Breathe
By Bárbara Tijerina
"Nothing reveals a person's character as much as their voice," Benjamin Disreali former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
It is election time and all candidates are trying to show their best faces, to convince and persuade. For 90 days we are bombarded with their photos, their spots, their recordings in which several advisors take care of all the details so that we choose them.
More than 80% of our communication is non-verbal. We take great care with the narrative in speeches or in the CV (curriculum vitae) we choose carefully each word, when in the face to face meeting we decide in seconds if we consider that we can trust that person; it is the smile, the look, the hands, the tone of voice, etcetera, what makes us decide if we can establish a relationship with him/her or not.
Few people are really clear about the concrete proposals of any candidate, but at the end of a debate the questions that arise are: How did you see it? How did you hear it?
Confident, nervous, committed, defeated. And we see all these qualities in her non-verbal language.
We notice in their hands, in their posture, in their tone of voice how they feel if they are confident or not, what is the emotion behind each gesture.
We are looking for something more authentic in the debates, something less rehearsed and practiced, we really want to know what moves them, what excites them and what they feel committed to.
You don't need to be an expert in nonverbal language to realize when what they say and what they show don't match. It is easy to detect when with words they say: I am very happy and in the body they show reluctance and disappointment.
In the first CDMX 2024 debate, the staging was a big table like the one we see in several television programs of political analysis. That format is not very nice because the table covers them, they hide hands and feet under the table and we lose information.
At first I was struck by the amount of material they brought, particularly Santiago Taboada. It seemed unnecessary to me as it only hindered him. Candidate Salomón Chertorivski showed that he had mastered the subject, particularly health and education. Only in an instant, he took out some popcorn to show how he was being left as a spectator, and made fun of himself. Then he contradicted himself because he said: we must be serious.
Clara Brugada, was rocking in her chair, like a child who cannot sit still, serenity is a quality we look for today in leadership positions. She was failing to make good eye contact with the camera as she was also reading. I wish she had taken advantage of her time to talk about her projects, but several times she shielded herself in her party and flattered presidential candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, showing obeisance and submission. While he said that after the pandemic, this city has grown a lot, he did so with his head down and without eye contact. You can lie with words, but never with the body.
I am struck by the lack of strength and consistency in the candidate's voice, which gives her an image of weakness and makes it a challenge to listen to her.
Santiago Taboada showed knowledge of the problems, the projects and handling of numbers, the problem is that when he reads, as Clara did, they lower their heads, they dwarf and their voice loses strength and clarity. These two candidates spent a good part of their participations attacking each other.
Taboada's best moment was when he decided to take advantage of the four seconds he was given and facing the camera he said:
"Don't worry, they're leaving, we're going to beat them" and he did so with a big smile. That's how hope is contagious.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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