Networking and Body Language
By: Lauren Marsicano
Insta: @networkingmaverick
Networking and Body Language
Body language isn’t something that we think about all that often. At the grocery store, I don’t worry that my eye contact with the cashier might affect our relationship moving forward–– that wouldn’t even cross my mind. But in business, body language can make or break budding connections. When you’re looking to add someone to your network, body language is crucial in establishing yourself as the powerful Queen or King you are. So, I’m sharing some of my favorite tips on how you can use body language to improve your networking.
1. “Interested” vs. “Interesting”
Dr. Ivan Misner, a leading voice in the networking community, has a phrase that I like to keep in mind: “interested” is always better than “interesting.” Someone who actively pays attention to others will leave a far better impression than someone who spends a conversation bragging about their accomplishments.
Authentic, good-listener body language shows two positive qualities: the ability to be kind and pay mind to others, and the confidence to know that you don’t always need to be the one speaking to be important. That’s why I always emphasize being “interested” over being “interesting.”
Here’s how to be “interested” effectively:
Maintain eye contact. Eye contact establishes a connection between you and the other person and shows that you are confident and sure of yourself.
Visually react to the conversation. By visually reacting instead of verbally, you are establishing your investment in the conversation without interrupting the other person. Some ways to visually react are by nodding, smiling, or lifting eyebrows. Just make sure that your reactions are appropriate and authentic.
2. Finding Balance with Hand Gestures
Hand gestures are crucial to maintaining listener engagement when you’re speaking. A study done by Holler and Beatie found that hand gestures increase the perceived value of someone’s message by 60 percent. That’s huge! However, that’s not an invitation to use jazz-hands when you talk about your business. Make sure your gestures are always deliberate.
Here’s something that’s important to keep in mind when using hand gestures to illustrate your point: always make sure your gestures are tailored to your listener’s perspective. That means you need to make sure that your gestures are accurate for your listener. For example, imagine you’re explaining a timeline to someone. If you were to use hand gestures to illustrate that timeline, your natural instinct would be to indicate the start of the timeline on your left side and the end of the timeline on your right. In order to make that gesture accurate for your listener, you’d need to start the timeline on your right and end it on your left. This technique, while subtle, is incredibly effective in illustrating points in a way that listeners will perceive as more accurate.
3. Open Stance vs. Power Posing
Power posing is something I love to do in photos for my social media to help promote events that empower women in business. And the power pose works great for Wonder Woman in most circumstances, but for us in a boardroom, for example, it would just look strange. Instead of striking a pose, exude confidence physically in a different way: by opening up.
Maintaining good posture, keeping your arms behind you or at your side instead of crossing them, and maintaining eye contact all serve to create an open, confident appearance. Looking approachable as well as confident is key to making yourself physically ready for networking.
Recap
So, let’s recap how you can use body language to improve your networking abilities.
Be “interested” instead of “interesting.”
Use deliberate hand gestures tailored to your listeners.
Open up to appear confident and approachable.
If you keep these body language tips in mind, you’ll go from a Networking Novice to a Networking Maverick (like me) in no time! Woot woot!
Until next time, happy connecting!