HUC 108.1252
Date: 10/02/2007
Natalia Kolganova
Nonverbal Communication Assessment
Can you be understood without saying a word? The answer is “Definitely, Yes!”
Communication is not all about the words; it is a complex of verbal and nonverbal tools that
people use to exchange the information. To nonverbal part of communication we can relate
almost everything but words: body movements, gestures, postures, facial expression; even cloth
and hair style can deliver a specific massage. Some of these wordless massages are controllable,
but some of them are being produced by our body unconsciously. Anyway, all of them have a
specific meaning. Probably, in everyday life you might not pay attention to such things as eye
contact, for example, but in professional world you have to be more careful. There is a certain
number of well known rules in nonverbal communication. You might not be familiar with all of
them, but it is necessary to know the basics. Before I started working on this assignment I
considered my nonverbal communication skills to be very poor. However, when I went through
the evaluation sheet step by step, I realized that the situation is better then I thought.
The first behavior I would like to talk about is making an eye contact. I had a great
problem in this sphere during my years in high school. I remember myself standing in front of
the class and staring at the clock hanging on the wall on the opposite side of the class, while
making a presentation. During an oral exam, when there was no clock or other object around that
I could concentrate my attention on, I just looked at my notebook, my shoes, the desk, but I
could never looked in professors eyes. The situation changed completely when I started my first
job which was a promoter in an advertising company. I was a part of the team that performed
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different promotion campaigns. No matter whether it was consulting about an advertised product,
food tasting, giving free sample or presents for purchase, the goal was always the same: to talk
customers into buying our products. I had to be very persuasive while taking to potential buyer.
Therefore, I quickly realized that eye contact and pleasant smile were a great power. As
professor Gardner said, “In America, if you do not look people straight into their eyes, they think
you are lying!” I have to admit that it is true in Russia as well. As soon as started greeting
customers with a smile and maintain a strong eye contact, our sales went up rapidly. For
unknown to me reason, my new method worked especially well on male part of our society.
Even if the guys did not intent to buy a product and in many cases hated the whole conception of
promotion campaign, they went ahead and made a purchase just because they did not want to
upset me. My job was done! A smile and eye contact worked like a magic. Since then, I was
never afraid to look straight into people’s eyes.
Working as a promoter also helped me to learn how to control my temper and use the
voice in my favor. There were a lot of people who believed that the only purpose of promotion
campaign was to rob naïve people, to get money from them. So, they were going crazy,
screaming and cursing us. And there was another group of people who liked to ask million stupid
questions. One thing that all these people had in common is that they were extremely annoying!
Therefore, I had to find a way how to keep the situation under control: first to calm them down,
and then to get rid of them. So, I discovered another magic tool: my voice. It was not what I was
saying, but how I was saying it. I never raised my voice, instead I tried to talk slow and low and
to repeat the same phrase several time. In most cases unwanted buyer were gone in seconds!
Regarding other behaviors such as shaking hands and nodding the head while listening to
others, I am not afraid to say that they are the easiest parts of the puzzle for me. I always keep in
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mind that a strong handshake is the first sign of confidence, and gently nodding you head, you
show that you are interested in conversation, pay attention to the words of the speaker, and more
than that, you support what he/she is saying. However, I have one great problem which is time.
No matter how hard I try to be punctual, I am always under the risk of running late. I know how
important it is to be on time; therefore, I try to work on my problem. If talking about timing, the
assignment also points out that it is necessary to be aware of whether you are comfortable with
monochronic or polychronic style of dealing with things because if you can match your style
with the style of other people, it can to improve communication process. Going through the
statements offered in the assignment for evaluating, I got the score of 27 which means that I like
to do several things at a time and ignore the order. This is basically true. For example, while
working on this assignment, I checked my e-mail couple of time; I prepared diner; watched
television for a while. And this is my way of doing things. I have to switch the tasks in order to
keep my performance at a high level.
In conclusion, I would like to mention one political story. Just remember the recent
incident with Senator Craig when he was accused in inappropriate behavior in an airport
restroom. Whether his foot just slipped, like he said, or he was trying to pick up a piece of paper
from the floor, the policeman interpreted Senator’s movements as gay signals of sex proposition.
I think, this example illustrates very well how body language and other aspects of nonverbal
communication play a significant role in our life. And in order to make a right impression, we
have to know their meanings and to use them in a proper way.
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