Tips for Understanding Nonverbal Communication
- Recognize that people communicate on many levels.
Watch their facial expressions,eye contact, posture, hand and feet
movements, body movement and placement, and appearance and passage as they
walk toward you. Every gesture is communicating something if you listen
with your eyes. Become accustomed to watching nonverbal communication and
your ability to read nonverbal communication will grow with practice.
- If a
person’s words say one thing and their nonverbal communication says
another, you are wont to listen to the nonverbal communication – and that
is usually the correct decision.
- Assess job
candidates based on their nonverbal communication. You can read volumes
from how the applicant sits in the lobby. The nonverbal communication
during an interview should also elucidate the candidate’s skills,
strengths, weaknesses, and concerns for you.
- Probe
nonverbal communication during an investigation or other situation in
which you need facts and believable statements. Again, the nonverbal may
reveal more than the person’s spoken words.
- When leading
a meeting or speaking to a group, recognize that nonverbal cues can tell
you:
when you’ve talked long enoughwhen someone else wants to speak, and
The mood of the crowd and their reaction to your remarks.
- Listen to
them and you’ll be abetter leaderand speaker.
- Understanding nonverbal communication improves
with practice. The first step in practice is to recognize the power of
nonverbal communication. I’m sure you’ve had gut feelings that what a person
said to you was untrue. Listen to your gut. Along with your life experiences,
training, beliefs and all that make up your past, it’s your inner expert on
nonverbal communication.