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How to Improve Your Ability to Read Body Language by Body Language Expert Patti Wood

Rough notes sent to Forbes Magazine in response to a request for an article on body language. 

In the "Show" don't, "Tell" formula of good writing, authors use body language cues to describe and define characters, indicate shifts and changes in mood, and the effects of others' actions and dialogue on characters. I recommend as you read, you highlight these sections as well as how the author introduces each new character, as it is often with a few body language cues and or appearance description

 Recent research has shown that reading fiction improves empathy. I recommend reading fiction to be aware of someone's emotional state and body language and be aware of how you appear to others.

I assign novels to my coaching clients. It's especially beneficial to my clients at high levels in their organization as they may find their employees don't always share their vulnerabilities and true feelings. It is also helpful for my clients who come to be because they can't seem to read other people and wonder why they are ostracized, have frequented conflicts with others, and or have been betrayed by a toxic person.

 I have been analyzing the body language of big wigs and suspected criminals for years, and the more you watch, the more you learn. Watch long media interviews of corporate big wigs like they do on 60 minutes and take notes on what they do well and poorly. In addition, I recommend going to YouTube and watching the James Lipton interviews of movie stars on The Actors studio.

And seeing how James Lipton listens and responds as the interviewer and how stars behave as they self-disclose, I give them links to some of the interviews of people like Bill Gates and Elizabeth Homes and have them take notes and then give them my notes/

Finally, I am working on a book on body language in film as I recommend you watch movies to improve your ability to read body language. I a give out a list of movies to watch to learn certain concepts like the Maltese Falcon and Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder and Strangers on a Train for understanding space and territory cues, power cues and deception detection and the father-son scene in Jaws to learn about Matching and Mirroring,

 

 


Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Patti Wood's Biography

Called the "Gold Standard" of Body Language by Washington Post and credited in the New York Times for bringing the topic to national attention Patti Wood is a true expert. Patti has degrees with an emphasis in Nonverbal Communication and taught Body Language at Florida State. She is the author of 10 books, Including SNAP Making the Most of First Impressions Body Language and Charisma, and she speaks and consults with Fortune 500 companies, associations, Federal State and City Government, Hospitals and Small Businesses. You see her on National TV shows like Good Morning America, The Today Show, The History Channel, and the National news. In addition, she is quoted every week in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, Readers Digest, Good Housekeeping, Oprah, and USA Today.


A Sample of Patti’s Clients

 1st Franklin Financial Corporation

After Party Studios

Allergan

American Management Assoc.

Atlanta Jewelry Show

Atlanta Leadership Conference

Aviagen

Over 150 State, Regional, National and International Associations

BDO File Exchange

BMG (Bertelsmann Music Group)

BMPC – NNL

BSCAI

Cablevision

Coldwell Banker

Centra Technology, Inc.

Chase/ National Association of Realtors

City, County, State, and Federal agencies including the EPA, The FAA, The Federal Reserve, The IRS, and The CIA as well as various Law Enforcement Agencies, Judicial Agencies, and the Military

Coastal Construction Products

Columbia Greene Board of Realtors

Community Bankers Association

Deloitte

Del Monte/Coyne PR

Department of Juvenile Justice

DUIDLA

EMD Serono/Merk

The Federal Aviation Administration

FAIA

Fayette and Newnan Coweta County Board of Realtors

The Federal Reserve

FLEX

Fujitech America, Inc.

GE Health Care

Georgia-Pacific

GlaxoSmithKline

Gwinnett County Police Dept.

Harvard Maintenance, Inc.

Harvard Services

Healthcare Providers Insurance Co.

Heraeus Precious Metals

Over 40 Health Care Groups, Medical Associations, and Hospital

Hubbell

Huntsman Performance Products

Hyundai Capital

IARA

IHG Hotel Group

Institute of Internal Auditors

International Car Wash Association

International Door Association

Invest Atlanta

ISM (Institute of Supply Management)

Kimberly Clark

Levenfeld Pearlstein LLC

Malibu Assoc. of Realtors

Marco Cable

Merril Lynch

Mosaic

NANT (National Association of Neonatal Therapists)

NAPFA (National Association of Personal Financial Advisors)

NASW (National Association of Social Workers)

National Alliance for Grieving Children

National Cancer Institute

National Entrepreneur Center

National Funeral Directors Assoc.

