Nonverbal Communication Skills
Understanding messages often involves more than
merely listening to spoken words.
Nonverbal cues, in fact, can speak louder than words.
These cues include eye contact, facial expression,
body movements, time, space, territory, and appearance.
What Is Nonverbal
Communication?
Nonverbal communication includes all unwritten and
unspoken messages, whether intended or not. These
silent signals have a strong effect on receivers.
Your Body Sends Silent Messages
Eye Contact.
◦ The eyes have been called the windows to the soul.
Facial Expression.
◦ The expression on a person’s face can be almost as revealing
of emotion as the eyes. Experts estimate that the human face
can display over 250,000 expressions.
Posture and Gestures.
◦A person’s posture can convey anything from high status and
self-confidence to shyness and submissiveness. Leaning
toward a speaker suggests attentiveness and interest;
pulling away or shrinking back denotes fear, distrust, anxiety,
or disgust.
◦Similarly, gestures can communicate entire thoughts via
simple movements. However, the meanings of some of
these movements differ in other cultures.
The gesture is said to be the movement of a part of the body, mainly
a hand or the head, to convey an idea or meaning. Posture is said to
be the way someone sits or stand. Posture can display confidence
level, mood swings, and attitude.
Nonverbal Communication
Time, space, and territory send silent messages.
 Time (punctuality and structure)
 Space (arrangement of objects)
 Territory (privacy zones)
Time.
How we structure and use time tells observers about our
personalities and attitudes.
Space.
How we order the space around us tells something about
ourselves and our objectives. Generally, the more formal the arrangement,
the more formal and closed the communication style. A team leader who
arranges chairs informally in a circle rather than in straight rows conveys her
desire for a more open exchange of ideas.
Territory
Territory
Nonverbal Communication
Appearance Sends Silent Messages
Much like the personal appearance of an individual, the physical
appearance of a business document transmits immediate and
important nonverbal messages.
Eye Appeal of Business Documents.
The way an e-mail, letter, memo, or report looks can have either a
positive or a negative effect on the receiver. Sloppy e-mails send a
nonverbal message that you do not care about the receiver.
Continue…
Personal Appearance.
The way you look—your clothing, grooming, and posture—
telegraphs an instant nonverbal message about you. Based on
what they see, viewers make quick judgments about your
status, credibility, personality, and potential.
Building Strong Nonverbal Skills
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Establish and maintain eye contact.
Use posture to show interest.
Improve your decoding skills.
Probe for more information.
Avoid assigning nonverbal
meanings out of context.
Building Strong Nonverbal Skills
 Associate with people
from diverse cultures.
 Appreciate the power of
appearance.
 Observe yourself on video.
 Enlist friends and family.
The Social Communication Model
Social media are transforming the practice of business
communication and changing the nature of the relationships
between companies and their stakeholders.
Traditional business communication can be thought of as having
a “publishing” mindset, in which a company produces carefully
scripted messages and distributes them to an audience that has
few options for responding to the company or interacting with
one another.
In contrast, the social model uses social media tools to create an
interactive and participatory environment in which all parties
have a chance to join the conversation.
The Rise of Mobile as a Communication
Platform
Mobile devices are rapidly taking over as the primary
communication platform for many business professionals.
Whether it’s emailing, social networking, watching videos,
or doing research, the percentage of communication and
media consumption performed on mobile devices continues
to grow.
Globally, more than 80 percent of Internet users access the
web with a mobile device at least some of the time.
The challenges and opportunities of mobile
communication in business
• The challenges of mobile communications in business
include
the need for websites to be mobile friendly,
the difficulty of creating and consuming content on small screens
and keyboards,
the potential for always-on connectivity to blur the lines between
personal and professional time,
the difficulty of getting and keeping the attention of multitasking
audiences, and
a variety of security and privacy concerns.