One Killer Trick To Improve Your Body Language
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Lessons learned from the chameleon
Is what you're showing undermining what you're saying? Body language is often covered and sometimes applied to interviews, but transforming your body language is a challenging and time consuming process.
If you're short on time, what will really move the needle?
Successful negotiators often recommend you mimic your negotiation partner. I've read this everywhere from psych studies, business books, interview guides, and dating blogs1.
Mimic too obviously and your tactic will backfire on you. But do it just right, and you'll stack the odds in your favor.
Dan Pink cites a paper on mimicry in his (fantastic) book To Sell is Human2 called Chameleons Bake Bigger Pies and Take Bigger Pieces:
One of those cues is the unconscious awareness of whether we are in synch with other people, and a way to do that is to match their behavioral patterns with our own
By strategically mimicking your interviewer's mannerism, you tap into the unconscious evaluator of fit.
The best part, you should see results without actively practicing or focusing to hard on mimicry during the interview. The researchers only suggested that the participants think about mimicking five minutes before the interaction. They had no prior training up until that point, but simply planting that thought helped them perform better than those that did not think about mimicking.
3 steps to pull it off
Dan suggests three steps to master the technique of strategic mimicry. Watch, Wait, and Wane.
1. Watch
Observe your interviewer at the onset of your conversation. How does she carry herself? Does she lean back or in? Arms open or folded? Legs crossed or spread? Does she twitch or twirl her pen?
2. Wait
Patiently wait for an opportunity to subtly adjust your body language to more closely resemble hers. The word resemble is key. Don't mirror her posture, but meet somewhere in the middle of your natural inclination and hers own.
3. Wane
Stop thinking about actively mimicking. Once you've set the process in motion, you should find it starts to come naturally. Your first few times may take a bit more thought, but it quickly becomes second nature.
Give it a shot in your next practice (or real) interview. Does body language mimickry come naturally or does it take a little effort? Comment with your experiences below.
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