Posted on March 3, 2011 in Work Life

It all starts with your energy

Author: Anthony Lindan
Anthony Lindan is a team builder, motivational speaker and corporate magician. Anthony's workshops and keynotes share practical tips about tapping into your inner magic, maximizing your personal impact and communicating more confidently and effectively. http://www.anthonylindan.com

Our personal impact is our ability to influence how people feel, think and act through face-to-face communication. Even before you open your mouth you influence how people feel about you by the energy you project.

Here are three insights I have learned about energy:

The energy you project reflects how you feel about yourself.
Energy is like a boomerang. You get back what you send out.
Our energy sets the stage for all communication.

#1 - The energy you project is a reflection of how you feel about yourself

Self-awareness and how you feel about yourself is the foundation for effective personal impact. All of our communication starts with our feelings. Our feelings determine our thoughts and our thoughts determine our actions. At the risk of sounding like a 1970’s motivations speaker, you really do have for feel it, to believe it, to achieve it.

Energy is all about confidence. We determine our level of confidence by self-assessing our ability to achieve a specific result. We assess the strength or weakness of three key factors - our knowledge, skills and ability to execute. These results trigger an emotional response. Assessments of strength produce positive feelings of confidence. Negative feelings of doubt or worry occur when we assess weakness or inability.

We assess our strengths and weaknesses on a situation-by-situation basis. So our ‘situational’ confidence reflects how we feel at a specific time in a specific environment or situation. Our ‘situational’ confidence impacts our energy because it can change quickly and frequently. As our confidence changes so does the energy that we project.

I learned this lesson by experiencing an insight about myself at a trade show in Chicago. As a trade show presenter my job is to get people to stop at the booth so I can deliver my presentation. I have always found the initial process of stopping people the least enjoyable and most difficult part of the job.

Stopping traffic at this particular show was exacerbated by low attendance. After a morning of intermittent traffic and only a couple of shows my client took me to lunch for a talk. He said, “Anthony I’ve been watching you for the past couple of hours and you look like two different people. When you’re trying to stop people you look anxious and nervous. But once you start the show you command the stage like a master showman. What’s up?”

I told him I was having an off morning and that I was having trouble stopping people because of the slow traffic. I then went back to the booth ratcheted up my energy and literally jumped on anyone who came down the aisle. Later that night in the hotel room I had a sole searching conversation with myself. My ah-ah moment came I when I analyzed the problem from a ‘situational’ confidence perspective.

I was projecting negative energy – stress and anxiety – when I was trying to stop people. The more I thought, “No one wants to see my presentation. No one is going to stop,” the more doubt I projected and the harder it was to stop anyone. When my ‘situational’ confidence was low I didn’t feel good about myself. The passers by picked up on my negative energy and literally stayed away.

However, once I had a crowd it was show time. My confidence instantly switched from low to high and my energy magically transformed from negative to positive. I had no doubts. I knew my material, had rehearsed the presentation and was extremely confident in my ability to perform the presentation. I felt good about myself. This made the audience feel good and produced an exciting entertainment experience.

Take A-Ways:

Self-awareness is critical to personal impact
Our confidence changes from situation to situation
As our confidence changes so does the energy we project

BONUS -The OK Test

To help manage my ‘situational’ confidence I developed the OK Test. It consists of asking and answering three key questions. I start by touching my thumb and little finger. After each answer I move my thumb to the next finger. The test leaves me with my thumb and index touching forming the OK gesture.

Here are the questions:

What do I feel good about in this situation?
What do I feel bad about I this situation?
What can I do to feel better in this situation?

I find the OK Test helpful because it provides a positive starting point. It helps me identify negative feelings and then develop an action plan to help mitigate them. The OK gesture is a physical sign that I have assessed the situation and taken proactive action.

#2 Energy is like a boomerang. You get back what you send out.

From my many years performing on the stage I have learned that audiences take their cue about how to respond from the performer. This is because your audience, whether one person or one thousand, physically tunes into your energy and responds accordingly.

Any magician will tell you that breaking in new material is one of the hardest and most nerve-racking things to do in front of an audience. Over the years I have had a few painful and disappointing experiences. However, understanding and applying the energy boomerang concept help me better understand what was happening.

Typically I would sandwich a new trick in between two proven, audience-tested tricks. The two bookend tricks always played well but the new trick often fell flat. It took a along time but I finally realized it was because of the change in my ‘situational’ confidence and the energy I was projecting to the audience. Leading up to the new trick I felt very confident and projected positive energy.

However, when I started performing the new trick my comfort level disappeared. My confidence changed to doubt and worry. I questioned my ability to perform the trick and projected stress and anxiety. The audience picked up on my negative energy and their energy changed accordingly. I could sense that my discomfort was making them feel uncomfortable. Once the new trick was over my confidence and positive energy returned and so did the audience’s.

I now break in new material only at non-paying shows. I find this reduces my stress and anxiety and allows me to better project confidence and positive energy while presenting the new tricks.

Take-A-Ways:

Your audience will tune into your energy and reciprocate accordingly
Understand and be aware of the energy you are projecting
Be proactive by projecting positive energy

#3 - Our energy sets the stage for all communication

Energy is the first level of connection and forms a bridge that facilitates communication. The nature of the connection, whether positive or negative, influences how all subsequent information is interpreted.

Simply stated, once you establish an energy connection with your audience, they will perceive your intent and motivation, see your actions and hear your words in the light of that connection.

When we communicate we are trying to achieve three very important things. We want our audience to like us, believe us and trust us. Our energy influences how our audience feels about themselves and about us. The more positive you make an audience feel the more encouraged they are to like you, believe you and trust you. Conversely, if you project negativity and make your audience feel bad, it’s an up hill battle to generate likability, credibility and integrity.

Take -A -Ways:

Your energy is the first level of connection.
Your energy establishes how you are perceived
Positive energy fosters likability, credibility and integrity

Anthony Lindan is a team builder, motivational speaker and corporate magician. Anthony's workshops and keynotes share practical tips about tapping into your inner magic, maximizing your personal impact and communicating more confidently and effectively. http://www.anthonylindan.com