BODY LANGUAGE
Definition: Body language is the unconscious and conscious transmission and
interpretation of feelings, attitudes, and moods, through: body posture, movement,
physical state, position and relationship to other bodies, objects and surroundings,
facial expression and eye movement, the process of communicating what you are
feeling or thinking by the way you place and move your body rather than by words.
Importance of Body Language: When one expresses his/her feelings, it has
been said that:
• 55% of the communication consists of body language.
• 38% is expressed via the tone of voice or intonation and amazingly only
• 7% is communicated via words.
This means that we express most of our feeling (93%) in a non-verbal way and
our words only convey 7% of what we are saying or expressing.
Body Language is a significant aspect of modern communications and
relationships. Body Language is therefore very relevant to management and
leadership, and to all aspects of work and business where communications can
be seen and physically observed among people.
Body language is also very relevant to relationships outside of work, for
example, in families and parenting, behaving with friends, etc
Communication includes listening. In terms of observable body language, non-
verbal [non-spoken] signals are being exchanged whether these signals are
accompanied by spoken words or not.
Factors of Body Language: Body language is not just about how we hold and
move our bodies.
Body language potentially broadly encompasses:
• how we position our bodies
• our closeness to and the space between us and other people and how this
change
• our facial expressions
• our eyes especially and how our eyes move and focus, etc
• how we touch ourselves and others
General Elective NIFT Bangalore 2019
• how our bodies connect with other non-bodily things, for instance, pens,
spectacles, what we are carrying [books/laptop/mobile] and clothing
• signs of being distracted or of degree of focus/attention
• our breathing, and other less noticeable physical effects, for example our
heartbeat and perspiration
Body language tends not to include the pace, pitch, and intonation, volume,
variation, pauses, etc., of our voice.
Voice type and other audible signals are typically not included in body
language because they are audible 'verbal' signals rather than physical visual
ones, nevertheless the way the voice is used is a very significant [usually
unconscious] aspect of communication, aside from the bare words themselves.
More obviously, our eyes are a vital aspect of our body language. Our reactions
to other people's eyes - movement, focus, expression, etc - and their reactions to
our eyes - contribute greatly to mutual assessment and understanding,
consciously and unconsciously.
Our interpretation of body language, notably eyes and facial expressions, is
instinctive, and with a little thought and knowledge we can significantly
increase our conscious awareness of these signals: both the signals we transmit,
and the signals in others that we observe.
Doing so gives us a significant advantage in life - professionally and personally
- in our dealings with others.
Now, please go back to the notes on Rapport and Predicates
and try to weave that into this, to improve the effectiveness of
your overall Communication Skills.
General Elective NIFT Bangalore 2019