FULL TRANSCRIPT

00:00 – Show Opening

Are you a professional who wants to become a more effective leader? Then get ready for daily tips from the coach with the experience and inspiration to help you succeed in any leadership situation. You’re listening to The Meeting Leadership podcast with Gordon Shepherd.

00:27 – Start Here – Podcast content starts here!

Gordon Shepherd: Welcome to another episode of The Meeting Leadership podcast. Now if you’re a leader who understands the importance of things like body language, the critical importance of things like nonverbal communication, then you are definitely in the right place, because today we’re going to talk about How Successful Leaders Win With Nonverbal Communication.

00:47 – Non-verbal communication is often emotionally driven

Gordon Shepherd:    Now as a reminder, this is part two of a two-part series with Lauren Sergy, a communications expert who works with leaders all over the world. Now to recap, in part one, Lauren helped you learn all kinds of nuances within nonverbal communication that leaders must consider, and one of the key ideas that was brought forward there was the fact that nonverbal communication is often emotionally driven. So if you’re aware of it, then you can actually then affect the emotional state of the people who are following you.

01:19 – The Emotional Planning Worksheet

Gordon Shepherd:    And today we’re moving on to part two, where you’re going to get more practical tips that you can put into action right away. For example, you’re going to learn about the importance of posture and how you have to get it right the first moment that people see you. You’ll also find out about a great resource called the Emotional Planning Worksheet and a whole lot more. And without further ado, let’s continue this high impact interview with Lauren Sergy.

01:43 – Non-verbal communication tip #1 — How to use posture to inspire the people you lead

Lauren Sergy:       So let’s take a look at posture, because that’s one of the things that leaders really like to ask me about. What about posture? This person walks into the room and they command the space. They look so good. That’s because the first thing that you see is the way that people carry themselves, and it has reams of social information in it. Someone who is in command of the situation or is feeling confident, they typically stand with their abdomen engaged, their chest lifted very slightly, just a couple of centimeters. A nice, little proud lift to their chest and they’re relaxed through their shoulders. We read that and we say, “Okay, they’re in control of themselves, they’re in control of the situation. I like that in a leader.” If someone comes in and they’re hunched over, so their abs aren’t engaged, they’re slightly collapsed in through the chest, their shoulders are rounded down and they’re hunching a little bit, they’re collapsed through the chest. We look at that and that to us looks like a submissive or an insecure posture, and we read that accordingly. “Oh, this person who is the leader looks insecure. They don’t look comfortable. Should I follow them?”

Lauren Sergy:       This happens in an instant. We make snap judgments about these things and it’s not a voluntary response. It’s evolutionary hind brain response here, so you want to know that in advance and practice having that correct posture so that people feel that you are the right person to be leading them as soon as they lay eyeballs on you.

03:13 – Tip #2 – Use the emotional toolbox to your advantage

Gordon Shepherd:    This is really impactful and what I can see connecting here almost immediately from all of the great self-awareness tips that you’re giving is those actions, the relaxed shoulders and the way you want people to feel because it’s driven by emotion, will have a direct impact on profitability, on the ability to keep people engaged. And when I tie it back to strategic planning, it actually goes all the way back to saying, “Hey, this is a great place to work. We have the best retention policy for the best people.” All of that sounds like it’s starting that instant second when your brain stem from primitive long time ago is starting the immediate moment that you walk in the room.

Lauren Sergy:       Yup, it’s right away. And to think that emotions shouldn’t matter in worker leadership is ludicrous. We’re emotional beings and a lot of our actions are actually driven by emotional decision making, not logical thought process. So you want to use that emotional toolbox to your advantage.

04:10 – Tip #3 – Connect non-verbal communication to your communication strategy

Gordon Shepherd:    This is really super impactful. I’m going to take a second to see if I can recap the great points, some of the great points that I’ve heard here today. One, you started out by saying nonverbal communication is absolutely critical and then you were able to engage us in a variety of really actionable ways to be aware of things, like how high is your eyebrow, where are your shoulders at? And also make us aware that these things like including eye contact and posture are emotionally driven and really then, if a leader wants to up their game, they’re going to actually get into learning these things from someone like you.

