The NCAA Tournament is winding down to the Final Four, and
even if you’re not a basketball fan you can benefit from doing the
little experiment I’m about to suggest. Turn your television on and
watch one of the semifinal games for a few minutes, then mute the sound
and cover the bottom of the screen where they show the score. Now, see
if you can tell who is winning and who is losing based just on watching
the players' and coaches' body language and how they are moving on the
court. You’ll only need to watch for a few minutes and I bet you’ll nail
it.
Why am so confident? Because you will see that the winners act
energized when they are winning and losers do not. A champion, on the
other hand, acts like a winner regardless of which side of the score
they may be on at any given moment. They are still energized and remain
persistent. You need to carry yourself like a champion in the sport of
business. If you can do this, you will be doing something that many
elite athletes struggle with.
Related: 10 Body Language Tips Every Speaker Must Know (Infographic)
Body language impacts all kinds of workplace performance. Researcher Chia-Jung Tsay found in a
2013 study
that both musical novices and experts were best able to identify the
winners of live performance competitions by watching muted videos of
them. Yet when the audio was turned on or when they simply listened
without any visual cues they could not correctly identify the winners.
Interestingly, when they surveyed the over 1,000 observers before the
experiment, they all reported that sound would factor most in their
evaluations.
If someone were filming you at work and you watched the “game film” on mute, what would your body language say about you?
When I was coaching, I would invite a deaf friend of mine to attend
and film our practices. He would observe, evaluate and share with us
what he noticed, then we would watch the film so the team could see for
themselves. The insights were priceless and really enabled my players to
understand that their actions and demeanor speak volumes.
Related: 4 Body Language Cues You Need to Know When Networking
If our non-verbal behavior plays such a telling role in our
performance, shouldn’t we be more mindful of it? It’s imperative that
you act like a champion whether you’re winning or losing at whatever
endeavor you’re pursuing. Your body language and physiology don’t just
affect others' perception of you, they also impact your self-perception.
William James, father of the positive psychology movement, referred
to this phenomenon as the “As If” technique. By acting as if you feel a
certain way for a short period of time, your actions will convince your
brain you do indeed feel that way. Quite simply, you can act your way
into feeling. If you feel tired, act energized. If you feel discouraged,
act confident and you’ll notice your mood state change for the better.
In the final weekend of the NCAA tournament, you will see the best
teams act like champions and play like there is no scoreboard. We should
work the same way. In the sport of business, champions act like winners
regardless of rejections, the score, circumstances and economy.
Benjamin Franklin once said that “energy and persistence conquer all
things,” and in today’s competitive marketplace we all could use that
reminder. Energy and persistence have nothing to do with your words, yet
have everything to do with your actions. We all know which speak
louder.
Related: In Basketball and Business, What Separates Winners and Losers?
