We use our body language to project confidence.
What are the traits of confident people?
Confident people show good posture. Standing straight, heads held high, and always walking on a mission. They use smooth and large gestures and take their time while communicating. Remember: Confidence can be quiet! Confidence is strongly linked to leadership, where the leader chooses the pace and the tone of the communication.
How to model confidence?
If you want to be more confident but are not there yet, look at people you admire and consider confident. It can be a parent, a work colleague, a boss, or even a public figure. Observe how they behave when socializing and model their behavior. Look at their gestures and adopt them. Observe how they walk, where their hands are, and what is the tone of their voice.
Top 3 First Steps
Cadence
Pay attention to how you talk and avoid uptalk. Don’t make every sentence end like a question. Talking fast makes it less likely that people will be able to keep up with you and actively listen for a long time. Keep pauses to make people pay more attention. Remember Martin Luther King’s famous speech: ” I have a dream … [pause] … that one day …[pause]”. He isn’t rushing, but instead takes his time, building his message and commanding attention. Using the same technique, you can also get people pay attention to you and hold their attention while they wait for the next piece of information.
Non Verbals
Use large and smooth gestures and control your environment. Show that you are well-prepared and an expert on the subject. Although you are trying to explain something, restrain yourself from repeating the same information several times. When asked a question, don’t jump to an answer right away! Control your time and radiate confidence.
Public Speaking
Let’s be honest: it’s scary! Be prepared, know your material, and rehearse your speech, but don’t learn it by heart. You want to be an expert on the subject, not on reciting a poem. Life is full of surprises and your perfectly prepared speech might not go as planned. Before standing in front of a crowd, try some vocal warm-up exercises and stretch to get your body ready for standing up with confidence.
Conclusion
People are not born confident. It’s something that you learn by repetition.
You have temporal control. Use it to your advantage.