AN OVERVIEW - NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

AN OVERVIEW - NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Human beings have always communicated with other members of the species. Before spoken languages were developed, they used different parts of the body to convey their emotions, feelings and ideas. People have been aware of using parts of the body to convey their thoughts since times immemorial. Whenever brain assumes certain attitude, it gets communicated to people around through body parts as they respond intuitively with specific actions, gestures and expressions. Persons trained in body language can secure reliable feedback from their audience and distinguish when the speaker is telling a truth or lie. Women have eyes for details and are more receptive than men in picking up these cues and clues.
Objective of learning body language is to gain knowledge and modify own behaviour, change oral communication in line with the feedback and respond quickly for better total impact on the audience. Monitoring non-verbal cues enables people to improve interaction, establish rapport by learning what pleases / offends and bring about a subconscious motivation to conscious level for complete understanding with others.
Communication is 7 % verbal, 38 % vocal and 55 % non-verbal – nearly 80 % coming from the upper part of the body. Advantages to managers are that body language is visual, happens simultaneous to oral communication, makes message more intense, enhance environment for interaction / negotiation and is very effective in small gatherings. Limitations are that, being non-verbal, it is not taken as seriously as oral / written communications, gets influenced by local culture / customs, listeners / observers have to be very careful and attentive to notice and infer and is not very effective in large gatherings.
It is now recognized that besides body parts, clothing, hair styles, jewellery, accessories, cosmetics / perfumes and even pair of spectacles / sunglasses play significant role in body language. A person is also known by his dress and address.
Five major areas of study of body language are kinesics (movements of body parts), paralinguistic (voice power), proximics (concept of personal spaces), chronomics (impact of time and timing) and neuro linguistic programming (role and influence of human senses and mind).
Kinesics is the most important part of non-verbal communication and covers facial expressions including smiling, eye contacts and related gazing, glancing and eye blocking, hands, palms, handshakes, double handshakes, arms etc, thumbs / fingers and legs, body postures, standing / walking styles etc.