Most Challenging Communication 8: Leading Groups Pt. 2.
Managing Credibility, Command & Control Issues
In order to command, you must communicate with credibility and authority. You are at your most credible when your non-verbal, vocal and verbal communication match. It’s also vital that you be able to maintain control when leading groups. Here are some techniques you can use to take command and maintain control when leading groups.
Set an Agenda
Preparing and sticking to an agenda gives you a step by step path from beginning to end in a business meeting. You’ll seem in charge if you know where you are going.
Recognize Three Basic Dance Steps
There is always a dance taking place. The idea is that you lead and your audience follows. The three dance steps are: engage the group, exchange information and end the meeting on the desired note.
Open in a Focused, Engaging Manner
When opening a discourse with a group, you must face and engage them in a positive, if not commanding, manner. You must get their attention. Your body language needs to be open and assertive, rather than passively closed or overly aggressive. Your voice must convey warmth and authority, as opposed to fearful trembling or hostility. You must be selective with your words. Great communicators choose the best words for each situation.
Use Mind/Body Techniques to Project
Authority or Improve Participation
If you are a victim of stress or negative thinking when facing groups, you need mental or physical techniques that allow you to relax and think positively. When you think positive, enjoyable or courageous thoughts, your body language will follow with a corresponding display of poise, confidence or enthusiasm. On the other hand, if you are not in a favorable state of mind, carry yourself with poise and confidence and your mind will follow. You always have two available means of taking
charge of mental states through posture and thinking.
You can also use mind/body techniques on others. If you have someone who seems closed and unreceptive, getting them to open their body language will open their mind. Ask them to hand you something, or hand them something to review which creates a shift in their physical openness towards you.
Or, ask the person to stand up and demonstrate something or to move to a different location in order to unseat or reposition them. The trick is to keep people from becoming entrenched in a closed physical or mental mode. You can be subtle (or sneaky) and creative with this technique.
Getting a person to laugh or participate in an upbeat conversation will often be enough to change their body language. If you see someone in your audience close down, take a moment to tell a joke or do something to get them laughing. When the mind opens, the body follows.
More Command & Control to Follow!
