When you smile.

When you smile.

A great posture, heads up look, a confident smile, a direct gaze - all somebody needs, who is a somebody. – Leil Lowmdes

This is all you need to be armed with when it comes to letting your incredible, inescapable and unique essence come through. Armed with empathy and care, a smile can make any woman, or man, appear soft and comfortable to be around.

Exclusive smile: Lowmdes beautifully puts out the use of smile as the most potent tool in establishing connect. She recommends, set aside five minutes. Lock yourself in a room in front of the mirror and flash a few smiles. Discover the subtle difference in your repertoire of smiles. Just as you would alternate between greetings, alternate between your smiles. Let each smile reflect the differences in your feelings towards the recipient. This is especially true when meeting a group of people, if one person is more important to you than the others in a group, let that reflect with a bigger smile for that particular person. You would convey the feelings loud and clear.

Then comes the slow, but flooding smile. Lowmdes further reflects on a study that shows that women who are slower to smile in a corporate life were considered more credible. Women like Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Madeleine Albright were not known for their quick smiles. Rather their smile, a flooding one, was an asset when it came a little slower. The delay needs to be only momentary, a second or so, as you pivot towards the recipient. But it is imperative to show that it was exclusively for the recipient and came about as they connected. The split second delay would convince people your flooding smile is genuine and only for them.

Eye contact: Women are reluctant at eye contact, most thinking they will give away more messages than they intent to. This can also be cultural. There are cultures and background where women are not comfortable with looking right at the eye, and/ or are not comfortable being looked at in the eye. Having said that, eye contact is hygiene to create a connect and establish mutual trust between two people. Maintaining eye contact is especially important when the other person is talking of personal experiences. It not only makes you look intelligent and attentive, but also shows that you care. It broadcasts a message of trust and respect. Most importantly, it helps you to record how your listener is reacting to what you are saying and maneuver accordingly.

Look at me: Accompanied by a smile is undivided attention. In many situations, especially when standing, I have found people misaligned physically to the person they are speaking to. This can create an unspoken gap. When speaking with anyone, ensure you turn towards them for a face to face talk, such that your head and your body are in a straight line. Not doing so gives a message of half-heartedness and that you would move away at the first available opportunity. We do not realize this mostly when in a group setting, but be cognizant and remember to turn towards the person you are talking to. You can always turn back to your primary conversation partner, once this part is over.

要查看或添加评论,请登录

Deepshikha Kumar的更多文章

  • Expert Mentorship is YOUR key to extraordinary success

    Expert Mentorship is YOUR key to extraordinary success

    As a mid-career, coveted engineer-MBA combo, I was stuck and directionless. Had it not been for the nudge, faith and…

    15 条评论
  • How can an expert speaker boost your business?

    How can an expert speaker boost your business?

    An expert speaker is much more than a simple speechmaker. Several business owners, large or small, reach out to experts…

    2 条评论
  • Nice girls with the corner office!

    Nice girls with the corner office!

    Its 18th of May and we are closing our first fund-raise at SpeakIn. What a journey it has been – while one hates…

  • Making friends with the audience

    Making friends with the audience

    Humility and a friendly demeanor is the quickest route to get the audience to agree to your point of view in decisive…

  • Three things best presentations must do!

    Three things best presentations must do!

    As a speaker, your best presentations must do three things - 1) inform, 2) entertain and 3) inspire. FIRST, Inform.

    2 条评论
  • So much depends on your reputation, guard it with your life

    So much depends on your reputation, guard it with your life

    In the social realm, appearances are the barometer of almost all of our judgments, and you must never be misled into…

    1 条评论
  • Executive Coaching: What, why and how?

    Executive Coaching: What, why and how?

    Despite the growing popularity of cost saving mechanisms, if there is one thing that I have seen growing within people…

  • What I learnt from my network

    What I learnt from my network

    Being an only child, I realised the importance of learning and evolving through concerted interactions very early. This…

    5 条评论
  • What not to do when speaking to an audience!

    What not to do when speaking to an audience!

    Well, much said about what to do in public speaking – last evening at one of our chapter events we saw fitting examples…

  • Press Release - SpeakIn goes international, launches its first in Singapore

    Press Release - SpeakIn goes international, launches its first in Singapore

    25th January, 2016 - Singapore. SpeakIn, India’s largest business speaker platform, successfully launched its first…

    3 条评论

社区洞察

其他会员也浏览了