Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer. She is widely regarded to dance what Picasso is to modern visual arts.
She once said, “Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul’s weather to all who can read it.”
Movements, or body languages, can say a lot. And the importance of knowing could mean getting leverage in your conversation and especially during negotiations.
Do the wrong ones and no amount of pristine script can salvage the situation.
Here are 5 body languages that candidates often made unknowingly. Learn from their mistakes so they won’t become yours.
1. Bad Handshake
As the first touch-point of a job interview, it is often the most overlooked aspect. A handshake says a lot about an individual.
According to a study led by Beckman Institute researcher Florin Dolcos and Department of Psychology postdoctoral research associate Sanda Dolcos, they found evidence that confirm the power of a handshake.
They found, as they wrote, that “a handshake preceding social interaction enhanced the positive impact of approach and diminished the negative impact of avoidance behavior on the evaluation of social interaction.”
If your handshake falls under any of the category in the video below, you need to start working on it:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=exUlCjqQsDA
What you should do instead:
If you have a sweaty palm, make sure you dry that off. Be the one to proffer and make sure you put some muscle into it.
As a guide if your maximum is at the scale of 10, you are looking at a 6.
It should be strong to allude confidence but not so much to break bones.
2. Bad Posture
A study in Health Psychology has shown that adopting a slumped posture will reduce self-esteem, increase negative mood, and decrease positive mood compared to an upright seated posture.
And although leaning back will typically suggests boredom or lack of interest, beware of over-correcting by leaning forward as may be interpreted as overly solicitous or even threatening.
What you should do instead:
Give the kind of space you would like to receive from others.
Your best bet is to aim for a neural posture with the classic ‘sit up straight’ posture.
It makes you appear taller, which around the world is seen as a sign of smarts, confidence and credibility.
Furthermore, sitting upright increases rate of speech and reduces self-focus. Sitting upright may be a simple behavioral strategy to help build resilience to stress.
3. Fidgeting
Although recent study on fidgeting has proven to reveal benefits, that is under a working condition.
In a job interview it might be interpreted as nervousness or lack of focus as you nibble on your fingers, play with your ring (or worse the interviewer’s name card) and twirl your hair.
Think of it like going on a first date.
You are trying to engage in a conversation to share with your date more about yourself.
But all you see is her looking around, tapping on her smart phone, putting on make-up… You get the idea.
What you should do instead:
One thing you would want to focus on it to put your palm together and grasp them up. Put them on the table so it is visible to you and just keep it there whenever you are on listening mode.
4. Arms Crossed
This is the ultimate sign of defensiveness and it carry a louder decibel because the movement is much bigger to cross your arm that to cross your eyes. (Not that crossing your eyes in front of your interviewers is recommended)
It also happens to be the most natural reaction when candidates are probed further into territory that they are not so comfortable with. They naturally go into self-defense mode and the arms crossing will kick in.
But to exude confidence and ability to handle the situation regardless of how tough it may be, crossing your arms would be last thing you want to do.
What you should do instead:
Don’t cross them at all.
5. Not Smiling
A UC Berkeley 30-year longitudinal study looked into the smiles of students in an old yearbook, and measured their well-being and success throughout their lives.
The assumption was that their smile should have a predictive element to things like how fulfilling and long lasting their marriages would be, how highly they would score on standardized tests of well-being and general happiness, and how inspiring they would be to others.
The result showed that the widest smilers consistently ranked highest in all of the above.
Importantly a smile is cross-cultural and have the same meaning regardless of countries and societies.
What you should do instead:
No matter how stressful the situation may evolved to, a smile has been proven to defrost a feisty situation and lift up the spirit in good ones.
Even a fake smile is shown to be a good thing.
So keep that up through out the interview. You can recuperate all you need after leaving the office.