Speaking with confidence and displaying it with body language will assure your audience you are trustworthy.
Many of my clients seek help for increasing their confidence – whether they are delivering a presentation at a conference, sitting through an interview, or selling a product, service, or idea to someone else. But what is confidence, really? How do you display it with body language?
According to Webster’s New World dictionary, confidence is defined as “firm belief, trust, reliance, certainty, a belief in one’s own ability”. Angie Morgan, one of the co-authors of Speak: How to Lead Yourself and Others to Greater Success (2017), claims that confidence is an emotion that can be managed. She also asserts that the fastest way to build your confidence is to change what you do with your body. There is a physicality to each of our emotions. When we are nervous or anxious or presumably under some sort of threat, we tend to breathe more shallowly, our shoulders round, and our eyes dart. On the other hand, when we feel confident, our posture is straight, we deliver good eye contact, and we tend to smile more.
In addition to paying more attention to our physicality, Daniel Goleman, author of Social Intelligence, has written extensively about emotional contagion. Emotional contagion is “the ability for emotions to pass from person to person without anyone consciously noticing”. Therefore, your audience absorbs the emotions you project from the stage. This is key if you are leading a team meeting, delivering a keynote, or selling a service or product.
As a speaker, how can you use this mind-body connection with your emotions to your advantage?
First, identify what emotion you want your audience to feel. Audiences want to feel safe and secure. Speakers who demonstrate they are confident are more readily going to gain the trust of their audiences.
Secondly, determine what physicality signifies the emotion you want your audience to feel. Check your posture, facial expressions, and habits. Fidgeting and pacing signifies anxiousness and nervousness – so watch those behaviors.
Thirdly, act “as if”. Constantin Stanislavsky, a Russian stage actor and director created this technique to help actors develop their characters. Acting “as if” you are confident will enable you to use your natural physicality to embody your emotions.
How do you want to effectively connect with your audience? Use contagious emotions and spread the confidence.