Nestle

Ogilvy Action PR.

PACAPTS

Park N Fly

Pearl Street Productions

Pfielder Enterprises, Inc.

Pfizer

Prudential

Reuters

RNDC (Republic National Distributing Company)

Select Management Resources, LLC

SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association)

Shaw, Inc.

SRTTD

Syamarat, LLC

Texas A&M University

Texas NANT

Texas Roadhouse Restaurants

The Benefit Company

The Exchange

The Southern Company

Thomas Hortstemeyer LLP

TW Cable

UCB Pharma

Over 20 Colleges and Universities

Vistage International

Walt Disney World. Co Disney Entrepreneurs

The Wharton School of Business

Women of Power Conference

Zapata Technology, Inc.

 


 

 





Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Patti's most popular high energy interactive programs Patti Wood MA, CSP. Communication Dynamics Inc. Patti Wood's Programs, Program Descriptions Patti Wood

Patti's Most Popular High Energy Interactive Programs

Patti Wood MA, CSP

Communication Dynamics Inc.

 

First Impressions and Body Language

You meet someone, and on average, within 10 seconds, you decide whether or not you like them. Would you like to learn how that first impression forms? Is your gut reaction accurate? In this program, you will learn to read the thousands of nonverbal cues hidden between hello and goodbye to make your interactions more genuine and productive. Patti has done years of research on the topic to create this high-energy, interactive program based on her book SNAP Making the Most of First Impressions Body Language and Charisma. It is excellent for an opening keynote or after-dinner speech. Participants practice their 10-count intuition, meeting and greeting, head nods, side by sides, and last chance dance throughout the meeting/conference.

 

Success Signals — Body Language in Business

Have you ever been to a business meeting and wondered what someone was thinking? Would you like to change your power and confidence through a simple shift in body language? Would you like to have the winning edge in sales and negotiations? Do you know how to spot a liar? Eye blinks to head tilts, palms up to leg locks. Based on Patti's research and books, this top-rated program teaches you to read and use body language to become aware of hundreds of secret messages. The insights will help you gain and maintain your business relationships.

 

Body Honesty, Building Credibility and Trust and Detecting Deception - A client says he had no problems with investment and rubs his nose. Do you know what that means and what to say and do next? You share critical information with a client but hide the palms of your hands. Will they trust you? What can you do next? Your client tells you she feels comfortable with the results of your investments then sweeps her upper lip with her tongue. What does that mean, and what should you say and do next? How can you create deep, authentic trust and connection? Can you read body honesty? In this interactive program, you will learn to watch for cues and use questioning techniques and unique "monitoring" cues of your own to check for honesty. In addition, you will learn how to be credible in your business and personal relationships.

 

 The Conflict Cure

Like traffic and taxes, conflict is inevitable. So many times, when you're dealing with a difficult person or situation, you often feel powerless. You think, "There is nothing I can do." But you do have power. You do have choices. In a conflict, you can see the other person as the enemy or choose non-defensive Options. This program will teach you clear, practical decisions to handle attacks and criticisms. This program helps you: analyze the choices you make in conflict, understand the origin of the conflict, utilize the seven Handshake Options, and integrate conflict management tools into your daily life.

 

Pitch Perfect - Nonverbal Skills to Enhance Your Pitch Meetings.

This program will teach you how to have a professional presence to pitch to high-level executives and wealthy individuals and learn and win over everyone easily. You will learn how to read the audience and their nonverbal cues that show their level of interest, understanding, and whether they are convinced and in agreement. You will also generate active participation and skillfully seek and answer questions. Based on Patti's books, Easy Speaking - Dynamic Delivery, Easy Speaking - Q and A and Dealing with Difficult Audiences and her chapter on presentation body language in the National Speaker Association's book, Paid to Speak.

