How understanding body language can help you read people’s mind and be more productive?

How understanding body language can help you read people’s mind and be more productive?

Strike a connection.

You must have heard the buzz about body language, especially in the context to be more aware of your own when going for a meeting, a job interview or in general.

It’s an important component when it comes to communicating and hence a huge determinant in your effort to strike a connection.
 

Your vibe attracts your tribe.

It's so because our body language is a direct reflection of what's going inside us, what are we thinking, how do we think about ourselves, how do we see ourselves and how do we perceive the world around us. All of this transpires through our body language in some mysterious way almost like energy. And most certainly is contagious.

Now if that’s true, then what you’re reflecting on the outside through your body language is what you’ll get in return too. Simply put, you’ll attract what you’ll put out there. Eventually, your vibe will attract your tribe.

Bring the ball in your court.
However, here’s what's interesting is that developing the understanding of body language can increase your productivity by manifolds.

How?
Simple, if you understand how the person in front of you thinks then you can plan/ act in accordance with it and hence stand a real good chance to get the answer you are looking for and move on to the next action item on your list.

Another effective usage of understanding body language is that you are better positioned to avoid, address and handle any conflicting situations.

Just go back in time a bit to your childhood and recollect the memories of the day your school results were expected. You will get what I mean I’m sure (though the response to that memory might be slightly different depending upon how good you were in studies :P).

Getting a nod.

So coming back to its more contemporary usage, it’s an asset and a skill each professional must focus on and hone. For instance, a candidate with a good understanding of body language has a much higher chance to clear an interview than a person whose body language isn’t that good, considering all other factors being constant. It’s simply because the candidate with a better understanding will present the information so that people can see it, hear it and feel it in a manner that they say yes to whatever you are conveying or proposing. Thus, higher chances of success.

Not a reason to change yourself.

Just a heads-up, understanding and implementing body language is by no way is a reason/ tool to change yourself, or manipulate the other person. Rather it’s a tool to improve your communication skills to communicate more effectively and attract what you and your energy actually resonate with and vice-versa!

Ready to read people’s mind?

Now that we have taken care of the hygiene, I’m now going to tell you about the three major personality types based on how their brain processes information and leave you with a few tips on how to read someone's minds through body language and make an instant connection.

1. The Lookers- 75% of the word population constitutes of the lookers. A looker is someone whose brain thinks in pictures and images. Here's how to tell if someone is a looker- they stand-up straight, they have a good body posture, they dress-up well because appearance is important to them. Generally, if they are 35+ and above in age, they will probably have some wrinkles on the forehead, it's because they mostly look above when they remember something he has seen before. Here's a major point, lookers give a lot of eye contact.

Two tips to build rapport with a Looker:

• Give them a lot of eye contacts
• Use words that have a visual component eg. Picture this, I see what you mean, look at this.

2)      The Listeners- Listener's brain thinks in words and sound. They are not that well dressed as lookers since appearance doesn’t matter that much to a listener. Listeners have a tendency to look down into the left as that’s where they look when you are remembering something. They also have a tendency to mumble to themselves as they think in words and sounds so sometimes they talk to themselves. 20% of people in the world are lookers.

Two tips if you want to appeal to Listeners are:

• Don't maintain a constant eye-contact with them, it makes them uncomfortable. When talking to a listener, you look at them and look away. Similarly, if they talk to you, they look at you and look away.
• When talking to a looker, use more auditory words eg. Let’s talk this over, that sounds good to me.

2. The Touchers- Last but not least, the touchers. 5% of the people in the world constitutes of touchers. A toucher's brain thinks in feelings and tactilely. They are always looking for a point of contact with the person they are talking to like touching hands while talking. They are dressed more for comfort than for looks. Touchers have a tendency to lean in as they are trying to reduce the distance, they look down when recalling something.

Two tips to build rapport with Touchers:

• Stick your hand out towards them as you meet them as that's what they're looking for.
• Use a vocabulary that's with words displaying how you feel eg. I want to hear how your feeling, reach out and let me know what you think, let’s get in touch.

Thanks for being with me so far and hope these tips will help you in reading minds and building stronger and closer bonds. Would love to hear your thoughts, opinions, and views on this, please do share in the comments below.