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Friday is National Body Language Day, which means it’s as good a time as any to start thinking about how your nonverbal communication can affect your career.
According to experts who Quartz talked to about body language, the key takeaway is: Faking it until you make it doesn’t always work because your body language could be telling on you. But don’t despair, there are still ways to improve how you carry yourself.
Below are some things to be mindful of in the workplace.
Impressions aren’t actually a one-time thing
We tend to think we only have one shot at a first impression — and that’s true by standard logic. But body language expert Patti Wood said we make impressions all the time — every day. That matters, particularly in a corporate setting.
“In business, you’re forming a first impression when you walk in the door in the morning, which tells everybody how you’re going to act that day,” Wood said. “When you get on a phone call, when you get on a Zoom (ZM-0.70%), each of those interactions form first impressions.”
She added, “You can profoundly affect not just how people see you but [also] how successful you’re going to be at getting people to do things for you, getting cooperation from people, earning esteem from your peers and your boss by that impression that as you start an interaction.”
How you come into the office or enter a Zoom call each day can have a “huge impact” on how people read you and how successful the interaction is going to be, Wood said.
Simple actions go a long way
It might sound basic to say, but eye contact and a firm handshake really are important.
“Make eye contact and say hello to people that you might you might not normally do [so to],” Wood said. She suggested spending more time meeting and greeting coworkers.
Wood added that a simple way to look in control is to “go to the meeting before it starts.” That way, you can get a read on the room and appear calm and collected to others.
Think about your hands
Everybody knows crossing your arms isn’t the most friendly signal, but there are other aspects to using your hands to think about, too.
Wood says closed fists don’t project openness and can “close you off” to your peers. Just as important: On Zoom, you want people to be able to see your hands, particularly with open palms.
“Our stress and cortisol levels remain high on Zoom because we are staring at people, which is not normal,” she said. People tend to have a “primal” wonder about what the person on the other end is doing with their hands.
Dr. Don Weber, another a body language coach, said he tells his clients to put their phones out of view when on a Zoom call.
“Get anything out of the room that will distract you,” he said. That way, you can focus on the person you’re speaking to, particularly in an interview.
You can’t fake it until you make it
“If a person is actually confident, it shows naturally,” Weber said. “That’s an important thing for people to realize. There’s no ‘fake it till you make it’ kind of thing. Either you’re prepared, or you’re not.”
Weber said if you’re interviewing for a job, the person asking you questions will usually be able to tell if you’re lying or nervous — even if they’re not an expert in body language. “Their mind is scanning for incongruences between your words and body language,” he said.
The worst thing you can do, Weber said, is come off as deceitful, so if you’re a little nervous, that’s OK.
Ultimately, experts say there’s no secret way to hack your body language. If you want to appear confident, they say, you have to actually believe in yourself. And doing that often takes a lot more than just working on your body language.