We start forming impressions of people we meet from the moment we set eyes on them. A large part of the initial impression that you create comes from your body language. Your posture, facial expression, eye contact, and gestures speak louder than the words you say. We all interpret body language all the time on a subconscious level.

1. Face

The face is the most expressive part of the body. If you are feeling anxious then your facial expression may lead you to appear aloof, disapproving, or disinterested. You can break this misrepresentation by making a conscious effort to smile. Your smile is one of the strongest tools you have in meeting new people. It will help you appear warm, open, friendly, and confident.

2. Eyes

Our eyes give clues to our emotions. A direct stare implies intensity. It may also mean romantic interest, aggression, or fear. Making very little eye contact can either convey shyness or submissiveness. The middle ground of a gaze says that you are interested, secure, and at ease.

3. Hands

Your hands are also very expressive. Open gestures tend to make you appear open and honest. By pointing your finger, or moving your hands closer together, you can draw emphasis to what you are saying. Used in moderation, hand gestures can make you seem enthusiastic and committed to your topic. Making too many gestures can make you appear nervous and uncontrolled. Wringing your hands or touching your sleeves, face, etc. can make you appear tense, nervous, and sometimes dishonest.

4. Posture

The way you hold yourself, your posture, makes a big contribution to your body language and conveys your level of self-confidence. By orienting your body towards someone, you show attentiveness. By falling away from them or leaning back, you show a lack of interest and some level of reserve. When we are feeling low in confidence and want to hide away, we hunch our shoulders and keep our heads down. When we are feeling aggressive or are trying to defend our space, we puff ourselves up. A relaxed body posture will help you to appear and feel more relaxed and confident.

Your posture gives signals about your interest in something, your openness, and attentiveness. It also gives clues as to your status within a group.

In summary, our face, eyes, hands (gestures), and posture express what is going on inside of us. They give clues to others and to us as to whether the words we say are consistent with what we are really feeling. Being aware of our body language can allow us to send a consistent message. Smiling, making eye contact, using open gestures, and using good posture can bring up our level of self confidence.

This page represents a considerable amount of research in body language. What we have compiled is a list of specific gestures and their likely interpretations. Please realize; however, that mood, behavior, and emotion are comprised of several non-verbal cues in succession or all at once and it is unrealistic to assume that one particular gesture in and of itself constitutes the mood or behavior of the other person.

Arm/Leg Gestures

· Crossed arms = Defensive, opposing thoughts

· Crossed legs or ankles = Competitive, defensive, or opposing thoughts

· Partial arm cross where one hand is gripping bicep = Lack of self-confidence

· Open arms, hands = Open-minded, approachable

· Leaning forward with closed arms and/or hands = Aggression, fighting stance

· Exposed wrists (female) = Courtship

Hand Gestures

· Clenched hands = Frustration, anger

· Fidgeting = Anxiety, apprehension

· Finger tapping = Boredom

· Hand-steepling (hands like a church steeple) = Confidence

· Hands on hips = Confidence or impatience

· Hands on table = Poise

· Finger Pointing = Aggressive

· Palms down = Confidence, assertiveness, dominance

· Palms up = Vulnerability, non-aggressiveness

· Handshaking with the other side’s palm up = Giving you the control

· Handshaking with the other side’s palm down = Taking the control

· Handshaking with the thumb pointed up = Shaking like a man

· Sweaty palms = Anxiety, stress, fear

· Rubbing the palms together = Positive Expectation

· Hands interlocked together behind the small of the back = Superiority

· Thumbs tucked in belt with fingers pointed down (males) = Sexually aggressive, virile

· One thumb caught in front pocket (females) = Sexually aggressive

Head Gestures

· Cocked head = Interest, attentive

· Frequent nodding = Enthusiasm

· Head tilted downwards = Negative attitude

· Head tilted back = Superior attitude

· Head toss = Flirting, courtship

Facial Gestures

· Tense jaw muscles = Anger

· Tense mouth = frustration, anger, determination

· Facial flushing (blushing) = anger, embarrassment, physical exertion, shame

· Lowered eyebrows = Disagreement, doubt, uncertainty

· Raised eyebrows = Adds intensity to facial expressions

Hand to Face/Head Gestures

· Eye rubbing = Indicates deception

· Nose rubbing = Dislike or disagreement with the subject or issue

· Ear rubbing = Listener subconsciously blocking words they don’t want to hear.

