(bright intro music)
- Albert Mehrabian professor at UCLA,
an expert in verbal and nonverbal communication
showed how three types of information
reach the brain of your audience
and contribute to their comprehension,
memorization, and appreciation of a message.
Although the source of intense debate
amongst scholars and misinterpretation,
Mehrabian's findings provide an interesting lens
to look at how your communication will impact your audience.
He showed that when you address an audience,
only 7% of your impact comes from your words,
the lyrics of your message.
38% comes from your tone of voice,
the music of your message.
And 55% of your message comes from your body language,
what the audience sees.
These findings make sense
when we understand that our primal brain
is also called the preverbal brain,
and that the optic nerve provides a bandwidth to the brain
50 times greater than the ear.
All together, when the presenter effectively uses the words,
voice, and body language,
effectively they are recognize as charismatic,
people said they have great energy or ch'i.
So, before we become more specific
about the virtual meeting world,
let's review the seven S's of buddy language
and their impact on your audience.
First, the way you dress,
and the rule here is similarity, why?
Because commerce started between people of the same tribes,
and within a tribe members wore the same garments.
So your job is to anticipate the way they will dress
and to consider dressing similarly.
Next, sight, in the Western world,
you should establish direct eye to eye communication
with one person for solely four seconds.
And you should interrupt that eye communication
only at the end of a sentence,
or at the end of the expression of a particular idea.
If you're presenting in front of a group,
you should share your eye communication
with multiple people,
not just the key decision-maker or highest-ranking person.
And remember, on a virtual platform,
it means you need to look at your camera, not their faces.
The third element of your body language
will come from your facial expressions,
and here the rule is smile.
Because of specific neurons called mirror neurons,
facial expressions are contagious.
If the 42 muscles on your face express sadness,
your audience will start to experience
and display the same signs of sadness.
So the best way to express
a strong charismatic character is to smile.
But careful here,
the primal brain is an expert at detecting a fake smile.
In fact, scientists have a name for real smile,
they call them Duchenne smiles.
During your Duchenne smile,
the corners of your mouth are lifted,
your cheeks are raised,
and crinkles appear at the corner of your eyes.
While a fake or polite smile
only engages the zygomaticus major
that lifts the corner of your mouth.
The fourth element is a stable posture.
Researchers have established the ideal posture,
it should be with your feet at shoulder-width
pointing towards the audience.
Weight equally-distributed on both legs,
standing tall with your arms in front of you,
and open palms visible to the audience.
If your audience can see your palms,
you're signaling to the primal brain
that you are unarmed and that you can be trusted.
The fifth element is the space that you use around you.
And the rule is that you should spread, why?
Because people want to be involved with powerful people,
and powerful people own large territories.
Think of the Rolling Stones,
Mick Jagger onstage uses the entire stage.
The caveat is that you should never invade
your audience's personal space.
Although personal space varies slightly
from culture to culture,
it is commonly defined as one arm's length.
Interestingly, that is also the distance
you should sit from your web camera for best results.
The sixth element is the timing of your buddy language.
It should be synchronized with what you've said.
For example, you would not want to say,
"We offer a broad product line."
The video needs to be aligned with the audio.
And the final element of strong nonverbal communication
is that your body should be supporting
what your words and tone of voice communicate.
For example, you wouldn't say,
"We have a broad product line."
This is not a broad product line.
These seven elements are the key to effective body language.
And as you'll see,
they all still apply in the virtual world today.
(bright music)