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Patti's Body Language Tips for Banking Interviews

Below are Patti's body language tips for banking interviews that appeared in eFinancialCareers.com from a recent interview she did.

Ex-Barclays VP shares top body language tips for banking interviews
2 April 2015


Palm to palm
Ferdinand Petra started his banking career as an associate at J.P, Morgan. After four years, he moved to Barclays’ investment bank, where he spent five years as a vice president (VP) in client coverage. Now an affiliate professor of finance at elite business school HEC in Paris, Petra also trains M&A analysts in investment banks and corporates and has run an M&A interview preparation company. If anyone knows about non-verbal communications in financial services, it is, therefore, he.
According to Petra, there are three essential pieces of body language for financial services interview success. We’ve listed these below, supplemented with suggestions from Patti Wood, a body language expert who coaches Wall Street bankers. This is what you need to know.

1. Never project nervousness. Never imply negativity
When you’re sitting in front of an interviewer, you should never play with a pen or fiddle with things – this will simply convey that you’re stressed. Most importantly, when you’re asked a difficult question, Petra says you must be very careful not to manifest the two signs of defensiveness: don’t lean back in your chair and don’t cross your arms or legs (and particularly do not do the two things at the same time).
“Fiddling things is what I call a ‘self-comfort cue,” says Wood. “You sit there, fiddling with your shirt collar, or your watch and what you’re really doing is creating an excuse to touch yourself, which stimulates chemicals that are reassuring to you.” It’s incredibly important that you don’t seek this kind of reassurance when you’re answering questions about your suitability for the job and, says Wood.
Similarly, she says any attempt to protect the ‘windows to the body’ – the heart, chest, neck, mouth, eyes, or hands – can be interpreted as hiding something or holding something in. For this reason, crossing your legs, putting a hand to your neck, or shielding your eyes, are all inadvisable.
2. Anticipate the bodily cues of the people you’re interacting with
“When you stand up suddenly to shake hands, you will give the person who’s interviewing you the impression that you’re not prepared,” says Petra. Instead of waiting seated for the precise moment of the handshake, you need to anticipate the event: be ready, not flustered.
“You need to ease yourself into the handshake,” says Wood. “You shouldn’t be jumping up to shake hands. When you’re waiting for the interviewee, sit down on the edge of the seat in the waiting area so that you can rise easily and confidently.” For the same reason, Wood says you should avoid looking at your phone before the interview. And when the interview’s over, she says you should shake handsbefore you gather up your stuff.
3. There is more to a handshake than you think 
The handshake is all-important, but it is not all. Petra says you need to coordinate shaking hands with two other essential elements: smiling and looking someone in the eye. Practice the ensemble before you go in. “I always get my students to practice this with their friends,” Petra tells us.
Wood says execution of the handshake-eye-contact cluster should depend upon the gender of those involved. Male-to-male handshakes require eye contact of at least three seconds: anything less suggests weakness. Female-to-male handshakes require two seconds’ eye contact, a look away, and then a look back: three seconds of solid staring implies sexual interest; two seconds of staring followed by a glance away and a glance back implies that you’re not coming on to someone, but are prepared to interact robustly with them in a business environment.
All handshakes should also involve full frontal alignment between the parties concerned.”Your body windows need to be aligned to the other person’s,” says Wood. “During a handshake you are saying I trust you, and yet I am threatening your vulnerable areas and you are doing the same to me. You are both sizing each other up and determining who will be alpha.”
Handshakes should also always be palm to palm, says Wood. Women must resist the temptation for ‘finger shakes': “You don’t want to present your femininity first in a business situation. You want to show that you are strong and powerful and unafraid.”

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Read My Face

Read My Face

New software reads emotions from facial expressions to determine a commercial is working!  I have been following this facial expression recognition software creation in the neuroscience research for years wondering when we would start using it for deception detection and security and now it is being used to test advertising. Yes the future is here and it can read your face.

Here is an article on the research.

Subjects watch a video on a computer screen while the pinhole camera in the computer watches them back. Volunteers always know when they’re being recorded, which doesn’t materially affect the results. Engagement, boredom, amusement, displeasure and more are tracked and analyzed, with changing degrees of each displayed with real-time fever charts. (The venture-backed company is not yet profitable.)


