5 Body Language Secrets for a Successful Hospitality Career

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication. You don’t need to utter a word to leave an impression. Body language is crucial for hospitality career success.

In this post, we will try to dwell deeper into the body language secrets for a better career in the hotel industry and in the hospitality industry overall.

Before we begin discussing the secrets it is crucial to understand that body language is crucial to your success in general (not just limited to your career). Here are the top reasons why?

• Body language is important for your self-esteem
• It helps make relationships
• Body language can make you look pleasing and charming
• Positive body language can help resolve conflicts in the workplace
• Good body language can improve team spirit and foster innovation and creativity at work
• It helps immensely in job interviews and in career overall

And there are many more such reasons that can persuade to be conscious of your body language.

Let’s now get started with top body language secrets that can help hospitality industry professionals in their careers.

1. Posture speaks about your personality- Use it perfectly

An article by Inc lists a few body language postures that can help you become more successful.

Some of the scientifically proven postures for success are:

• Tilting the head forward while the conversation gets you more approval.
• Touching the forearm empathetically can help in effective networking.
• Crossing arms with a smile in a discussion makes you look more confident.
• Mimic the nonverbal expressions to make other people comfortable.
• standing at an angle helps you solve interpersonal conflicts.
• Always stand straight and keep your back straight while sitting.

2. Power poses can help negotiate tough situations at work

Now, this is a big secret for a successful career using your body language.

Power poses not only make you look confident but they make you more confident over time.

Some of the examples of power poses are:

• Leaning assertively on the table while discussing things.
• Using a wide-open stance makes you look more confident.
• Opening up your arms during a presentation makes you look in control.
• Closing yourself up or guarded pose makes you look weaker.
• The superman pose actually helps in increasing confidence
• Open leg stance is powerful

We did a simple image search on Google using the term ‘Body Language” and we came up with numerous examples of power poses.

Here’s a screengrab for you.

3. Smile your way to success in hospitality Career

Using your smile effectively is one of the biggest body language secrets for success in hospitality industry career.

Customer centric approach is a must in the hospitality industry and a good smile can take you a long way in providing an excellent customer centric personality.

Most people either overuse their smiles or underuse this power.

A smile should be used in an optimum manner.

• A light smile is your most potent weapon at work. Use it as much as you want.
• A wide smile or a grin must be used sparsely.
• A fake smile must be avoided at all cost. It can have a damaging effect.
• Smiling at work can help you beat the stress at work (Darwin’s theory supports this hypothesis).
• Smiling regularly at work helps you connect better within the team.

Staying positive and spreading positivity is one of the important tools for becoming a great team worker. Smiling optimally helps you become more positive at work.

Keep smiling at work even when you are stressed. You would be glad you made smile a part of your work life. It will boost your confidence and make you more popular within your team.

4. A firm and warm handshake is a must – always

A weak handshake is the worst start you can give yourself in a discussion or in a meeting.

Same is true for a cold handshake which can make you look disinterested.

A warm and firm handshake on the other hand is sure to make you look more confident.

It is a body language secret that most of the successful people are already aware of.

A word of caution though. A very tight handshake however can play a spoilsport in meetings.

Just try and hit the sweet spot as far as firmness and warmth of handshakes are concerned. A little bit of effort on this body language hack can help you reap high rewards in your career.

5. Never exaggerate your body language

We had our body even much before we learnt to speak.

A lot of conversation is non-verbal and thus body language is crucial.

Same is the case with body language. You don’t use it effectively, you don’t get the best taste.

However, overusing it can do more harm than good to your career.

Confidence is great but overconfidence can be dangerous.

Exaggeration of body language includes but is not limited to:

• Too intense eye contact that might make others uncomfortable.
• Crossing arms and raising head in overconfidence that may appear snobbish at work.
• Exaggerated nodding while engaged in a group discussion is distracting for others.
• Getting too close during work-related arguments may not be pleasing to others.

It is important not to overuse your body for communicating.

It is meant to help you in communicating and connecting better with others.

An overdose of medicine can do danger to your body. In a similar way exaggerated body language at work can be counterproductive to your career advancement. So use it with caution.

Conclusion

Here you go, 5 key body language secrets for career success in the hospitality industry.

Most of the successful people in the hospitality industry and top entrepreneurs use body language as a subtle art to achieve greater success in career and in life.

It has been proved time and again that body language helps make the first impression and a lasting one.

It is thus crucial to work on this subtle art of expressing yourself even without uttering a word.

If you have not yet considered the body language secrets in your hospitality career advancement strategy, then this post might be just the trigger that you need to get started.

Now smile your way to success!