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What your body is saying about you in a job interview

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Portrait-Virginie-GRAZIANI

Virginie Graziani

Talent Management & Synergologist

26 September 2017

Reading Time: 3 minutes

 

People don’t just communicate with words. Our bodies and faces also provide important information about us. Our posture, gestures, facial expressions, tics, distance, and even our clothing are significant. Paying attention to the body position and gestures of the person you’re talking to lets you understand them better, read them even when they’re not talking, or even know the truth when they’re lying.

If we perceive these things in others we can also adapt the message we ourselves want to convey. At job interviews, the way you act is almost always scrutinised by your future employer, especially because stress and pressure generally increase the presence and amplitude of these markers. From the way you enter the recruiter’s office to the way you sit, and obviously your handshake, everything you do is carried out in a particular way.

For example, take ‘sitting on a chair’: you can execute this apparently simple position in a multitude of ways (with your arms folded, with your hand on your leg, with your legs crossed, leaning forward, swinging your feet, etc.), revealing a little bit about your personality or state of mind at the time. These postures can all affect the way you are perceived by the interviewer, either consciously or not.

Recruitment professionals are generally familiar with these postures. They can read you regardless of what actually comes out of your mouth. However, most of the time recruiters tend to sense things without actually using Synergology (the discipline that studies body language).

 

Does that make it difficult to lie in a job interview?

 

Who hasn’t at some point embellished their career to secure the opportunity of their dreams? For anyone who wants to gain influence, learning to read body language (all non-verbal communication) is a remarkable tool. Firstly, it can show us whether the person we’re talking to is listening or not, and whether they trust us, are suspicious, are lying, etc.

In this way, you can adapt your language to convey the message you want to give. You also need to be aware of the messages you are giving (almost without realising)! Unless we’re well trained, as is the case, for example, with top poker players, our bodies react and express themselves. We can’t lie without being betrayed by our body. There are identifiable signs: our pupils dilate, we twist our head, our breathing rate increases, we blink at different rates, etc.

But everything from exaggerating the facts to taking an uncalculated risk can cause us to act nervously or to look uneasy, even when we’re not being downright deceitful. Your body always expresses conflict between what you say and what you think, even if it’s imperceptible. Pay attention to what your gestures say about you. Your body can betray you, whether through your eyes, your breathing, your smile, the way you move your arms or your posture.

 

What is Synergology ?

Synergology is a discipline that enables us to decode gestures and decipher the workings of the human mind based on a person’s body language in order to improve communication. Synergology uses several revolutionary techniques and methods from the most recent discoveries in the field of behavioral sciences.

Philippe Turchet coined the term synergology in 1996 and registered it as a trademark. The word “synergology” is formed from the prefixes “sun” (to be together), “ergo” (active), and logos (discourse). Etymologically, it means to be active with one another when producing speech.

 

 

TO LEARN MORE …

 

Head hunting helps you to target rare and high profils. Attract, engage and match the best talent thanks to Executive Search.

Explore how an individual will perform in the future : Discover our Assessment Center based on simulation of a professional environment.

If you’d like to learn more about assessing and developing your leadership team, get in touch with us, fill in the contact form below.

 

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