but I want you
to really keep things in perspective.
It's not more important than your actual ideas and your substance.
You have to have both in any form of communication.
It's never just about style.
It's never just about substance.
It's always both.
For example let's say you are desperate to hire some new employee in your organization and I rate you
a beautiful cover letter.
Everything you want to see everything you like everything beautiful paper Great punctuation but you
look at my resume and I have no relevant work experience in your industry and I've never held a job
for more than two weeks.
Are you likely to hire me.
Probably not.
In that case I'll have great style but no substance.
On the flip side if I have a beautiful resume everything you're looking for in your industry.
But I sent you a cover letter filled with misspellings typos poor grammar no space between the words.
What are you going to do.
Chances are you're going to take my resume and my cover letter and throw it in the trash.
In this case my style will overwhelm my substance.
So I believe in all forms of communication writing speaking talking.
It's never this false dichotomy of style versus substance.
You have to have both.
This course is going to help you with the body language side of things but realize you've got to have
great substance if you really want to communicate and ultimately that's what is going to have a huge
impact on your career.
Body language can help but without the substance without good messages none of this will matter.