There was a study done a few years back that asked audiences what they looked for in a speaker.  What came up at the top of the list was trust and credibility.  Over the years, I’ve pondered how best to inculcate those good feelings in the minds of audience members, and studied both good and bad speakers with these ideas in mind.  Here’s what I’ve come up with.

Both trust and credibility have a verbal (content) and a non-verbal (body language) component.  Credibility is established by showing audiences that you understand their problems.  Trust comes from showing audiences how to solve them. 

In non-verbal terms, trust is built up with physical openness to the audience.  The opposite body language – all the forms of closed behavior that speakers are prone to exhibit – creates the inverse feeling, distrust.  I’ve seen that happen over and over again with even experienced speakers who wrestle with the urge to protect themselves from the gaze of hundreds of pairs of eyes – by closing off their body language, even if only partially. 

Credibility is created with authoritative body language and with an authoritative voice.  I’ll have more to say about each of these in future blogs.