01-06-2012, 01:09 PM
Use Body Language to Enhance your Communication Skills
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We all communicate with one another through how we look as well as what we say and how we sound. In fact what our bodies are doing whilst we are talking (ie our body language) can often play a much greater part in our communication than we might think.
In a recent survey by CNN, over 85% of those surveyed thought that body language was either a very important or absolutely crucial factor to bare in mind when doing business.
Use your body language well and it can really enhance your message and demonstrate that you've got effective communication skills. But use it badly and it can have the opposite effect.
Eye contact - to improve communication skills
Eye contact helps create better interaction and rapport with your listeners.
Aim for 3 seconds per person when speaking to a group of people.
Sharing your eye contact around the group helps to free up your head and neck movements.
Avoid staring – especially when speaking on a 1-2-1 basis
Always try to look at your listener at the end of a sentence to reinforce the message in that sentence.
Gesture - to improve communication
Gestures can help give your voice extra energy and confidence
Try to gesture on some key words – this gives the words greater emphasis
Be aware of an denial gestures you may use – (eg touching the face, rubbing the nose, scratching the head, gripping an arm with the other hand or fiddling with clothes, hair or pens)
Presence - to enhance communication
Adopt your ‘Anchor Position’ when you want to keep your body language calm and controlled.
When sitting, keep the small of the back into the back of the chair. This will help support your posture and maintain energy and a confident style.
Aim to keep your body language open and relaxed at all times. Your physical attitude can affect your psychological attitude.
Movement and Space - to enhance your communication skills
Be sensitive to other people’s space and try not to intrude into it.
To achieve rapport when speaking to others try to match levels – eg either both sitting or standing with the body angled in towards the other person
Understanding body language
The technique of "reading" people is used frequently. For example, the idea of mirroring body language to put people at ease is commonly used in interviews. Body language can show feelings to other people, which works in return for other people. People who show their body language to you can reveal their feelings and meanings. Mirroring the body language of someone else indicates that they are understood.[citation needed] It is important to note that some indicators of emotion (e.g. smiling/laughing when happy, frowning/crying when sad) are largely universal;[citation needed],[4] however in the 1990s Paul Ekman expanded his list of basic emotions, including a range of positive and negative emotions, not all of which are encoded in facial muscles.[13] The newly included emotions are:
Physical expression
Physical expressions like waving, pointing, touching and slouching are all forms of nonverbal communication. The study of body movement and expression is known as kinesics. Humans move their bodies when communicating because, as research has shown[citation needed], it helps "ease the mental effort when communication is difficult." Physical expressions reveal many things about the person using them. For example, gestures can emphasize a point or relay a message, posture can reveal boredom or great interest, and touch can convey encouragement or caution.[5]