 

  • Nonverbal Methods to prevent problems before they happen
  • How to meet and greet with finesse
  • Use the agenda method to make Q and A work for you
  • Practice three ways to get potential trouble-makers on your side before you even begin to speak
  • 12 secrets of making Q and A the best part of your presentation
  • Learn five ways to recapture the attention
  • Learn three ways to encourage participants to talk and participate
  • Learn four ways to project powerful, self-confident body language so you don't get attacked
  • Learn two ways to use your voice to project power and self-confidence
  • How to use breathing to relax with a tough audience and other methods to counter anxiety and stress
  • How to close and call to action with confidence

 

You Can Depend on Me — Teamwork, Team play and Teambuilding

Support, sharing, synergy. This program is a highly participative formula for creating esprit de corps. Participants walk out with a feeling of connectedness and have specific tools for nurturing teamwork. The program can also include: strategic planning, creating vision and mission statements, using personality type assessment, developing creative problem solving, learning team project tools, and mastering change.


People Savvy! - Use DISC Personality Type and Teambuilding Insights to understand yourself and others to get things done and get "buy-in," follow-through, and enthusiastic participation in the meeting and on projects, tasks, and goals. In this high-energy, interactive, and humor-filled program, you will learn your DISC personality style, recognize other people's personality styles, and use DISC to improve every communication in your life. 


Enhanced Listening techniques - Today's professionals need to listen more than ever. That means listening with enhanced focus. This course will show you how to become the kind of listener people open up to, respect, and admire. It will help you give and receive the right message and make the most of every conversation. Using the latest research, insights, and tools, you will become a listener who gets things done, accomplishes your goals quickly, assigns tasks that are completed easily, and successfully presents and sells their ideas.


How to Have Effective Meetings - The purpose of this workshop is to develop practical face-to-face, video conference, and phone meeting skills. Eleven million meetings are held in the U.S. each year. The average executive spends 3½ hours weekly informal meetings. In addition, many of us spend half of our business day in formal or informal meetings. In this workshop, you will learn; ways of involving others in solving problems and making decisions. How to give individuals with different personalities the opportunity to share information, plan, criticize, praise, or find out what went wrong with previous meetings. Also, ensure that meeting goals and actions set in place in the meeting are carried out.

 

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.

     

Clayton and Susie's Body Language, The Bachelor Couple on TikTok

Another Bachelor season has come and gone, and there’s a new couple taking social media by storm. OK, so Clayton Echard and Susie Evan did not technically finish the show together (ahem, she told him that it was over and they weren’t each other’s “persons”), but they reunited after filming had wrapped and have been making memories (and TikToks) in the four months since. On March 17, the couple posted one of their first videos together, and Echard and Evans’ body language on TikTok reveals a lot about their growing romance—and it’s still a work in progress.

The rest of the article at the link

Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.
     

Dating Recommendations for Extroverts.

Extroverts – Extroverts, especially extreme extroverts, love loud, fast-paced, overlapping conversations filled with energy. Extroverts may think an introverted date is a great listener, but it may be because they are not given a turn to talk as they need silence to speak. So introverts can feel talked over and interrupted when extroverts feel they are just having a great energetic conversation.

 

So extroverts on dates can overwhelm introverts and may seem like a selfish, self-absorbed show-up. So to make introverts feel comfortable, they need to ask them open-ended questions; ask them to tell about a fun vacation or the best thing that has happened in their life recently. Then let them go for it and be silent (TOUGH FOR EXTROVERT.) According to research, Introverts like as much as 8 seconds of silence after being asked a question before they have formed the perfect answer and are ready to speak. Give introverts more eye contact even when they are pausing. Extroverts sometimes drop eye contact when an Introvert is talking softly or pausing. A listener should give more eye contact than the speaker. Research suggests that if you want to have good rapport, you should maintain eye-contact 60 to 70 percent of the time that someone speaks to you. Females have been shown to be better at this than men and need more eye contact from listeners to feel comfortable in the conversation




Patti Wood, MA - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com.