Body Language - Basics and Introduction

Body language is a powerful concept which successful people tend to understand well.

So can you. The study and theory of body language has become popular in recent years because psychologists have been able to understand what we 'say' through our bodily gestures and facial expressions, so as to translate our body language, revealing its underlying feelings and attitudes.

The term 'non-verbal communications' tends to be used in a wider sense, and all these terms are somewhat vague. The terms 'body language' and 'non-verbal communications' are broadly interchangeable.

For example:

Does body language include facial expression and eye movement? - Usually, yes.

What about breathing and perspiration? - This depends on your definition of body language.

And while tone and pitch of voice are part of verbal signals, are these part of body language too? - Not normally, but arguably so, especially as you could ignore them if considering only the spoken words and physical gestures/expressions. There are no absolute right/wrong answers to these questions. It's a matter of interpretation. A good reason for broadening the scope of body language is to avoid missing important signals which might not be considered within a narrow definition of body language.

It is safe to say that body language represents a very significant proportion of meaning that is conveyed and interpreted between people. Many body language experts seem to agree that that between 50-80% of all human communications are non-verbal. So while body language statistics vary according to situation, it is generally accepted that non-verbal communications are very important in how we understand each other (or fail to), especially in face-to-face and one-to-one communications, and most definitely when the communications involve an emotional or attitudinal element.

Body language is especially crucial when we meet someone for the first time.

We form our opinions of someone we meet for the first time in just a few seconds, and this initial instinctual assessment is based far more on what we see and feel about the other person than on the words they speak. On many occasions we form a strong view about a new person before they speak a single word.

As a conclusion, understanding and interpreting Body language is a very important skill for all levels of managers and supervisors and that is the reason for covering this important topic thoroughly at our Managerial and Superviosrs programs at Meirc Training & Consulting. we truly belive that this skill is a must nowdays for all levels of managers who want to build rapport with thier enployees, colleagues, and management.