I was looking at you - you were looking at me!
Eye to Eye Contact
What will you be doing on New Year’s Eve – will you walk into a room and hide in the corner or will you walk in the room and own it!
A great song called ‘Contact’ by Edwin Starr says it all – Across the crowded disco-room, oh your eyes told me the story, my heart was beating like the drum as I walked my way over. Eye to eye contact, we made eye to eye contact. I was looking at you, you were looking at me!
I can remember dancing to that song (now I’m showing my age) but it is so true. Eye to eye contact is powerful in both social and business environments. In social gatherings like New Year’s Eve most people will walk into the room and scout it out to see who is there and who they want to talk to or get to know better.
In my experience, females tend to be really good at this because they use stealth, undercover and flirtatious techniques. One flirtatious technique many men and women will have witnessed is what I call the ‘Look, Smile, Look Away’ method or the LSLA. This is where they will allow the person to catch them looking; they will smile and will then look away quickly. This is the first step to engaging in non-verbal communication and it should be fun! It’s all about the ‘chase’ in this case!
In a business-networking situation however, you will want to revise this technique to what I will call the ‘Look, Smile, Engage’ method. You will still enter a room and scout it out to see who is there and whom you want and need to speak to. However, once you have been caught ‘looking’ you will smile and then make your way over to them to engage in verbal communication. The eye contact opens the door for you to pitch your business or to find out more about what they are involved with. Sounds so clinical when put this way! It is all about the ‘catch’ in this case!
So, think about your Eye to Eye Contact in the next few days – at that New Year’s Eve party think about the LSLA technique – when you get back to work remember to change your Eye to Eye contact to the LSE method or you may get more than you bargained for!
Check out Teresa’s Workshops coming up and see if you can improve your Eye to Eye contact plus so much more!
Tags: eye contact, networking, public speaking, socializing, workshops
