Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes...

“Heads, shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes”

This week’s FriendlyBrain Tip was written by Martyn Haworth of Kaizen Training.

As a trainer and facilitator you’re constantly in the public eye. No doubt you love the stage and enjoy ‘strutting your stuff’ to your participants – it's often one of the reasons we do the job isn’t it?

And how aware are you of what you’re doing with your physiology when you’re up in front of a group? As you focus on the task in hand you may be unaware of how much others are observing what you're doing with your head and shoulders - and maybe your knees and toes too!  You're probably already very aware of how you use your body when you're in formal "presentation" mode, but what about when your learners are doing an activity or exercise, and you're "off-stage", so to speak?

It can be easy to slip into bad habits. You might slouch, sniff, scratch the backs of your ears, fiddle with your marker pen, press blu tac into little cubes between your fingers, or rub your hands together on a regular basis. All these things may seem small and insignificant to you - and may also distract your participants from learning.

Those participants with a visual preference could be glued to your every movement. We know that physiology represents more than half of what influences others.  The basics of body language are very simple but it’s these tiny little nuances that can stand out over time...

Now we’re only human and no one’s perfect, right? And of course we are all individuals - this is not about becoming a robot! The point is to be aware of these habits and know when to change - partly to keep your participants in a resourceful state but also because your physiology will have a massive impact on your state and energy.  So how do you know what these little things are and how to improve your style?

Ask someone you trust to watch you - then give you feedback! By having a colleague observing your physiology you might find out some interesting things about your behaviour - some of which you might not even know you did!

Once you know what to change you’ll soon be more aware when you do it. Try finding something else to do with your physiology that’s less distracting, especially if you have lots of nervous energy - and learn from other trainers that you admire doing their thing.

And most importantly, continue to be you and wow your audience – and also be happy to discover your faults if you have any. You could even recite the favourite kids sing-song in your head before you start a session to remind you to do a ‘self check’...

Heads, shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes....

For more information on the use of physiology and non-verbal behaviour in training and facilitating, please contact us at directors@kaizen-training.com