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Great leaders employ many different skills and qualities to ensure staff feel supported and goals are met, but some can go overlooked. While decision-making, communication and perseverance are often-discussed, the importance of body language can be easily missed.
The way a leader presents themselves to their teams, especially during tense and difficult situations, can have a significant impact on business-wide performance and motivation. To drive a business forward, leaders must present themselves as open, positive and in control.
While it might seem a simple act, a confident smile can be a difference maker in guiding an organisation towards success. In this article, we discuss the practical benefits of a confident smile in the workplace and explore the leadership advantages of subtle smile enhancement.
The Leadership Benefits of a Confident Smile
Smiling provides significant psychological benefits to both the smiler and those around them, helping to alleviate tension, reduce stress and promote clear communication between teams.
When a leader makes a concerted effort to smile, they help to promote a sense of calm and positivity around the workplace, communicating to staff that they’re happy and approachable.
A confident, clear and natural smile can help to communicate:
- Trustworthiness: Studies suggest that an authentic smile builds trust between two parties, this effect has been shown to improve funding outcomes for entrepreneurs.
- Control: An anxious, stressed or concerned leader would not likely be seen smiling around the workplace; a clear smile communicates to staff that things are going well.
- Approachability: Smiling can help to break down barriers and humanise leadership teams, encouraging open, honest and proactive communication between colleagues.
- Positivity: Smiling can be infectious; the more a leader chooses to greet people with a smile, the more staff will too, helping to facilitate a more positive workplace culture.
- Openness: Smiling can encourage open dialogue between professionals, helping to encourage the sharing of novel ideas and practical discussions about improvements.
Practical Ways to Enhance Your Smile as a Leader
While for some leaders, leveraging the benefits of a smile can be as easy as choosing to do so more often in the workplace, others can find the process more challenging. Not everybody is confident in their smile, with imperfections causing some to avoid smiling outright; leaders who suffer from this issue can unintentionally communicate negative emotions to their teams.
Thankfully, there are practical ways to enhance and build confidence in your smile as a leader.
Cosmetic Treatments
The most efficient and reliable way to tackle smile anxiety is to pursue appropriate cosmetic treatments. Modern dental experts, such as Bespoke Smile, offer tailored, minimally invasive veneer treatments that act to repair and perfect patients’ smiles in a few short appointments.
By working with a professional cosmetic dentist, leaders can address the specific issues they have with their smile and pursue treatments built around their needs. In addition, veneers can be more resistant to stains and damage than natural teeth, helping to minimise future issues.
Oral Wellness Routines
In addition to cosmetic treatments, leaders should consider building, refining and enhancing personalised oral wellness routines to build confidence in their smiles. Establishing a daily routine of brushing, flossing and inspecting your teeth is a great way to reduce smile anxiety.
Paying greater attention to your teeth and approaching oral hygiene as a wellness exercise can help leaders to build a healthier relationship with their smiles. The more comfortable you are with your smile, the more confident you’ll be in using it to promote positivity while at work.
Additional Tips for Subtle Smile Enhancement
Effectively leveraging the leadership benefits of smiling is not only about building confidence in your smile, it also involves refinement. A weak or unnatural smile will not provide the same advantages as an authentic one, so it can be wise to refine your incidental facial expressions.
Some impactful techniques for further, subtle smile enhancement include:
- The High Smile Technique: Placing the tip of your tongue behind your front teeth as you smile can help to raise your cheeks, making your smile appear wider and bolder.
- The Inside Out Approach: At times when a smile is important but your feelings don’t match, try recalling a positive memory to help make your smile appear more natural.
- The Flooding Smile Technique: Authentic smiles tend to start small and gradually flood across the face; let your smile grow slowly and deliberately as people approach.
Smiling Leaders Build Productive Teams
There are many elements that define great leadership, and while some are more important than others, sometimes it’s the smaller things that have the greatest impact on the workforce.
Smiling is a universally recognised, physical representation of positivity and confidence; it’s a shorthand way of letting people know they’re respected and valued. By simply choosing to smile more, leaders can empower their teams to think more freely and feel more comfortable sharing innovative ideas, helping to facilitate a much more positive and productive workplace.