Do you know of the importance of non verbal communication skills? These "silent messengers" speak volume, so to speak. Now, let's find out little more about them:
1. What is nonverbal communication?
Nonverbal communication is another aspect of communicating with a person without the use of speech or words. You can call it wordless signals.
2. What is the percentage of non verbal communication?
Research shows that the majority of our communication is in fact nonverbal. About 78 % of communication is non verbal.
Only a small percentage comes from the actual words you say. So says the expression: "Action speaks louder than words."
3. Types of nonverbal communication
Examples of nonverbal communication which include:
i) Eye Movement Or Oculesics:
As they say your eyes are the windows of your soul.
3. Types of nonverbal communication
Examples of nonverbal communication which include:
i) Eye Movement Or Oculesics:
As they say your eyes are the windows of your soul.
They can give reveal a lot about what the person is thinking or feeling.
When one really flashes a genuine smile, you can see the sincerity glowing in one's eyes. A blank stare indicates either boredom or feeling uninterested.
Generally when a person is honest, he or she dares to look you straight in the eye. Otherwise the person will either keeps looking away or continuously blinking nervously to avoid eye contact.
ii) Haptics:
Haptics is the study of touching in nonverbal communication.
When we say touching, we mean handshakes, holding hands, shoulder patting, kissing, "high-five", brushing arm, gentle squeeze of hands or arms, brushing hair with one's fingers, etc.
All these involuntary actions are sending out some kind of silent messages from the person.
iii) Proxemics:
The relation to physical space in interpersonal interaction.
The distance between during a conversation, a meeting or other kind of shared activity.
According to Edward T. Hall, the man behind the study of proxemics, the physical distance between two people can be correlated to the relationship they share be it personal or social.
iv) Vocalis or Paralinguistic
This refers to vocal aspect of communication which includes the tone of voice, loudness, inflection, and pitch.
Even vocally produced noises like laughter, shout of joy, fear, pain, or those vocal expressions of disgust (urg!), triumph (yipee!), surprise (huh?) etc.
This form of nonverbal communication is important when you are delivering a speech or conducting a presentation.
You can make use of these elements to convey your message more effectively and also adds interest and impact to your talk.
v) Body Language and Postures
This is one of the most popular nonverbal communication which most people know.
The way you stand, walk, sit says a lot about you. Your postures and other body language can give you away, so to speak.
Never underestimate the power of body language and your posture.
They speak volume, even if you don't move an inch, standing with your arms crossing or sitting down with leg crossing.
vi) Facial Expressions
Facial expressions another one of those better known form of nonverbal communication. Maybe because facial expressions are the most obvious.
It could be a cheerful smile, a silly grin or a frown.
As they say, it is all written on your face.
vii) Gestures
This is another distinct form of nonverbal communication.
We use them most of the time without even aware their importance aspect in our daily verbal communication.
Gestures are the use of movements or signals to convey a message to another person. For instance hand waving, finger pointing, head nodding, etc.
vii) Appearance or Dressing
Even our mode of dressing and our appearance are a form of nonverbal communication.
That's why you hear the popular phrase "first appearance counts.
People automatically judge you before you by your dressing or your appearance, even before you utter a word.
4. Importance of nonverbal communication skills.
Non-verbal communication is important to both face-to-face situations and mediated communication.
Mediated communication is where we communicate to another person via some form or medium like telephone, internet, etc.
Even though we cannot see the other person, we will interpret through his/her voice or what we called para-linguistic as mentioned above.
The momentary silent pause is a powerful nonverbal communication.
As you know that even when we talk or verbal communication is usually accompanied by some form of nonverbal communication.
Majority of us are unaware that we are continuously sending out and receiving wordless signals or nonverbal communication when we interact with people.
The tone of our voice, hand gestures, facial expressions, eye movement, body posture, how close we position ourselves to the other person, and the way we sit or stand.
People judge and interpret all these unspoken signals.
The way you listen, your eye contact, the look on your face, body movement can tell the other person whether or not you are interested or care to listen.
It is important because we can actually read people's genuine emotion or feeling.
If your nonverbal communication elements complement your spoken words, it helps to built trust and transparency between the speaker and the listener.
Among many other important factors of nonverbal communication is it helps to confirm or make sure the message is correctly and clearly conveyed to the recipient.
For instance you show two fingers to indicate that you mean two items or number two. Nonverbal communication can enhance and help to deliver a verbal message with more imapct.
For example, a gentle pat on a person's shoulder to accompany a praise or a gentle squeeze on someone's hand or shoulder to reassure the person that everything is fine and nothing to worry about.
5. Which is more powerful verbal or non verbal communication?
Definitely the latter. As you have already known that more than seventy per cent of our communication comes nonverbal communication.
People will listen to your spoken words, but ultimately it is based on their perceptions and evaluation from your unspoken message.
6. Nonverbal communication in the workplace
As we all know communication is crucial in the workplace. Besides your normal verbal communication with your employer, working mates and clients, those non-spoken signals are the ones which you should be fully aware and cautious about.
They judge you by your silent signals, just as you do to them.
It could be the way you speak, your sense of dressing, your body posture and even your punctuality.
All these say say a lot about your attitude and feeling.
7. Why is it important to effective public speaking?
Nonverbal communication for public speaking means everything you communicate to your audience other than from the words you say.
When speaking in front of your audience, your nonverbal communication signals are the ones which are largely perceived by them.
Only a small fraction comes from your content.
Your speaking voice, how you say it plus all the other nonverbal communication elements as explained above, are the key to the success of your speech or presentation.
Without doubt, your content and practice are important, but when you are speaking in front of an audience, they listen to your voice and watch you and your movements.
That's when your nonverbal communication skills come into play.
It can be your grooming, your voice intonation, body posture, the way you look at the audience, or your gestures.
All these have an effect on audience perception, persuasion, and retention.
Even the way you stand or the use of the space between you and the audience.
Speak as yourself, you will come out sounding honest, sincere and trustworthy.
Don't try to put on a different persona, you will feel uncomfortable and you sound fake. All these silent signals can be picked up by your audience.
Now you have a better understanding of the importance of nonverbal communication.
Next time around, you should have the advantage over other people.
You know how to connect with others better, express what you really mean, tackle challenging situations.[image]
