We’re all fascinated by body language. We all depend on it to present our ideas to others and to read and understand others better. The trouble is that we typically aren’t aware of the actual messages we’re sending nonverbally and the meaning of the gestures, facial expressions, and other cues people are sending us. The result is that we often diminish our impact on others and miss critical information others are communicating to us—in job interviews, business presentations, sales calls, court witness testimony, and anywhere one person needs maximum believability and credibility in the eyes of one person or many.
At CEI, we have developed a half-day workshop on how to enhance your impact and believability and gain deeper insight and awareness of other people’s nonverbal communication. In this two-phased intensive session, we show you the most critical nonverbal aspects of your communication style—ones that work for you and others that can work against you.
Section One: Building Your Own Personal Credibility and Impact
In this portion of the workshop, we lay a foundation by focusing on the key nonverbal elements of any one-to-one or one-to-many interactions, particularly in making a first impression:
- Anchoring. We show you how to convey steadiness and confidence through straight head position and solid stance.
- Gestures. You learn the three kinds of gestures and how your movement patterns show your enthusiasm, energy, and commitment.
- Facial expressions. We explore the wide variety of facial cues that build rapport with others.
- Eye contact. We reveal the real way to establish and maintain eye contact with another person that sends messages of warmth and interest.
- Vocal features. You see the impact of increased speech volume, keyword emphasis, pitch variation, and other paralinguistic features that engage others actively.
The result for you is a new “vocabulary” of nonverbal communication you can use deliberately, rather than by chance, to draw others to you and establish your credibility.
Section Two: Reading People Between Their “Lines.”
Building on the first section, we show you how to interpret the nonverbal cues of others. Is the person your communicating with comfortable or not? Candid or not? And if not, why not? We explore the following aspects of people-reading:
- Facial expressions – how the other person is presenting him- or herself generally, and how to distinguish a fake expression from a real one.
- Eye contact – how engaged the other person is.
- Hand gestures (emblems and illustrators) – how open or closed the other person is.
- Pacifying gestures – how comfortable or uncomfortable the person is.
- Whole body cues – how receptive or blocked the other person is.
- Feet positioning and movement – how calm or nervous the person is.
- Micro-expressions (including eye-covering) – how self-protective the person is.
- Emblem “tells”– how the other person really feels.
- Pupil dilation – how receptive the other person is.
In this section, you’ll get the tools you need to read the nonverbal cues others are sending you and interpret the true meaning of their messages—in sales interviews, court testimony, job interviews, and any situation where you need to be as sure as possible that you’re reading the other person accurately.
Throughout this dynamic interactive workshop, the Palmers illustrate all these nonverbal elements with a vivid collection of PowerPoint images and live demonstrations. Your group members leave fully equipped with new techniques and strategies for observing and “sizing up” others.
Drs. Janet and Neal Larsen Palmer bring many years of specialized study in nonverbal communication to make their clients’ nonverbal communication as impactful as possible. They show individuals and groups how to identify the features of nonverbal behavior—the ones that send positive messages and the ones that don’t.
The fee for the half-day workshop, Building Your Personal Credibility Through Nonverbal Communication: What’s Your Body Saying? is $2,950 for up to 20 participants, plus the cost of any copyrighted instruments used. This fee includes all workshop materials and facilitators’ travel within a 70 mile radius of CEI. Extra participants beyond 20 are $75 each. For more information about this workshop, please call CEI at 800-410-4CEI (4234) or email us at cei@talk2cei.com. |
