ARE YOU AWARE OF YOUR BODY LANGUAGE?

If not, you could be communicating messages that you wished you didn’t.

Eye contact, hand gestures and how you appear on Zoom can make a huge difference in either building trust with, or alienating, your audience.

Hollywood actors are paid millions of dollars…to act.? Through their body language they persuade the audience to believe that they are real, legitimate and trustworthy.? We sometimes hate the character they are playing because they have accomplished the very task of using speech and body language to convince us of their character.?

So too lawyers and mediators must be acutely aware that their audience (clients) are listening to their words and watching their body language to ascertain if what they say should be relied upon and accepted.

Next time you are in a meeting, ask yourself: what is your body language saying?

Take note of your signals and mannerisms.

How are you communicating non-verbally?

Is it instinctive or conscious?

Are your words matching your body language?

Steve Benmor, B.Sc., LL.B., LL.M. (Family Law), C.S., is the founder and principal lawyer of Benmor Family Law Group, a boutique matrimonial law firm in downtown Toronto.?He is a Certified?Specialist?in Family Law and was admitted as a Fellow to the prestigious International Academy of Family Lawyers. Steve is regularly retained as a Divorce Mediator, Arbitrator and Parenting Coordinator. As a?Divorce Mediator, Steve uses his 30 years of in-depth knowledge of family law,?court-room experience?and expert problem-solving skills in Divorce Mediation to help spouses reach fair, fast and cooperative divorce settlements without the financial losses, emotional costs and lengthy delays from divorce court.?You can find his CV at?https://benmor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Steve_CV.pdf. He can be reached at [email protected]