Body Language
By pre-empting words with tough body
language actions you extend aggressive support to your communication delivery.
This orients the recipient the way you want before the meaning of the words
spoken even kicks in. It can also support the emphasis of the words giving them
life.
Body language can also extend beyond words
to a complex interplay of styles and effects. Like a fireworks show, it has
different colours, sounds and inferences. Some fireworks are loud and noisy.
Others are soft. Some are very busy. Others are quick. In the same way body
language is an art form, which involves your facial expressions, the use of
hands, the torso, etc.
The use of body language requires what I
call image associative communication. This incorporates the larger than life
picture you want to project rather than the dry words that you speak. Used
effectively, it can be an invaluable negotiating tool to convince people of your
meanings.
Research has shown that 55% of communication
is a direct result of body language or human physiology. This encompasses a
diverse set of human expression factors. These being facial expressions, the
gestures, the quality and type of movement of the person who is doing the
communicating. Thus body language is far more relevant than actual words which
only account for 45% of communication, 38% being made up of the tone of the
voice.
Body language and the tonal modulations of
your voice infer the basis of your communication. So, to be an effective
communicator, you must be flexible enough to modify a range of body language and
physiological elements. Some of these are your breathing pattern, posture,
gestures, hand movements, accentuation's, attention, etc. We must use our bodies
in hundreds of different ways.
These elements collectively tend to work on
the listener's subconscious and either help to put him or her at ease or do not.
Thus it is important to pay a great deal of attention to those elements which
establish a rapport with the other person. From this rapport we create trust and
mutual respect.
The business language of success is premised
on the fact that people who are successful have to do business with their peers.
Therefore, they would prefer to be talking on the same wavelength. Ideally the
person should also be working at the same speed. The reason being that this
competitor may, in future, become a strategic partner and vice versa.
Thus, such a scenario creates a limiting
protocol, a success language of social and commercial norms. It is predicated on
assisting fellow workers/entrepreneurs to make higher profits, while of course
helping yourself. Thus as an aspiring success driven manager you must ‘learn it,
live it, and if necessary buy into it'.
