Martin Brooks
Senior leaders are judged on how they show up long before anyone weighs what they say. In a room of equally credentialed peers, the person who appears composed, deliberate, and authoritative shapes the decision. Most leaders have never been taught what their face, hands, and posture are doing while they speak.
Martin Brooks is a body language specialist and communications coach who teaches senior leaders how to read and use nonverbal signals to land their message with greater credibility.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Martin Brooks
- He has taught body language to leaders at Henley Business School, London Business School and Judge Business School, giving the content a teaching-grade structure that most communication coaches lack.
- His sales-leadership background means the work lands with commercial audiences who tend to dismiss communication coaching as soft skills.
- His Body Language Decoder gives delegates a reference artefact that travels back into the business after the session, not just a one-day boost.
- Broadcasters book him to analyse political and corporate figures live on air (BBC2, LBC, Discovery, The Times), which is a useful proxy for how quickly he can read a room.
- Clients including IBM, PwC, KPMG, Procter & Gamble and the Financial Times have used him for executive coaching, pitch preparation, and leadership development.
Biography highlights
- Author of Body Language Decoder (Laurence King / Hachette, 2021).
- Teaches “Body Language for Leaders” at Henley Business School.
- Course Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing since 2008.
- Founder of his communications consultancy in 2002, after a career in sales and sales leadership.
- Media commentator on body language for BBC Radio, LBC, BBC2 election coverage, Discovery Channel and The Times.
- Clients include IBM, PwC, KPMG, Procter & Gamble and the Financial Times.
Biography
Most leaders prepare what they will say in a high-stakes meeting and almost nothing about how they will appear while saying it. The asymmetry shows. Boards, investors and senior peers form judgements on credibility within seconds, and the data they use is mostly nonverbal. Martin Brooks works in that gap.
He has run his own communication consultancy since 2002, after a career in sales and sales leadership where the cost of looking uncertain in front of a buyer was immediate and personal. That commercial origin shapes how he teaches. The work is not theatre training and not motivational, it is operator instruction on what hands, eyes, voice, and posture are doing while a leader argues a point.
The teaching has institutional weight behind it. Brooks delivers “Body Language for Leaders” at Henley Business School and has taught at London Business School and Judge Business School. He has been a Course Director at the Chartered Institute of Marketing since 2008. His Body Language Decoder, published in 2021 by Laurence King, sits as a 50-card field reference that delegates use after the session.
Broadcasters use him as the in-studio analyst for politicians and corporate leaders under pressure. He provided live analysis on Discovery Channel of Mark Zuckerberg’s US Senate testimony, has covered UK general elections on BBC2, and contributes to BBC Radio, LBC and The Times. For a senior buyer, that body of live, on-record reading is the best available evidence that what he teaches in the room actually works under fire.
Key speaking topics
- Body language for senior leaders
- Executive presence and credibility on stage
- Nonverbal communication in high-stakes meetings
- Pitch and presentation coaching
- Reading political and business figures in real time
Ideal for
- Executive committees and senior leadership teams preparing for investor, board or town-hall communication
- CEOs and C-suite leaders stepping into more public-facing roles
- Sales leadership and pitch teams running competitive bids
- Leadership development and high-potential programmes
Audience outcomes
- A vocabulary for what their own body is signalling while they speak
- The ability to read confidence, hesitation and disagreement in a room before words confirm it
- Concrete adjustments to posture, gesture and eye contact that they can use the same week
- A reference artefact (the Body Language Decoder cards) for ongoing use post-session
- Sharper judgement on how political and corporate figures are performing under pressure
Talks
A keynote that shows leaders how to use body language to convince, influence and motivate the audiences they are paid to lead.
Key takeaways:
- The specific nonverbal signals that build, and destroy, perceived credibility in a senior room
- How to read a board, a panel or a customer in real time and adjust mid-conversation
- Practical changes to posture, gesture and gaze that improve how a leader is received within a single meeting