Body Language Tips for Success

If there's one thing that most companies want to see in potential hires, it's not a sparkling resume. Heck, in many cases, some won't even care about the clothing you wear to the interview. The truth is that most HR managers want potential hires to have social skills—and those are getting increasingly hard to find.

Social skills make it easier for coworkers to get along with you, for sales staff to meet quota, and for people to just be able to function as a group. One of the easiest ways to signal that you have social skills and make people feel comfortable around you is to have good body language.

Learning how to work your body language is a skill that many of us haven't picked up. This can make it hard to actually convey yourself in a friendly, non-creepy manner.

Body language affects your life in ways you never could have expected. Body language and your love life are tied, and so is body language with your work life.

That being said, anyone can learn how to show positive body language using these time-tested, HR-approved body language tips for success on the job.

Mirror your colleague's body language.

One of the best body language tips for success deals with a trick called "mirroring." When you subtly mimic your coworkers' body language during conversation, you're giving a subconscious signal that you are like them.

Mirroring has been proven to get people to like you—and this is true both in and out of the workplace. This is why couples tend to move in sync, and why certain people tend to feel like they "just click" with strangers they never met.

Eye contact is a must.

Eye contact is a universal human expression, and typically, it's a positive, assertive one. When you hold eye contact with someone, it tells them "I'm trustworthy, interested in what you say, and am friendly."

In many cultures, eye contact is a signal that you respect someone. One of the best body language tips for success at work is to maintain your eye contact. It will help you make connections with your coworkers.

Smile when you meet someone new, or when you're talking to a coworker.

Smiling is not just for photo moments, you know! A calm or mildly excited smile is the easiest way to put fellow employees at ease and also help you build a rapport with coworkers.

Almost every list of body language tips for success in the workplace will talk about the importance of smiling. Even if you have a tendency to be dour, do what you can to flash a grin once in a while. It will help you look like a friendly, approachable person.

Your mom was right to tell you to sit up straight and stand tall.

Bad posture has been linked to back problems and even has been shown to affect a person's overall demeanor. That much has been an established fact for decades, with data even stretching as far back as the 19th century in some cases.

Believe it or not, it also will affect how people perceive you. Slouching makes you appear lazy or unengaged—neither of which is good for your professional image. That's why books containing body language tips for success tell you to stand up tall and keep your good posture intact.

Avoid hostile or anxious gestures in the workplace.

Gestures matter, even if you don't actually think about them when you do them. Things like rapidly tapping your toes, for example, can show that you're anxious or nervous around a person who is talking to you. That isn't too bad, but others could be.

Folding your arms might show that you're closed off to what a person is saying. Worse is turning away, which could be interpreted as a sign of disrespect. Above all, pointing at a person is often seen as aggressive and should be avoided at all costs.

One of the best body language tips for success in your career is to watch your gestures. The little things count a lot more than you'd expect them to with many people—even if you're in a region where talking with your hands is normal.

Personal space is an issue.

Perhaps one of the most unsettling things that can be experienced in the workplace is too little personal space. In mainstream Americana culture, personal space invasion starts being felt when someone's less than a foot away from you.

When you don't respect a person's personal space, they will start to back away from you, get uncomfortable, or will begin to feel like you're threatening them. In certain cases, getting too close to someone can cause an HR problem.

Backing away to a more comfortable distance is a great way to build better business relationships.

If you're nervous, strike a power pose.

Power posing is the use of body language to rev your confidence up. Things like standing up straight, putting your hands on your hips, and even taking a deep breath to push out your chest a bit more can help you gain the confidence you need for that board meeting.

Though studies have suggested that this can boost your testosterone and help you get more confident during your work hours. A lot of articles discussing body language tips for success in the boardroom swear by this, but how much of it is just the placebo effect versus the real deal remains to be seen.

That being said, it never hurts to try.

Lower the pitch of your voice.

Believe it or not, part of your body language includes the cadence of your voice. High pitched voices are often seen as under-qualified, immature, or otherwise incompetent. Studies have shown that people place more trust in a deeper voice—and this remains true with men and women.

Try it out for a day or two, and you'll likely notice that you're being taken more seriously.

If you're not the type to take into note all the little aspects of body language, you might want to consider something called "power priming."

Most body language is subconscious in nature. In a totally normal setting, people don't actively think about how they're standing or what they are doing. If you can't figure out how to get your body language to be confident, you may want to consider a technique experts call "power priming."

Power priming is done by remembering moments where you felt proud of your own accomplishments. This can be anything from a moment you made a killer sale to a moment that involved your friends.

Even recalling that moment can help your body language become more confident, optimistic, and successful.

Lastly, one of the best body language tips for success in negotiating is to shrug when pressed for an answer.

If you are in a position where someone wants you to do something and is trying to negotiate a price with you, the best thing you can do is stay silent for at least one round and just shrug your shoulders. Most people, especially sales people, will begin to panic and offer you a better deal as a result.

Doing this also happens to be one of the smartest body language interview tips you can get, since it can easily get you a raise in your starting salary.