A genuine smile is your contribution in the moment

Smiles are infectious. But the smile cannot be faked or forced. You can try to fake a smile, but people can tell when you don’t mean it. In fact, some studies show that if you give an insincere smile, audiences may perceive you as untrustworthy or hypocritical. Martin Seligman, author of Authentic Happiness says there are essentially two types of smiles: the “Duchenne smile” and the “Pan American.”

A genuine smile
The Duchenne smile is the genuine smile, characterized by movement of the muscles around the mouth and also the eyes. You can tell a real smile by how the skin around the eyes wrinkles up a bit. The Pan American smile is the “fake” smile and involves voluntary movement around the mouth only. This is the polite smile you may see from someone in the service industry who is doing their best but not having a great day.  (Note: take this very interesting test on the BBC website. Can you spot the fake smiles?)

"I love smiles. That is a fact. How to develop smiles? There are a variety of smiles. Some smiles are sarcastic. Some smiles are artificial-diplomatic smiles. These smiles do not produce satisfaction, but rather fear or suspicion. But a genuine smile gives us hope, freshness. If we want a genuine smile, then first we must produce the basis for a smile to come."     — Dalai Lama

We all can recognize an insincere smile. But a presenter or entertainer who actually looks like she is happy to be there—because she really is—is well on her way to engaging her audience naturally. A genuine smile shows that we are happy to be there. And since people in our audience can feel what we feel, why wouldn’t we want them to feel at ease?

The hidden power of smiling
I really enjoyed this short TED talk below from Ron Gutman on the hidden power of smiling. The content is interesting and it's a pretty good example of using Prezi for a live talk.

        "A smile results from a part of ourselves enjoying a gift of nature."
                                                     — Philip Toshio Sudo, Guitar Zen


The slide above was featured in my latest Japanese book and video called シンプルプレゼン. The photo is of Miwa Yoshida and Masa Nakamura from the legendary Japanese pop group Dreams Come True. I use them because I have never seen anyone display more infectious and genuine smiles on stage than these two.

Tune in Saturday (May 21) for live coverage of TEDxTokyo, 2011
The third annual TEDxTokyo event will be held this Saturday and the whole thing will be streamed live on the internet. Go here on Saturday AM (Japan time) to get the links for watching in English or Japanese. If you would like to see my talk, I will begin my 12-minute presentation around 9:25AM or so. I'll put my slides up on Slideshare later; if you want to get a sneak peek of the look and feel of the slides, I put a pic of the deck here. Information on the speakers and a schedule is located here in English and 日本語.

Update:
You can watch my 12-minute bamboo presentation on YouTube by going here for options to listen in English or with Japanese translation. If you want to see a PDF of the slides used in the talk, that is available here on Slideshare.net. To see a list of all the TEDxTokyo 2011 talks go here (Eng) and here (日本語).


Above. Speaking at TEDxTokyo last Saturday at 9:20 in the morning. Click image to go directly to the English version on Youtube.

Comments

[Todd Fong]

Thanks for the great reminder, Garr. Your reference to Dreams Come True really hit home because I realize what a powerful, positive force Miwa Yoshida is as a performer and much of that power comes from her authentic joy in performing.

[minna]

In Islam, smile is an alms..its like when we smile to others we encourage and give bless to them..

[Sureshkumarnatarajan7]

i hear that. my approach is similar, insofar as i see peace of mind as the goal. i've come to accept that peace of mind can come from accepting the turbulent times as natural, having value, giving me something to learn by/from, and hopefully adding to my appreciation of the majority of life, which is beautiful, if one knows how to look at it
for more info pls visit here:
http://thegloriousworldcup.com/index.php?title=Main_Page/
http://reggiocollab.org/index.php?title=Main_Page/

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I know about this country.

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Because in space by destiny, we meet, because we have become a sincere, lie between screen friend, a blessing, a kind of worry, is our constant theme in space to stay, you belong to me the mind's footprints, stay in your room, that is from the sincere regards, I wish you a happy, happy every day!!

[Ukraine Women]

I am always looking for high quality content and information, I am happy to find it. Thanks

[Transport marfa]

Great post. i am you reader since now :)

[Fred E. Miller]

Garr:

In my presentations I refer to a Smile as a Non-Physical Hug. When you give one, you get one right back.

This is why I picked www.Smiletrain.org to receive a portion of all my Book Sales.

Thanks for the Post.

[seo]

Because in space by destiny, we meet, because we have become a sincere, lie between screen friend, a blessing, a kind of worry, is our constant theme in space to stay, you belong to me the mind's footprints, stay in your room, that is from the sincere regards, I wish you a happy, happy every day..

[Swissgear Laptop Backpack]

I am not a Muslim, but believe everyone should be allowed to be themselves. Smiling is one of the best natural medicines we have as humans.

Great post BTW.

[Cheap Android Tablet]

Thank you for this beautiful post, I will remember to smile from now on.

[Mark]

Nice post. Smiling, especially during your speech really helps you and your audience. I tend to be more relaxed when i smile more while speaking.

[Tabata timer]

Im from Finland and my opinion is that people in my country do not smile enough. I think the foreigners will get a negative image from us because of the lack of smiling.

[Nick]

Dale Carnegie, Guy Kawasaki, and other experts in the art of getting people to like you all talk about smiling. But the need to have that concept repeated so often shows what trouble we have with doing it. It seems so simple, too. The trick, I think, is keeping it in the forefront of your mind until it's a habit. I've been working on this lately. Thanks for the reminder, Garr! :^)

[John Zimmer]

It's been said that a smile is the shortest distance between two people. It is a simple, powerful and appreciated by audiences. Unfortunately, too many speakers fail to avail themselves of this most human of actions. Thanks for the post, Garr.

John
http://mannerofspeaking.org

[Tee Shirt Dolce & Gabbana]

Dank u voor sharing.maybe zul je net als de MBT NEDERLAND.Have een mooie dag!

[Bölmeduvar]

Thank you for this beautiful post, I will remember to smile from now on.Thanks for the post, Garr.

[Bölmeduvar]

Nice post.

[dekorasyon]

Thank you for this beautiful post,

[panjurtamiri]

Great post. i am you reader since now :)

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This really is an awesome post, I'm happy I recently found. I have been trying to find guest writers for my blog so if you ever decide that's something you are interested in please feel free to contact me. I will be back to look at out more of your articles later!

[Esko, Finland]

Garr, please have comment on readability of the USDA new "food pyramid" - a colorful icon called MyPlate.

http://blogs.forbes.com/carminegallo/2011/06/02/usda-healthy-made-simple/

It is awful. How can pie chart to be so difficult to draw right?

[Kopfschmerzen Hilfe]

Very interesting post.
Thank you

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Nice post! Very comprehensive and provides a ton of information.Thanks!!

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The happiest of people don’t necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.

[corporate training programs]

All I know that smile can it be fake or by force. Actually, I really don’t know that there are types of smile called Duchenne and Pan American. Thank you for this post that you share your knowledge.

[seo]

thank you very muchs

[Horse Medications]

People can't forget to smile whether it is can’t be fake or by force. Thank you for posting this nice article.