+++ The New Tool for Marketers: Your Face
Jeffrey Kluger @jeffreykluger   March 19, 2015

Businesses are using facial analysis to see if their campaigns are working on you

If you’re trying to tell a lie or keep a secret, your face is not your friend. The human face may have been built for certain basic functions–eating, breathing, seeing–but the 43 separate muscles that keep it constantly moving mean it is constantly communicating too. Every eyebrow lift, forehead furrow, mouth twitch means something. That’s bad news if you’re bluffing, but it’s good for a growing small-business sector that uses facial analysis to figure out if an ad campaign or a TV pilot is landing with consumers.

Affectiva, a 30-person operation in Waltham, Mass., is the most visible of these companies. The six-year-old firm has amassed 1,400 clients, including Unilever, Kellogg’s and CBS. In the age of precise online and mobile metrics, most marketing chiefs are tiring of squishy focus-group and consumer-poll results; they want hard data. Rana el Kaliouby, Affectiva’s chief science officer and co-founder, wants to provide it to them.

A decade ago, el Kaliouby, who has a computer-science Ph.D. from Cambridge University with postdoctoral studies at MIT, began collecting video samples of faces with the goal of helping autistic children. “Autistic kids have a hard time reading faces,” she says, “so the plan was to design a system that tells them that the person they’re talking to is smiling, say, or looks confused, so maybe they want to explain themselves.”

In 2006, a grant from the National Science Foundation brought her to the MIT Media Lab to continue her work. Industry groups regularly visit the lab in the hope of discovering new technology, and el Kaliouby’s research intrigued them. “They asked, ‘Have you thought of applying it to Procter & Gamble or Fox testing a product or TV lineup?'” she recalls. In 2009 she and Rosalind Picard, her MIT professor, spun out Affectiva to do just that.

For a starting fee of $2,500–which climbs depending on whether a 30-second commercial or a one-hour pilot is being tested–Affectiva makes its software available to marketers. Subjects watch a video on a computer screen while the pinhole camera in the computer watches them back. Volunteers always know when they’re being recorded, which doesn’t materially affect the results. Engagement, boredom, amusement, displeasure and more are tracked and analyzed, with changing degrees of each displayed with real-time fever charts. (The venture-backed company is not yet profitable.)

The database Affectiva uses to conduct those analyses is made up of more than 2.5 million facial video samples, each of which runs for 45 seconds at a rate of 14 frames per second. “We have 7 billion emotional data points [to use for comparison],” says el Kaliouby. The software corrects for variables including gender, culture and age, all of which can be important. “Women tend to smile more than men,” El Kaliouby says, “and they smile longer too. Older people tend to be more expressive than younger people.” Europeans and Americans give away more than Asians do, she adds.

This method of data collection has proved popular. Startup nViso, in Switzerland, employs similar technology as Affectiva. And Emotient, based in San Diego, collects its data “in the wild,” as CEO Ken Denman puts it, by using software to study groups of people–shoppers in malls or crowds in arenas–to see how they’re reacting to what they’re seeing.

Market testing is only the lowest-hanging fruit. El Kaliouby envisions diversifying into political polling and analysis, as well as helping teachers of online courses assess student engagement. Autism and other cognitive and psychological conditions remain on her radar.

There are some potential growth areas that are more controversial: law enforcement, lie detection and airport security, for example. For both Emotient and Affectiva they’re no-go zones. “When we first started,” says el Kaliouby, “we articulated our values for the company and determined that subjects would always have to opt in, so for that reason we don’t want to be in security.” That, of course, leaves that space open to new competitors.

This appears in the March 30, 2015 issue of TIME.



Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

What Is This Strange Device?

What is this strange device?


That’s what a participant’s daughter asked when she saw a public phone in a Wall Mart.

Last week I did a program for Texas Roadhouse Restaurants and one of the audience members shared that her teenage daughter asked her what this was. She said, "What do you mean you mean a public phone" "I don't understand what you mean by you put coins in it?" "Why don't they just use their cell phone?"

Yes, coin operated public phones are now rare antiques found only in museums and Wall Mart! 

Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

How Texting Could Save America's Youth

How texting could save America's youth
While flying home from a speech in Ohio this week I read the article, “How Texting Could Save America’s Youth.” It is an interesting study which entails basically sending texts to teenagers to remind them to be nice. If they’re going to be checking their phones, it would be great if the messages are positive ones, rather than Kim Kardashian looks great in that dress. 
Kaitlyn Chantry, Reviewed.com10:05 a.m. EDT March 31, 2015
(Photo: HopeLab)

Smartphones in the classroom, smartphones at the dinner table, smartphones behind the wheel — today's parents and educators are waging a war against the texting teen, and most of them probably feel like they're losing.
New research, however, suggests that there may be a way to use texting to stimulate personal growth. Sara Konrath, Director of the Interdisciplinary Program for Empathy and Altruism Research (iPEAR) at Indiana University, is conducting research into ways that new SMS tools can increase empathy in America's youth.
Konrath's study, conducted in collaboration with HopeLab and funded by the John Templeton Foundation, sends participants recurring text messages that reinforce more empathic behavior. According to Janxin Leu, Director for Product Innovation at HopeLab, "The messages prompt people to imagine others' feelings and experiences, and do small kind acts every day."
Some of the text messages are thought exercises: "Think of a close family member. Think about what you like about them." Others are activity prompts: "The next time you see someone, no matter who they are, give them a real smile."
The program, called Text to Connect, is still in its early stages and the pilot study has yet to be published. However, the early findings are promising. Konrath reports that, after just two weeks, participants "have less aggressive beliefs — especially men — and they are more likely to help."
Konrath is optimistic about these pilot results, despite some pessimistic findings about society at large. In 2008, she co-authored a study showing that, since 1980, narcissism has risen in college students by 30%. In a 2011 study, she found that empathic concern decreased by 48% during the same time period.
While there are likely myriad causes for such a shift, Konrath admits that some share of the blame may lie with technology. Citing screened calls, inadvertent insensitivity and general distraction, she observes that "cellphones can be used to disconnect us and distance us from each other, but at the same time they're a major global force for keeping us connected."
With Text to Connect, Konrath and HopeLab are attempting to balance the harmful nature of mobile technology with its potential to improve how we relate to each other — all by inspiring young people to help, support and better understand each other.
If Text to Connect continues to generate positive results, the goal is to make that impact on a larger scale. According to Leu, "If we find evidence that this program is effective, we'll seek out partners to help with broader dissemination." That increased reach could include at-risk teens and high-stress demographics like medical students and new parents.
One small pilot study is hardly proof that text messages can transform teenagers into better human beings, but there is room for hope. If Text to Connect takes hold, it could mean an end to the war on texting — and a kinder, more empathic generation of Americans.
To find out more about Text to Connect, or to volunteer to participate, head tohttp://www.texttoconnect.org/.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.

Clip from a great movie, "I'll See You In My Dreams" My favorite movie at the Atlanta Film Festival



A Movie Review of  "I'll See You In My Dreams" 
It is a rare treat to see a movie about nice people. A movie with the title character that is a woman of depth and not just over 25 but over 70! It's rare to see a great film that is about friendship, love, and loss, and not about a murderer, druggie, weird loner, sex addict, immature loser, or narcissist. A movie starring a single woman that does not make her deceased husband or the guy she is dating a jerk! Thank God for this funny, and touching movie that lets me know that we can still find a movie about tenderness. I saw a row of 20 year old guys and 40 year old lighting engineers laugh really hard during this movie, so don't mistake it for a chick flick. It was written and directed by the 30 year old Brett Haley, (yes a guy). Brett shared with us at Q&A after the film at the Atlanta Film Festival that they did the whole film in 18 days on a budget of $450,000. That is absolutely amazing! Note the final song sung in the film written by the sound guy on the movie, its absolutely perfect. The film will be in limited release in theaters in May of 2015.

The body language and other nonverbal communication is wonderful in this clip. Notice Sam's eye contact. His eyes linger on her and he smiles. He truly sees her. Notice how she touches her clothing in self comfort as she asks if she is dressed appropriately.

If you see the movie in its entirety notice the silences. There are very few movies these days that are comfortable having characters interact in a long intimate sometimes exquisitely comfortable or painfully awkward silence. (Unless one of the characters has a gun and is hunting the other one!)
When I taught body language at Florida State each semester I had my students write a one page paper on how silence was used to communicate in one of their relationships. I read 100 fascinating papers each semester!  Think about how you or your loved ones and or work mates use silence to communicate.


Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - 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. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.