Lauren Sergy:       Absolutely, it’s remember, emotions are part of your strategy or part of your communication strategy, so frame them in that context. Realize that it’s not fluff that you’re dealing with here, it’s actual communication strategy and take the time to plan it out.

05:00 – Emotional Planning Worksheet

Gordon Shepherd:    This is so valuable for people I know that are coming here to get their leadership skills to grow. And thankfully, the other thing that you’ve gone above and beyond for today is you’ve created a Freebie. Can you tell us about it?

Lauren Sergy:       Absolutely. I’ve got a little emotional planning worksheet because, again, figuring out those target emotions is really important. This will help you get in touch with what the mood in the room already is when you walk into it, how people are likely to be feeling at the start of your communication and what they need to feel in order for you to achieve whatever it is you want to do with them in that setting. I’ve got a document set up to help you plan that out and then pinpoint little ways that you can encourage those emotions in the people that you’re communicating with.

Gordon Shepherd:    And where can people get it?

05:52 – laurensergy.com/meetingleadership

Lauren Sergy:       They can grab that at laurensergy.com, so that’s L-A-U-R-E-N-S-E-R-G-Y.com/meetingleadership. Enter in your name and your email, and I will send you that planning document.

Gordon Shepherd:    And if people want to get in touch with you directly, Lauren, how can they do that?

06:09 – How to contact Lauren Sergy

Lauren Sergy:       Very easy to do. You can find me online laurensergy.com. You can hop onto YouTube. Just look up Lauren Sergy, you’ll find my channel with a whole pile of additional resources and information there, or you can email me directly lauren@laurensergy.com.

Gordon Shepherd:    Lauren, always great to have you on the show. Thanks so much for being here.

Lauren Sergy:       Thank you so much for having me back, Gord.

06:32 – Additional information 

Gordon Shepherd:    Thanks for listening to part two of How Successful Leaders Win With Nonverbal Communication. I am absolutely so proud of getting people like Lauren here on the show, Olympic level coaching for leaders. That’s exactly what we’re trying to do every time and she knocked it out of the park. And I also hope that you’re able to take what you’ve learned and put it into action to improve as a leader and really make a positive impact on the people that you lead. And just in case you don’t have it yet, you’ll get all the information you need for the emotional planning worksheet download as well as Lauren’s contact information in the show notes for this episode. And you can get that by going to meetingleadershipinc.com/36.

07:15 – Lauren Sergy’s previous appearance – meetingleadershipinc.com/19

Gordon Shepherd:    And if you got as much as I did from listening to Lauren, then you’ll also want to visit the other episodes on the Meeting Leadership podcast that she has been a guest on. And of course, the first one that I’d like to point out is yesterday’s episode and you can get that by visiting meetingleadershipinc.com/35. And Lauren also appeared in episode 19 of the podcast and it was titled Why Leaders Need To Say Less So They Can Mean More. And you can get access to that episode by going to a meetingleadershipinc.com/19. And I also want to let you know that this episode of The Meeting Leadership Podcast, well, it’s brought to you by The Meeting Leadership Academy.

07:55 – Meeting Leadership Academy –meetingleadershipinc.com/academy

Gordon Shepherd:    I am really proud of the training materials I’ve pulled together in the online space there. If you need to get access to learn more information about bringing me in as a leadership coach or possibly to train your team, you’ll find everything you need to know at meetingleadershipinc.com/academy. And I can’t say thank you enough for spending your valuable time with Lauren and I here today and we’ll see you tomorrow on The Meeting Leadership podcast.

08:21 – Podcast Outro

Thanks for listening to The Meeting Leadership podcast. Be sure to subscribe for more strategies to help you become an outstanding leader. And don’t forget to rate and review so we can bring you fresh content every day. We’ll see you tomorrow, right here on The Meeting Leadership podcast.