· Chin Stroking = Making a decision

· Chin resting in between thumb and forefinger pointing upwards = Critical judgment

· Hands or fingers blocking mouth = deceit or surprise

· Head propped up by hands = Disinterest or disrespect

· Face buried in open hands = Extreme emotional distress or sadness

· Both hands interlocked behind head = Show of dominance or superiority

· One hand touching the back of head = Uncertainty, conflict

· Fingertips to lips = Self-consoling gesture used to divert attention. Unexpressed emotion

· Fingertips in mouth = Person is under pressure, stressed

· Neck scratch = Signal of doubt or uncertainty

· The collar pull = Signals deception

Posture

· Leaning forward = Enthusiasm

· Slouching, leaning back = Challenging

· Standing erect = proud, angry

· Straddling a chair = Defensive, YOU against ME

·

Vocalics

· Throat-clearing = Nervousness

Eye Gestures

· Eye roll = Dismissive of the idea being presented, indicates superiority

· Side glance = Suspicion

· Perpetual eye blinking = Deception

Source: http://www.synergyinstituteonline.com

Check out our course Business Communications to learn more.

We need to write effectively to communicate with their peers, lecturers, professional colleagues and employers.  Good communication skills are at the top of the list of what potential employers look for in new entrants. The vast majority of business transactions involve written communication of some kind. Employers often express concern that employees have inadequate basic written communication skills. It is generally expected that university graduates have good literacy skills that can transfer into various work contexts, but research shows that this is not always the case.

Written communication is the ability to use the conventions of disciplinary discourse to communicate effectively in writing with a range of audiences, in a variety of modes (e.g., persuasion, argument, exposition), as context requires, using a number of different means (e.g., graphical, statistical, audio-visual and technological).

The six ‘C’s of effective writing

“Effective business correspondence yields results because it achieves two basic objectives.

First, it conveys a clear and unambiguous message to the reader and second, it produces goodwill in that reader. To achieve these two objectives, the writer must write:

• clearly:
• coherently;
• concisely;
• correctly; with
• courtesy; and
• confidence.

These characteristics are the result of careful planning, writing in plain English, and critical editing.”  Dwyer, J. (1993). The Business Communication Handbook , (3 rd ed.). New York: Prentice Hall, p.186.

For those of you that would like to learn more about written communication simply click on the courses below from Griffith University.  You can also expand your knowledge of communication skills by trying our Business Communication Course.

Griffith online writing skills course:

This online course was developed by Dr Marilyn Ford to improve students’ writing skills. The course is broken into three self-paced components, which cover basic grammar and writing skills.

Ref: The Griffith Graduate Site

When we’re in school or at work, we’re taught to improve our words. We learn to improve our language and words to impress. We learn to construct clever chains of words to gain an upper hand and to communicate more clearly. But when we grow up we learn very little beyond improving our words.

1. …words are only 7 percent of your communication.
The rest is your voice tonality (38 percent) and your body language at 55 percent. That’s according to research done by Albert Mehrabian, currently Professor Emeritus in psychology at UCLA. These numbers may vary depending upon the situation and what is communicated (for instance, talking over the phone is obviously different from talking face to face) but body language is a very important part of communication.

2. Increase your attractiveness
It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. A better posture, a more open body language, a more controlled and focused body language will make everyone more attractive. And not just in a sexual way but when talking to new friends or in job interviews and business meetings.

3. Emotions are linked to your body language
Emotions work backwards too. If you feel good you’ll smile. If you force yourself to smile you’ll feel good too. If you feel tired or down you might sit slumped down. If you sit slumped down you’ll feel more tired and negative. Just try to sit straight up for 5 minutes and feel the difference in energy from half-lying in your chair.

4. Reduce mixed messages
If you’re in a job interview and you talk with a steady voice and say all the confident things you should but your body language tells your maybe-employers that you are very nervous or guarded then you are incongruent (and perhaps without that job). What you want is be congruent, that is for your words, your voice and your body language to say the same thing.

5. Improve your communication skills
If you improve your body language you can get your thoughts across in a more effective way. You can create a connection to another person more easily. When using more powerful and appropriately balanced body language your communication skills become more focused and better.

6. Better first impressions
Everyone stereotypes everyone on first impression, even if we are reluctant to do it. We all get a first impression of a new person that creates a mental image of his or her personality in our minds. That image of you often lasts. Having a better body language will consistently give people a more positive mental snapshot of you.

You can also enhance your knowledge and understanding of body language by registering for our Business Communications course where we look at the whole area of body language and communication.  This course covers:

• Body Language
• Written Communication
• Oral Communication
• Communication Targets

Ref: Article by Henrik Edberg “6 reasons to improve your body language”, the Postitivity Blog.