Body Language Tips When Meeting New People

The first step in attracting others into your social circle is being more open. Both mentally more open minded and physically more accessible.

 

Though verbal skills are important, non-verbal cues are just as important in determining your success. If we see these cues are words then they form the most important language of all. This language does have regional dialects, yet knows no national boundaries, spanning the worlds continents it is known by everyone whether they are consciously aware of it or not. I’m sure you have guessed what this magical tool of communication is by now. This is simply, not what you say but how your physical body acts.

Here is a list of simple, but highly effective habits you should acquire, and use whenever you are introduced to someone new.

• Make eye contact. Use the ‘social gaze’, focus on the areas created by an imaginary triangle formed by a persons eyes and nose. Don’t stare at their forehead, feet or boobs.

 

• Smile. No Grinning or Pouting. Just smiling.

 

• Initiate the handshake. How you shake hands is very important when you meet someone. For a start it establishes the power balance of the relationship, subconsciously adding to the judgement the other person makes of you. Don’t put froward a limp hand or cut off their blood supply. Hold your hand out straight, not tilted sideways at an angle. Grip firmly and pump once or twice. Adjust their tilt during the handshake so both your and their hands are held horizontal. You don’t want to come off as being dominant or submissive (which is indicated by the tilt of the hand) but equal. The hand with the palm facing down is the more dominant whereas if the palm is tilting upwards, it is more of a submissive gesture.

• Touch their elbow gently, for three seconds, whilst shaking their hand. No more than 3 seconds though. Maintaining eye contact and smiling throughout. As you do this repeat their name aloud ‘nice to meet you Jessica’. This will make the person feel important and valued. You will remember their name as you have time to identify their face with the name, making that all important link in your mind. Touching directly on the elbow is important, as touching below or above the elbow will not yield the same positive results, but instead be taken as an invasion of privacy, whereas the elbow is considered a more public place.

If these steps are implemented properly, then your impact on someone you meet for the first time will be great. You will instantly stand out from the crowd, and as a result people will be eager to continue their interaction with you. Which is essential in developing your relationship with that person.

Your cool, calm and confident attitude will make the other person feel at ease and comfortable in your presence. This is important, as their state of mind at the time of meeting you and how you made them feel will be associated with you. This links in with how they remember you afterwards.

Here is the four-step process summarised for you to internalise. It won’t take long before it all comes automatically.

• Eye Contact
• Smile
• Initiate Greeting
• Touch/Name Repeat.

Learning to concisely control your body movements not only means your more focused on creating a positive overall impression, but by learning to adopt a confident posture you will be received as that which you set out to project. A confident person. Simultaneously your internal feelings of confidence will be boosted for two reasons. Primarily as that pre-existing link that your body has between feeling confident and projecting it will be reaffirmed. Both the feeling and projection of confidence rebound off of each other. That’s to say forcefully adopting positive body language, makes you more confident, illustrating how mental processes of the mind are interconnected with the movements of the physical body. Secondly your confidence will be boosted as you notice people react to your presence differently. You are not a stuffed duck now but a social butterfly! Fly. Live.