Rachel Cossar: Importance of Body Language on the Video Calls

About Rachel Cossar: Rachel Cossar is a leader in the field of nonverbal communication and leadership presence facilitation. As a former nationally ranked athlete and professional ballet dancer, Rachel has a knack of translating unique skills into relatable business skills and competencies. Virtual Sapiens comes as an evolution of Rachel’s combined work as founder of Choreography for Business, a nonverbal communication consulting firm as well as a faculty member with Mobius Executive Leadership and as a leadership presence facilitator with Ariel Group. Rachel has worked with leaders from GE, BCG, Pfizer, Accenture, McKinsey, HBS and more. With the increased dependency of video events as a way to connect and drive impact across organizations, Rachel and her team at Virtual Sapiens are excited to open up a world of access when it comes to one of the most human, and most important skills in business – communication. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Rachel.
 

In this episode, Nancy and Rachel discuss the following:

• Importance of self-reinvention.
• Mistakes that sellers make when they're on video.
• The significance of video call backgrounds.
• The role of the background in the world of remote jobs.
• Non-verbal cues and behaviors that need to be mastered to be an effective communicator.
• Hand gesture etiquette on remote meetings.
• The hacks with lens and seat cushion and their role in making an impression. 
• Rachel’s way to success. 

Key Takeaways: 

• There are transitions and changes around us all the time, whether we realize it or not.
• In the sales process, it's more than making the sale, it's about building the relationship and the rapport.
• The background speaks volumes about choices you've made or not made when you've decided to show up on video with the other person.
• Using hand gestures is a wonderful tool to create a sense of openness, warmth, of invitation.
• The importance of developing a new sense of muscle memory around the way we express ourselves on a screen.

“You know, I think a lot of us felt that or experienced that at some point during the pandemic and there tends to be, of course, fear around change and transition, but sometimes I find people turn to wherever they're going next and forget where they came from.And so, in my experience, the process of reinventing myself, which I've done so many times, is always on the shoulders of these past identities I've had. And I think that concept is really fascinating and powerful." – RACHEL

"Some of the top cues and behaviors that need to be mastered to be an effective communicator are posture, where you're looking, how you use your eyes when you're speaking, and as a listener. The way you use your hands and facial expressions. Those would be some of the top four non-verbal categories to be aware of. And on video, of course, all of them are very present. The one thing I'll say as a caveat on video is the way you frame yourself is critical because if you are going to have your lens positioned such that we can only see the very top of your head, or we can't see your face because you're looking at a different screen and your lens is somewhere else like those are things that are just from the get-go, very detrimental to your presence because you've ruined the human connection that we can take advantage of on video." – RACHEL

 

"Using hand gestures is a wonderful tool to create a sense of openness, warmth, of invitation. It helps people trust you more because they know that you are present with them, that you're not fiddling around with some unseen phone or tablet or... animal or whatever, right? People like to see open-palm hand gestures. It's very soothing. It's very reassuring. So that's number one. On the other end of the spectrum though, some people over-rely on hand gestures to communicate. And when the hand gestures are kind of waving around nonsensically and there's not an intentional connection between the way hand gestures are being used and the words that are being communicated, hand gestures, in that case, can be distracting. So yeah, I mean, it's all about, and then there's like different types of when you're touching your face with your hands, that can signal stress and anxiety and discomfort. And so, the way, what it really comes down to is developing a hand gesture vocabulary that supports the message you're trying to send." – RACHEL

 

Connect with Rachel Cossar:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-cossar
• Virtual Sapiens: https://www.virtualsapiens.co/

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