Nonverbal communication in business

There are five key elements that can make or break your attempt
at successful nonverbal communication in business:

Eye contact
Gestures
Movement
Posture, and
Written communication

Let's examine each nonverbal element in turn to see how we can
maximise your potential to communicate effectively...

Eye contact
~~~~~~~~~~~
Good eye contact helps your audience develop trust in you,
thereby helping you and your message appear credible. Poor eye
contact does exactly the opposite.

So what IS 'good' eye contact?

People rely on visual clues to help them decide on whether to
attend to a message or not. If they find that someone isn't
'looking' at them when they are being spoken to, they feel
uneasy.

So it is a wise business communicator that makes a point of
attempting to engage every member of the audience by looking at
them.

Now, this is of course easy if the audience is just a handful of
people, but in an auditorium it can be a much harder task. So
balance your time between these three areas:

slowly scanning the entire audience,

focusing on particular areas of your audience (perhaps
looking at the wall between two heads if you are still
intimidated by public speaking), and

looking at individual members of the audience for about five
seconds per person.

Looking at individual members of a large group can be 'tricky'
to get right at first.

Equally, it can be a fine balancing act if your audience
comprises of just one or two members -- spend too much time
looking them in the eyes and they will feel intimidated, stared
at, 'hunted down'.

So here's a useful tip: break your eye-to-eye contact down to
four or five second chunks.

That is, look at the other person in blocks that last four to
five seconds, then look away. That way they won't feel
intimidated.

Practice this timing yourself, away from others. Just look at a
spot on the wall, count to five, then look away. With practice
you will be able to develop a 'feel' for how long you have been
looking into your audience member's eyes and intuitively know
when to look away and focus on another person or object.

Gestures
~~~~~~~~
Most of us, when talking with our friends, use our hands and
face to help us describe an event or object - powerful nonverbal
aids.

We wave our arms about, turn our hands this way and that, roll
our eyes, raise our eyebrows, and smile or frown.

Yet many of us also, when presenting to others in a more formal
setting, 'clam up'.

Our audience of friends is no different from our business
audience