Make your first ten seconds do the talking without saying a word

You step into the conference room with your coffee still too hot to sip. Yesterday you rushed in, flashed a quick grin at everyone, and felt invisible all meeting. Today you pause in the doorway for a breath. Shoulders back. Head up. You notice Mara’s sparkly notebook, Jamal’s focused eyes, and the quiet guy near the window. Then the smile arrives, slow and warm, folding into your eyes as you take the first steps inside.

When you greet the client, you keep your gaze through the last word of her sentence, then you look away like you’re reluctant to. It feels different from staring. It feels like listening. You skip the nervous face touches and keep your hands on your notebook. Your knee wants to bounce, but you let the impulse pass. In a micro‑anecdote from last week, a manager said five words to a teammate—“You look sure of yourself”—after the teammate simply stood taller. Small signals land.

Halfway through, someone challenges a timeline. Your instinct is to blink hard and fiddle with your pen. Instead you limit the fidget and answer calmly. The room softens toward you. On your walk back to your desk, your phone buzzes and you almost spill the coffee. You catch it, smile, and think, I might be wrong, but that whole meeting turned on the first ten seconds. People picked up on a story about you before you spoke a word.

Behind the scenes, this is impression formation and thin‑slice judgment. Research shows people form quick, lasting impressions from posture, facial affect, and eye behavior. A delayed, genuine smile signals selective warmth, sticky eye contact signals attention and respect, and a still body under pressure signals credibility. Your brain may protest, but your body already cast your vote. Practice writes a new script.

At your next doorway, lift your posture like a bit is pulling your head up, then pause and let a smile bloom instead of snapping it on. Hold eye contact through the other person’s full sentence, and only then let your gaze drift as if connected with warm taffy. When stakes rise, notice the itch to fidget and choose stillness for ten seconds; the urge will pass and your credibility will rise. Tonight, do five doorway reps at home and one mirror rep of the flooding smile so it’s there tomorrow when you need it. Give it a try tonight.