Your face really matters when you’re doing an interview. If you avert your eyes or frown, you’re telegraphing something much more powerful than the words you say. But you’re not leading a company because you wanted to be an actor. So what do you do?
First, gather data. As painful as it is, watch yourself. With two years of remote work you’ve got tons of videos of yourself talking, listening, answering questions. What do you do with your face? Ask your PR person, your CMO, your head of sales for help. They’ve all either winced or been delighted by the way you use your face in meetings. They’ll tell you.
Second, think back to how you felt/what you were thinking during those times your face looked funny. Were you thinking really hard? Surprised? Irritated? When you identify which states correlate to which facial expressions, you can train yourself. For example: if, when you need to think, you look down and to the right, you can tell people you do that. When you verbalize it you become more aware and can begin to change. You can then practice raising your head to make eye contact when you catch yourself shifting your eyes downwards.
It takes awareness and disciplined practice, but you can train your face!
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