IMPORTANCE OF BODY LANGUAGE

IMPORTANCE OF BODY LANGUAGE

Researches have confirmed that verbal communication, both oral and written, primarily helps in conveying information and non-verbal communication assists in negotiating inter-personal attitudes and behaviour. In some cases, non-verbal communication even substitutes oral communication - a woman can give a man a „look to kill‟ without speaking a word.
In respect of body language and the rules it follows, human beings are at the same stage of development as other animals and are governed by the biological rules that control their actions in the form of gestures, expressions and sounds. It is rather interesting to know that human beings are rarely aware of their postures, expressions and sounds that accompany their oral messaging.
Persons trained well in body language can reap the following benefits:

(1) Securing reliable feedback

Body does not lie although human beings can easily be swayed in to telling things that are not true. A perceptive and trained speaker can easily find out if he is speaking above, below or in line with the level of understanding of the audience and change / modify the message and his style to suit.

(2) Distinguishing truth from lie

Sensitive observers of body language can capture cues from non-verbal communication and compare it with the verbal communication and if they do not match, they get the uncanny feeling that the speaker is not telling the truth. There is a famous maxim, „Words may lie but the body seldom does‟. Body language has been described as the language all speak but very few understand it.

(3) Women are more perceptive that men

Also called „women intuition‟, they have an innate ability to pick up and decipher non-verbal signs and signals and have an eye for details. No wonder, few husbands can lie successfully to their wives. Conversely, most women can pull a fast one on their men without their realizing it. Female intuition is very high among women who have grown up children. Mothers solely rely on non-verbal communication to interact with the child for the first one year or so.