Leadership Skills

Non-verbal Communication

Non-verbal communication includes body language, tone of voice, inflection, distance, facial expressions, gestures, posture, stance, eye movements, and any other type of behavior that communicates a message. Non-verbal cues may reinforce a message or cause the receiver to doubt the sincerity of the message. Most people focus more on the non-verbal message than on the words of the verbal message. Non-verbal signals may differ between cultures, too. Here are some examples:

• Eye contact: In the United States, maintaining appropriate eye contact shows interest, whereas lack of eye contact may show dishonesty, dislike, or boredom. In some Asian countries, direct eye contact may be consider rude; Arabic cultures maintain eye contact longer than those in the US.
• Proximity: In western culture, closer proximity to someone shows that the relationship is intimate. In Latin America and the Middle East, the personal comfort zone is much closer, and standing too close is not necessarily a sign of intimacy.
• Posture: This is how a person stands, holds oneself, and connects with the other person. In general, someone who is leaning into the other person is seen as more positive than someone who is leaning backwards. Sitting with crossed legs may be offensive to people from Ghana and Turkey, and showing the soles of your feet is offensive to Thai and Saudi Arabian cultures.
• Gestures: Many gestures are cultural, such as waving your hand for hello or goodbye. However, some common western gestures could insult people from other cultures. For example, the okay sign is vulgar in Latin America, and the reverse V-sign is offensive in the UK, Australia, and South Africa.

It is important that the non-verbal and verbal messages match because if they do not, the receiver will distrust the sender and not take the message seriously. Most first impressions are through non-verbal communication.

Non-verbal gestures

Listed in the table below are some Non-verbal behaviors and possible meanings. Because there are many cultural differences, you may attribute different meanings to these behaviors.