Expanding & Opening

How often do you give presentations? Speak to large groups or groups of any size? And when you do, how effective are you? When the stakes are high, what are you doing to make sure that you get the job done and achieve your outcomes?

To buy into your message, people need to see you as credible, and they need to believe that you believe in what you’re talking about. One without the other won’t cut it.

For my clients, establishing the former isn’t as much of any issue as the latter. Not a big deal? One out of two isn’t bad? Not so. The math breaks down here. Because the latter influences the former, in the minds of your audience. Meaning that beyond establishing your credibility and expertise through your content, when your audience perceives that you not only know your content but that you have belief/conviction/confidence in it, their perception of your credibility goes up even more.

The question is, then, how do you raise their perception of your belief, conviction and confidence? One way is through their perception of your power. Show them your power.

Okay then—how do you show your power? Through how you carry yourself. Collaborative research out of Columbia and Harvard Universities (Carney, Cuddy & Yap) is particularly exciting, because it shows that not only is your audience’s perception of power influenced by how you carry yourself. It shows that your actual power is influenced by how you carry yourself. They measured:

• Expansiveness (taking up more or less space), and
• Openness (keeping limbs open or closed)

And they found that when you take up more space and keep your limbs open, your audience’s belief in your power isn’t the only thing that changes (in this case strengthened). What also changes is your testosterone levels (rise) and your cortisol levels (drop). And this is a recipe for not just an increase in their perception of your power, but of your actual power, influencing your cognition, emotions, behavior and physiology. Short version: you're more likely to do and say smart and powerful things.

Here’s what this boils down to:

• Stay away from all of the typical traps that speak of “small” and “closed”—arms folded, head down, no or very small gestures, legs crossed, little or no movement. Go the other direction. Keep your body open and don’t get locked.
• Move around. This doesn’t mean wander or pace. This means to deliver some of your content with a good solid stance. Then take a good few purposeful steps—toward the audience, to the screen or another visual—and plant yourself again and deliver more content from there, etc.
• Use your arms. This doesn’t mean in a small, timid way. It also doesn’t mean to wave them wildly and continuously. I typically see one or the other (most often the first). It means to use purposeful and bold gestures—to visuals, or toward the audience, or to emphasize a point.

Feel nervous about a big presentation coming up? Don’t wait to feel powerful. Move your body powerfully. And your body will step up: your nerves will decrease, your power will increase. And your credibility along with it.