Creating Personal Presence

4Translate Your Body Language to Credibility

Body language is a very powerful tool.We had body language before we had speech.

—DEBORAH BULL

Dr. English, my father’s cardiologist for the past twenty years, instinctively used his body language to support his words on two different occasions—to accomplish two opposite effects.

My dad checked into the hospital for his routine heart catheterization. I say routine because he has had five bypasses, numerous stents, and a pacemaker. They shoot the dye through his heart, identify the location and severity of the blockage, and send him home to wait until they can schedule the operating room for the surgery.

My mom, sister, and I sat in the waiting room that morning during the typical forty-five-minute ...