How to Convincingly Fake Confidence, Happiness and Other Necessary Feelings in the Workplace: Research shows that the key to faking is to do it early, when impressions are being made. To that end, let’s have a remedial course in body language.
You might not feel like you should smile, but you should smile. (More on that later.) You might not want to maintain eye contact, but you should lock in. What researchers call the “gaze” is key. You want a lot of gaze. You know the eye contact is working if you feel slightly uncomfortable. (Slight discomfort is underrated in business.) You might not want to sit up straight, but sit up straight. You’ll seem assertive, social, in control. Basically, you want to act like a news anchor. National news --�not local.
Also: Raise your eyebrows every now and then. The eyebrows don’t get enough credit when it comes to body language. Draw some circles with a couple of dots for eyes. Draw some lines above the eyes and see how the expression changes.
You might not feel like you should smile, but you should smile. (More on that later.) You might not want to maintain eye contact, but you should lock in. What researchers call the “gaze” is key. You want a lot of gaze. You know the eye contact is working if you feel slightly uncomfortable. (Slight discomfort is underrated in business.) You might not want to sit up straight, but sit up straight. You’ll seem assertive, social, in control. Basically, you want to act like a news anchor. National news --�not local.
Also: Raise your eyebrows every now and then. The eyebrows don’t get enough credit when it comes to body language. Draw some circles with a couple of dots for eyes. Draw some lines above the eyes and see how the expression changes.