It's all about your "Body Language"

Face-to-Face Communication: It’s all about your ‘Body Language’.

 

I have just completed a two days course with Hemsley Fraser which was happily sponsored by my employer.  The course was about “Better Communication at Work”.  I am sure that might sound like a clichés or mundane to some of us, right?   

 

The beautiful thing about this training is the amount of role play and activities you do with other delegates.  These are people you are meeting for the first time and in my case we were 10 in total.

 

During the training I discovered how much your communication can be misinterpreted by your “Body Language”.  A huge 55% goes into your message during a face-to-face conversation.  The body language encompasses a few things; I am not referring to just your physical appearance. It involves maintaining a healthy level of eye contact (80/20% rule), appropriate hand gestures, nodding with and avoiding interruption with the other person.

 

In addition, other areas of the training that I did enjoy were how important it is to be able to ask the right questions.   

If You want to get more information from someone: use wide open questions

If you want to make a suggestions use a Hypothetical question,

If you need a deeper understanding of something: use a probing question,

if you wan to lead the person towards a view you already share, then you use a leading question.

 

I hope that from my small experience with this training others might see a need to go attend.

 

Terry

 

About Me:

I am a co-founder and Executive Director of Happysend.com. An eCommerce site dedicated in providing an easy and effective way for Cameroonians in the Diaspora to help their family and friends back in Cameroon.  Use it to buy TOP-UP airtime/credits for your DAD/MUM’s phone, Buy groceries for the home and any household items: pots, fans, microwave etc. Visit it and find out more. www.happysend.com

Published Thursday, 19 Jun. 2008. 00:06

COMMENTS

 
Mon, 23 Jun. 2008. 13:06 by Atia

Do u receive my emails? I have been waiting for a response ever since?

Thu, 09 Apr. 2009. 13:04 by Valdo

Nice blog post. you have just emphasized on the monumental importance of the right body language. I thinks such trainings are good as long as you make the effort to remember them when it matters. But more often than not, they are only good for one off meetings and encounters ( interviews etc) where character/mannerism can be masked due to the limited time frame.
In situations where you are compelled to apply such learnt body language techniques for a long period of time with the same 'adversaries', you have to be a genius to keep up masking what is not really you. There comes the problem, you are tagged in the subconscious of others as inconsistent,fluctuating and even a 'cheat'.
The conclusion is that, No matter how long the night will be, the sun will finally rise. Eventhough there is nothing bad in using a light bulb at night.

 

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