Mike
Carruthers:
Tall
people are perceived to be more authoritative and persuasive than
short people, but also…
Alan Axelrod:
People with deep voices are perceived generally as more
authoritative than people with high voices.
Alan Axelrod,
author of the book
Getting Your Way Everyday…
If you've got
a kind of high-pitched voice, you actually should try to practice
to get your voice a bit lower. When you're on the telephone,
if you want to be authoritative it's a good idea to get off
your chair and actually stand while speaking on the phone.
Your clothes
and appearance have a lot to do with how persuasive you are.
You think of
the judge up on his bench in his robe - if you saw somebody
walking on the street dressed like that you'd think that the
person was out of his mind. But in that particular context those
trappings, that appearance confers a certain authority on that
person.
So Alan says
the most effective way to dress and act to be authoritative
is to go just a notch above your perceived level. A good example
of someone who does this is…
Matt Lauer on
the Today Show - I think he has tuned himself a notch above
what he perceives as the general level of his audience in terms
of sort of intellectual interest. But he certainly still has
the common touch and he dresses impeccably without trying too
hard.
At somethingyoushouldknow.net
I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.
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