How to Win with Body Language
Body language: something we all do all the time, yet we rarely think about.
In the sports world, I’ve learned a lot about body language - specifically from working with the St. Louis Cardinals Manager, Mike Shildt, and Director of Player Development, Gary LaRocque. They’ve taught me how body language is one of the main ways we communicate, and that it can mean the difference between winning and losing. Below are three C’s – confidence, commitment, community – that can help us to have an edge both on and off the field.
1. Use Your Body Language to Communicate Confidence
When athletes walk onto a field, the first place their eyes typically go is to the other team. They assess how they’re moving, how they’re handling themselves, even the look on their opponent’s faces. More than anything, they assess how confident the other team appears.
There are a couple simple ways we exude confidence: keeping our shoulders back, keeping our chin up, and keeping our eyes focused. Walking with purpose, arms still, and having a slight smile of assuredness sends a clear message. Whether you’re meeting a new client, closing a business deal, or striking out the side in the 9th, you’re going to want your body language to communicate confidence.
2. Use Your Body Language to Communicate Commitment
It is most important to adjust our body language when the going gets tough. I remember times when I was watching the Minor League Cardinals play and wondering why they were keeping a struggling pitcher out on the mound. Eventually, the pitcher would kick it into gear and make an awesome turnaround. By asking multiple managers about how they knew to keep him in the game, I found the answer: body language.
Even though we could all see that the pitcher was struggling and frustrated, the baseball manager was able to see from his body language and knew that his will was about to take over – the athlete was committed to persevere. So he gave the pitcher more time, and often it paid off. In the same way, we want to be aware of how we can communicate commitment at home, at work, and on the field by being present, speaking calmly, and staying focused.
3. Use Your Body Language to Communicate Community
Being smug, non-verbal and simply looking down or away alienates our teammates. We are normally not trying to drive our teammates away; however, this is exactly what poor body language does.
Remember Super Bowl LI in 2017: the Falcons were well in the lead with what appeared to be a lopsided Super Bowl victory? In the 4th quarter, the Patriots started scoring, and the Falcons started looking down instead of at each other. They started playing separately instead of remaining unified. The body language of the defensive unit started to deteriorate. It appeared that the Patriots picked up on these cues and used them as fuel for a 4th quarter comeback.
The game may have turned out in favor of the Falcons if they had continued to communicate community, commitment, and confidence with their body language until the very end.
Whether you’re an athlete or not, take some time to think through how you can use your non-verbal body language to communicate what you want - and win.
