Hi, this is Anne Warfield with
Impression Management Professionals.
I've recently been on several news
stations
to share what is the body language
of the candidates really saying about
them.
Today, what I wanted to share with you
is how
their body language equates to
executive presence. Because as a leader,
you wanna exude executive presence at
all times
so you have credibility and authority
everytime
that you speak. So let's look at the
four candidates
in their most recent debate, and what
their body language
said about each of them as a leader.
Let's start
with Ron Paul. Ron Paul did what I call
"The Turtle", and that is where the
shoulders are down,
the head scrunches into the neck,
and when points are made, it's more
with the head
leaning out and rounding to
the back to make the points. This
combined
with the eyebrow that goes off a little
bit on
one side, creates an illusion that
this is someone that may know what
they're talking about but it's a little
bit
like that absent minded professor. Is
there the true
grit and determination that you need
behind this.
Now, let's compare and contrast
that to Newt Gingrich. He sat back
the entire time, his jacket
would flop open every once in a while
while he's talking.
He leaned on to the one side, would
occasionally grab
his arm, and when he talked about things
he occassionally would do "this" with
his hands.
All of this gave the impression that he
is very bored with what's being talked
about,
he's come to a predetermined decision,
but their wasn't the feeling of that
energy
coming out of the audience, out to
America
that he wanted to make things happen
for America.
Now let's look at the last two, you have
Rick Santorum. He's what I would call a
person
that is moving towards executive
presence
still is not there yet. This was seen in
that he kinda sat in an in-between
posture, there were times he leaned
back, times he tried to
come forward, his eyes would dart around
as he was talking like there wasn't sure
where I should focus. And interesting
enough, when he
would try to point out the good things
he was gonna do
he often prefaced them by talking about
what he was going to cut-out.
So he talked about that he was gonna
cut education funding, he was gonna
cut medicare, cut social security. All
designed because on the good side, what
he said was, "I'm gonna
bring that power back into the states
arms." But you can see
as a person listening, if you don't
listen to that part of the
message, all you'd hear is about the
cuts.
Also there were times when he took
notes and someone
would say something, his eyebrows would
go up because it was like
I've gotta jump in, and you have this
kind of a movement going on.
Now Mitt Romney,
he used what I call, was a lot of
executive
presence. In that, he sat very
straight in the chair, his shoulders
were squared off,
he had his one arm up on the table,
his other arm was off to the side, he
either sat
with his fingers together, like this,
but he always looked forward, he always
showed the energy
and the squareness coming off the
shoulders, looking
at the audience. Whether it was a
moderator asking him
the question, or it was someone from
the audience, 
he looked to where that question was
and stayed focus on that.
He also did something else very
interesting though,
he was one of the few that would joke
with his constituents
on stage. He would say, "Sure, jump in
here. Go ahead." Or, "Oh, woops! I
didn't mean that,
it's your turn." He did things that
showed
he was in control on the
interview and the process. This is
similar to what I saw
with President Clinton, when he was
first debating against George Bush Sr.
and Ross Perot. If you remember, he
would walk around
that as though he was the one that
authorized, asked for this meeting, and
was exuding that
presence, and the rest were there with
him at the debate.
That's the same thing I saw with Mitt
Romney
the other night. So here's what you
wanna do,
take this information and go back and
look at yourself
as a leader. "How do I position myself
when I sit?"
Do I hunch down and turtle? Do I tend to
waffle, so people aren't sure? Do I
tend to sit back
so it looks like, I'm either not fully
engaged?
Or do I sit with executive presence
with my back up,
I take full space up, I
look at people, I have direct eye
contact, and
I portray a strength and a credibility.
Go ahead and check out our website at
www.impressionmanagement.com
To find out more information and
articles about how
you, can exude executive presence as a
leader.
May you go forth and have a great
outcome focus day,
filled with fabulous results.
