1st Rule in a 15-part series
In my presentation called Deb’s 15 Rules for the Road rule number one is perhaps the simplest yet most hard…and that is:
1. Lighten up – keep a relaxed face.
The most important minute of your life on the stage or in the boardroom or across the table is the first minute of your acknowledgement by the audience, or your dinner guest or your kid’s soccer coach by what is said in that initial look. Because early in a speech, presentation, talk, folks listen to what they “see” more that what they “hear”. So what they “see” must be professional, poised and polished.
Friend you are judged in three ways: How you look, How you sound, What you say.
How you look is the visual. And that is the most important skill you can develop to make you appear powerful, knowledgeable, kind, and trustworthy. No one likes to be with the person who wears a scowl or always looks pre-occupied or angry. Learn to wear a pleasant expression and watch how folks will react to you.
I am not talking about wearing a goofy grin or a false smile but a pleasant expression of a life well lived will take you far in business and life.
Studies have shown that people form a first impression of someone new in anywhere between 7 - 24 seconds. That means for some of you – it’s over before it begins… But for the rest of you – you can command the situation if you pay attention to details and the details are the visual expression of your interest.
Next Rule Next Month – Vary Your Voice |
