Choose Your Gestures Wisely | Travel Research Online

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Choose Your Gestures Wisely

This is Tip #6 in a series of 10 relationship building reminders.

 

Here is a little exercise practiced by many professional speakers. Watch yourself in conversation (video) and turn down the audio. Focus on your hands, body, feet, head, shoulders and overall movement.

In addition to being quite humorous, or perhaps sleep-inducing, you will learn a great deal about your communication style.

Simply by extending how far and wide your arms reach gives the listener a verbal picture of how big your referenced example is. Holding one hand out and using your thumb and forefinger to show a slight gap between them indicates the smallness of the relationship.

Pointing is something I have learned to recognize as possibly being good and or bad. I learned this the hard way and I don’t want to share that story with you today. Let it suffice to say that some people become very annoyed if you point your finger at them.

Under the gesture category, I will share another potential problem area. I have come to learn over the years that some people do not share the same sense of humor as yours. You may be trying to solicit a laugh with a gesture, story or body movement, and it will totally fall flat. It could very well turn a few audience members against you…and this definitely is not your intention.

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What I don’t want is for you to become paranoid when speaking with people. Political correctness is not my favorite topic. I do want you to recognize that there are a few things that may not help your cause, but can definitely distance you from your intended objective…and that is finding more people who will let you help them.

Those who are more assertive often gesture when speaking. They may point, chop, accentuate a point, invite, or even draw pictures in the air in front of themselves when they speak.

Notice the intensity of your gestures when speaking. You want to make sure that your gestures are not so emphatic or distracting as to take away from your spoken message. If you don’t monitor your gestures, it is not uncommon for the words in a message to communicate one thing while your gestures communicate something else. Your gestures should emphasize or reinforce your message rather than detract from it.


Mike Marchev

Mike Marchev is recognized for his down-to-earth, street-savvy and honest delivery of useful sales and marketing advice, suggestions, tactics and strategies. For a complimentary copy of his Special Report titled: 11 Sales Mistakes You Must Avoid send Mike an email with the word TRO-11 in the Subject Box. mike@mikemarchev.com

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