8 Body Language Tricks for a Better Career

Everyone understands the vital role body language plays in shaping our interactions with others. However, few people pay attention to their body language in the workplace.

If you’re one of those people, then you probably need a couple of reminders of how important body language is in the workplace. It’s well known that more confident body language means earning more trust and attention from people around you.

When applied to your career, you can see instant gains in how your fellow colleagues interact with you when you’re checking off all the right boxes when it comes to body language.

This article will list 8 body language tricks that will transform your career and allow you to perform better.

Let’s get started!

1. Stand Upright:

You probably guessed it. The first body language trick has to do with your posture. When people want to interact with someone, they’re instinctively going to spend time with the person who seems sure of himself.

Besides working on your confidence, one way to appear more dominant and in control of a situation is to stand upright. This means shoulders held high, head raised, and your legs spread apart.

Obviously, overdoing all of that has the potential to backfire, but the idea here is to avoid looking weak when interacting with colleagues.

Right away, everyone will listen to you more, approach you to start a conversation, and enjoy being around you. Again, this all ties back to that inner confidence you exude, and having the right posture is the best way to do that.

2. Get Your Tone Of Voice Right:

A good pitch, the proper tone of voice, and the right intonation can all make a big difference in your career success.

On average, it’s better to maintain a neutral tone of voice rather than go for either extreme of being loud or quiet. This will require a lot of practice on your part, but it’s doable.
Once you’ve found your optimal pitch, people will again notice this change. They’ll react to you the way you want.

When you give a presentation, your words should carry a lot more weight because you’re not speaking like someone who’s embarrassed or full of himself.

Everyone loves a person who is consistent with his voice. The workplace is no different. No matter what kind of career you find yourself in, make sure you take care of this crucial aspect.

3. Maintain Eye Contact:

As part of appearing more confident, making eye contact is a game changer. If you’re the type of person who breaks eye contact when talking to others, now is the time to change this habit.

It’s going to cost you a lot of opportunities if you stay the guy who is afraid of looking people in the eye. This is because not maintaining eye contact is a sign that someone is unsure of themselves or is afraid.

These are traits not conducive to career success, and you need to fix that. Like everything else, going crazy with eye contact could upset a lot of people, especially in the workplace.

For starters, your aim should be to be able to look people in the eye. You can experiment with more or less eye contact depending on the situation, but generally speaking, you won’t need anything more than building up the habit.

4. Smile More:

Employees who smile are perceived as being more outgoing and fun to be around. Applied to your workplace, if you’re always frowning or neutral, people will either avoid you or forget about you, so your job is to smile more.

You should learn how to smile more, even when it feels uncomfortable. It’s easy to do so, and the way to go about it is by practising every day. It’s a big part of maintaining strong body language.

The best thing about smiling is that it’s a form of positive energy. This energy can become contagious when around others. In other words, people will react more favourably to you and smile back.

There’s no telling how many conflicts throughout your career you can solve by simply smiling more. It’s the perfect tool to diffuse a tough situation.

It’s also a form of self-therapy, as it enhances your mood whenever you do it.

5. Lean in during Conversations:

This is not to be taken to mean being romantic. Leaning in during a conversation means tilting your body position slightly so that you end up in closer proximity to the other person.

It’s subtle but very powerful. Leaning in tells the other person that it’s ok to relax and talk more. It builds trust on a subconscious level, and it helps you when it’s your turn to talk.

At the same time, don’t make the mistake of leaning back. Some people confuse the two, and they end up in an awkward body position where the other person might feel uncomfortable.

During meetings and in between small-talk sessions, leaning in is a really quick way to build rapport, so use it when it’s your first time getting to know someone, for example.

6. Mirroring:

Mirroring is exactly as it sounds. It’s about replicating the body language and using the same nonverbal cues the other person is using.

The idea here is to put your colleagues at ease during stressful situations. It builds empathy and a mutual understanding that will allow you to work better as a team.

Mirroring applies to any of what we have discussed so far. You can mirror the way they’re standing, the way they maintain eye contact, and even their tone of voice.

7. Slow Speech:

When big ideas are discussed, people pay more attention to the speaker who explains things in a methodical manner. No one likes a fast talker during big meetings because they might skip important details or they might simply annoy others.

Speaking slowly helps you when it’s time to discuss important matters with your boss or your colleagues. It’s a way to also go over your own thoughts and structure them well.

You can also pause periodically to make sure everyone is following along with you.

8. Gain Self-awareness:

The last tip here is one you might not think about much when discussing body language.

Gaining a better sense of yourself will allow you to figure out strategies to improve your body language around others.

This is especially important in formal contexts, like the workplace. You need to take note of how you appear in front of others, how you communicate nonverbally, and how you can become better.

This is a constant process that you’ll need to improve on daily. Your career success will skyrocket once you understand how you yourself function on a deep level.

In Conclusion:

Body language is crucial if you’re looking to take your career to the next level. It’s the oldest form of communication, and people know that.

If you don’t take care of the basics required to do well in front of others, no one will take you seriously, and you’ll miss out on some big opportunities that could change your life.

We discussed 8 body language tricks you can use to improve your performance in the workplace. They all range from the fairly obvious to the unbelievably subtle, but there are still a lot more.

Now that you have the foundation, it’s time to take action and educate yourself on this topic further. Your professional life will thank you for it.