Two Way's You're Misreading A Jurors Body Language
Transcription
Sari de la Motte here, I specialize in helping attorneys communicate with jurors. In today's video we're going to talk about the top two ways you are misreading a juror's body language.
I teach my clients about two basic nonverbal patterns. The first is called authoritative body language and voice pattern. That's where if standing, weight is over both feet. If seated like I am now, the weight is over both sit bones. If I'm gesturing, the palms are going to go down. Head is still. Voice is very flat and curls down.
In a juror, it might look something like this: very stiff body language.
Approachable body language, on the other hand, is where if standing, the weight is over to one side. They might be leaning, if seated, forward. If gesturing, the palms might turn up, the head is tilted, and we tend to have a more rolling voice pattern that curls up.
In a juror, that might look something like this where they're nodding as they're listening to you.
Here's the problem. We tend to look at the (authoritative) juror as someone who does not like us, and we tend to look at the (approachable) juror as someone who's just loving everything that we're saying. Big mistake. Here's what you have to understand: authoritative nonverbals just communicate issue. "Get to the point." This type of juror doesn't necessarily need to like you. As long as they respect you, you're fine.
The approachable juror, on the other hand, those nonverbals communicate relationship. They're interested in the human part, both of the plaintiff or you as the attorney. Where we get into trouble is that we think that this person likes us a lot, when that may not be the case. People who tend to the approachable nonverbals tend to have both public behavior and private behavior. Meaning, they may be doing this (nodding, leaning forward, etc.) in public because a relationship-oriented person values politeness, but they may go home and say to their spouse, "You wouldn't believe this idiot I watched in trial today." So, we don't want to read into either pattern. What we want to do is make sure that we understand what each of these jurors need.
It reminds me of a story by Randy Kinnard, Inner Circle member in Tennessee, who's allowed me to tell this story, and I've told it many times. He was in trial and had a juror that was exhibiting, in his words, "negative body language." This juror was holding his arms like this (crossed arms) and looking down and had a furrowed brow...boy, Randy became obsessed with this juror. He was worried and nervous about this juror.
Throughout the four weeks of trial, he'd go home and think about this juror. He'd eat dinner and think about this juror. He'd go to bed and have nightmares about this juror. He'd wake up and eat breakfast and think about this juror. When verdict day came, the jury voted 11 against Randy, and one for him. He lost. After the verdict was read, he walked down the hallway and who do you think he bumps into? The juror.
The juror comes right up to Randy, puts his finger in his face, and says, "I just want you to know that I was the only one for you back there." Randy was stunned. He told me, "Whoa! That'll teach me to try to read a juror's body language!"
So, how do we deal with this? First: don't try to read a juror's body language. I know that must seem very odd coming from a nonverbal communications consultant, but attempting to do this just gets us into all sorts of trouble. What we need to do instead is recognize that the authoritative juror wants you to get to the issue and the approachable juror wants to see the human side and you need to be able to access both.
Next, be both authoritative and approachable. You can communicate that you know what you're talking about and that you're a leader through authoritative nonverbals, but you must also communicate that you're human and a real person. That gets communicated through approachable nonverbals. When you're able to do both, that's when you're more likely to get that respect from that issue-oriented juror and get that love and admiration from that relationship-oriented juror.
I teach my clients about two basic nonverbal patterns. The first is called authoritative body language and voice pattern. That's where if standing, weight is over both feet. If seated like I am now, the weight is over both sit bones. If I'm gesturing, the palms are going to go down. Head is still. Voice is very flat and curls down.
In a juror, it might look something like this: very stiff body language.
Approachable body language, on the other hand, is where if standing, the weight is over to one side. They might be leaning, if seated, forward. If gesturing, the palms might turn up, the head is tilted, and we tend to have a more rolling voice pattern that curls up.
In a juror, that might look something like this where they're nodding as they're listening to you.
Here's the problem. We tend to look at the (authoritative) juror as someone who does not like us, and we tend to look at the (approachable) juror as someone who's just loving everything that we're saying. Big mistake. Here's what you have to understand: authoritative nonverbals just communicate issue. "Get to the point." This type of juror doesn't necessarily need to like you. As long as they respect you, you're fine.
The approachable juror, on the other hand, those nonverbals communicate relationship. They're interested in the human part, both of the plaintiff or you as the attorney. Where we get into trouble is that we think that this person likes us a lot, when that may not be the case. People who tend to the approachable nonverbals tend to have both public behavior and private behavior. Meaning, they may be doing this (nodding, leaning forward, etc.) in public because a relationship-oriented person values politeness, but they may go home and say to their spouse, "You wouldn't believe this idiot I watched in trial today." So, we don't want to read into either pattern. What we want to do is make sure that we understand what each of these jurors need.
It reminds me of a story by Randy Kinnard, Inner Circle member in Tennessee, who's allowed me to tell this story, and I've told it many times. He was in trial and had a juror that was exhibiting, in his words, "negative body language." This juror was holding his arms like this (crossed arms) and looking down and had a furrowed brow...boy, Randy became obsessed with this juror. He was worried and nervous about this juror.
Throughout the four weeks of trial, he'd go home and think about this juror. He'd eat dinner and think about this juror. He'd go to bed and have nightmares about this juror. He'd wake up and eat breakfast and think about this juror. When verdict day came, the jury voted 11 against Randy, and one for him. He lost. After the verdict was read, he walked down the hallway and who do you think he bumps into? The juror.
The juror comes right up to Randy, puts his finger in his face, and says, "I just want you to know that I was the only one for you back there." Randy was stunned. He told me, "Whoa! That'll teach me to try to read a juror's body language!"
So, how do we deal with this? First: don't try to read a juror's body language. I know that must seem very odd coming from a nonverbal communications consultant, but attempting to do this just gets us into all sorts of trouble. What we need to do instead is recognize that the authoritative juror wants you to get to the issue and the approachable juror wants to see the human side and you need to be able to access both.
Next, be both authoritative and approachable. You can communicate that you know what you're talking about and that you're a leader through authoritative nonverbals, but you must also communicate that you're human and a real person. That gets communicated through approachable nonverbals. When you're able to do both, that's when you're more likely to get that respect from that issue-oriented juror and get that love and admiration from that relationship-oriented juror.