An lesson on how to be believable from Craig Thomson
Once a person convinces himself/herself of something, the voice, face and body ‘play along’. This is what I saw and heard demonstrated, by Craig Thomson, when he delivered his speech in Federal Parliament last week.
Thomson’s voice, face and body were consistent with those of a victim. Of a person who feels he had been wronged. Of a person who admits he had made some transgressions, for sure, but who sees himself as a superior performer to the Health Services Union leaders prior to the start of his HSU leadership.
Leaving aside whether Thomson was telling the truth or not in the speech, the lesson you can take from his performance is this:
If you convince yourself (really convince yourself) about something – your voice, face and body will ‘play along’.
Now I’m not talking about ‘fake it to your make it’ here. Rather more in the line of ‘acting as if’, which is based in the realm of reality.
The ‘how to apply’ for this post: Convince yourself of a positive aspect of (or – put a ‘positive spin’ on) yourself, your product or your service. Operating with that identity, as you go about your daily life, note how it affects your personal communication. Note its effect and impact on other people.
p.s. Here is a link to a Daily Telegraph article on Thomson’s speech which includes my analysis.
Hi Michael – Interesting, but how exactly can we convince ourselves in order to set up this congruency? If he’s deluded and believes his own story then sure, his body language will be convincing, but if he knows he’s telling porkies his body language is likewise going to reveal that. So ‘really convincing’ yourself is the bit that I’d like to know more about. I wrote two posts about the Tomson business myself: http://wp.me/p2k3hy-aT and http://wp.me/p2k3hy-bv.
Thanks Claire. We convince ourselves by doing a genuine appraisal of the worth we provide (with the positive spin in mind). For example, prior to a sales presentation workshop I re-live the worth many people have received from my consulting and training services. In effect this is the convincing of myself. When I enter the client’s office my voice, face, body and words project this worth/display this ‘convincing of my self’.