Are You Embarrassed By Your Body Language Skills? Here’s What to Do
In today’s world communication is a very powerful tool to convey one’s feelings, ideas, thoughts, likes, dislikes, etc. So is communication only through words? Are the words we say to convey the actual meaning or intention we want to convey? Does the other person understand effectively what we say?
Guys, we might have negative to neutral answers for such questions. This is because communication involves three parameters. These comprise of
1. Verbal content. What we say, our words which we use to convey a message. The weightage of verbal content in communication is only 7%. Most of us give this more important than the other parameters.
2. Paralanguage. This includes voice tonality and inflection that are used while saying a word. The weightage of paralanguage in communication is 35%. So maximum fights that happen in communication are through voice tonality. We can master this by practice.
3. Body Language. This includes the posture of the body and the gestures we make during a conversation. The weightage of body language is maximum i.e. 58%. More than half of our effective communication is through body language. We should give this parameter utter importance as it consists of a whopping 58% in communication.
After getting a basic overview of communication parameters, let’s discuss things to keep in mind regarding body language so we do not create a negative impression on others.
- Never Cross Legs
Crossing legs in a conversation usually mean that the person is not interested in the conversation or wants to escape it. You can notice that the person with crossed legs usually takes less part in the conversation and negatively impacts others.
It is not at all advisable to sit with crossed legs as it creates a negative impression. So avoid crossing the legs.
Here, there is an exception though. If the legs are crossed from the ankle and the person’s body is leaned back, it generally signals that the person is relaxed and interested in the talk.
2. Never Cross Arms
Crossing arms also signals a negative impression as it seems that the person is trying to defend himself/herself by protecting the chest with folded arms. This also shows constricted bodies for protection from some kind of dangers.
3. Do not touch your face
Touching your face during a conversation also shows some kind of nervousness. So try to avoid this habit if you have one. Moreover touching your face breaks the bonding and link created during your conversation. You will never see great communicators touching their faces because they know the effect of this action.
4. Make an eye contact
Always try to make eye contact with the other person. That way the opposite person will develop an interest in your talk and would feel connected with you. Hereby if there is positive eye contact, it shows honesty of a person as we all know that the person who is being dishonest or has cheated will try to avoid eye contact. Here one thing should be noted that eye contact and staring are two different things!
5. Legs direction
Our legs should be facing the direction of the communicator. This way we know that the person is really interested in the conversation or wants to escape it. If the direction of the legs is towards the door then we know that person wants to leave. So we should be having this information to tackle this communication problem.
6. Firm Handshake
Last but not the least, we need to ensure that we have a very firm handshake as it shows our confidence and attitude towards life. This is important as things like the nature and body structure of a person can be determined by the handshake he/she does.
All of these parameters are an integral part of body language. I hope that you enjoyed reading this article and were briefed with some of the basics of body language tips that can be used in meetings, conversations, dates, etc. Discussing more on this topic will make ideas clear so don’t forget to drop in your valuable comments in the comment box which will make the topic interesting for you and others reading this too.
Written by: Tanmay Shah (Instagram: @tanmay_012)
Vociferous Writers (Instagram: @vociferouswriters)
