When facing an audience or in a negotiation meeting retaining a clear and focused mind is crucial.

Making the most of your core skills means preparation to sharpen and hone the messages and their impact. Any lack of belief in what you are saying can be picked up upon and used to manipulate and throw you off course.

5 common signs that you do not believe what you are saying are;

1) Your speaking tone tapers away and fades towards the end of statements.

2) Your lips turn downwards as you finish sentences.

3) The pitch of your voice is higher than is normal for your speech.

4) You keep correcting yourself as you speak.

5) Any slight shrug during speaking can show indifference.

This issue is important if you are making a pitch, in a face to face meeting, negotiation or interview and want to influence the person sitting opposite you. This applies to virtual communication as well and with a growing demand for on line training and global meetings the need to be your best when you communicate has never been greater.

These 5 signs above are just a few of the ways we do not make our communication clear and how the person sitting at either the other side of the table or computer screen can misinterpret the message you want to get across. When speaking, if your voice tapers away as you finish sentences it indicates potential disbelief in what you are saying. This often happens when we are not fully prepared to negotiate or have confidence in what we are saying.

If you are correcting yourself constantly, this is often a sign that you are honest in what you are saying, it does however display a lack of belief in your own abilities. If your lips turn downwards as you finish sentences, it indicates a lack of confidence in your words. If overly anxious your pitch can become higher than normal and this can make you less convincing.

Finally a slight shoulder shrug sends out a clear message that you are unsure about what you are saying. These cues are often automatic, but they can be reduced through raising awareness and resilience levels to manage a changing meeting environment.

Being able to detect these cues in others, can give you an incremental advantage in getting the best deal possible.

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Best wishes
Patrick