Media Training - What Your Body Language is Telling the Audience

As a professional media trainer, I am more aware of my body language than most people.

But once in a while, my fiancee will tell me I have a certain look on my face. "You look concerned," she might say. "Wow," I respond. "I didn't know it was written all over my face."

It is not surprising. Communications studies suggest that we humans can make and recognize a staggering 250,000 facial expressions. In fact, researchers have noted and recorded almost one million nonverbal cues and signals.

This month's article offers you five tips to help you better understand what your body is telling others.

A special thank you to authors Allan and Barbara Pease for permission to quote from their superb book, The Definitive Book of Body Language.

1. Stop Playing Defense

The Definitive Book of Body Language is almost 400 pages long, but two sentences jumped out to me more than any other:

"If you feel defensive, you're likely to cross your arms across your chest. But if you simply cross your arms, you'll begin to experience defensive feelings."

In other words, closing off your body not only makes you look defensive, but also makes you feel more defensive.

As authors Allan and Barbara Pease point out, crossed arms, gripped elbows, and clasped hands are all versions of "hugging yourself," something typically done when seeking comfort in stressful situations.

Communications studies suggest that up to 93 percent of your message's impact is based on your performance, not your words. That means if the public detects defensiveness, your messages won't be heard - or worse, they will be discredited.

2. Be Well-Armed

For seated interviews, keep your arms open and ready to gesture at any moment. When not gesturing, keep your arms on your lap with your hands near your knees.

For standing interviews, keep your arms by your side or, even better, in front of your torso. Avoid hugging your body in any way and resist the temptation to place your hands in your pockets.

3. Be Handy

Using natural hand gestures not only makes you look more animated and engaged, but actually helps the audience retain information. According to the Pease's:

"Using hand gestures grabs attention, increases the impact of communication, and helps individuals retain more of the information they are hearing."

When media interviewees get nervous the moment the camera's red light comes on, their hands tend to freeze. Speaking at a slightly higher volume than usual, say 10 or 15 percent louder, is often enough to help re-animate frozen hands.

4. Look at Me

How good are you at maintaining eye contact when you talk to someone? If you're average, you maintain eye contact just 40-60 percent of the time when talking, according to research cited in the Pease's book.

That's not a bad thing in everyday life -- after all, you'd make people uncomfortable if you stared at them for several minutes without breaking eye contact.

But for media interviews, aim for 100 percent eye contact with the interviewer or the camera lens, depending on the format. Your eyes are huge on a high-definition television, and shifting eyes can make you look nervous, evasive, or untrustworthy.

5. Ankles

According to the Pease's, even your ankles communicate. "When an interviewee locks his ankles, he is mentally 'biting his lip.' The gesture shows that he is holding back a negative emotion, uncertainty, or fear."

For seated media interviews, men should plant their feet firmly on the ground in front of them. Women are a bit trickier. Women wearing pants or long blouses can keep their feet on the ground, close together, with their knees not quite touching. Women wearing a skirt should cross their legs at the ankles, but should keep their feet in front of them, not tucked beneath a chair.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations. He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and headed the media relations department for the world's second largest environmental group.

For more information, visit http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com.
For daily media training tips, visit the Mr. Media Training Blog at http://www.MrMediaTraining.com.