What is Nonverbal Communication?
What is nonverbal communication? Nonverbal communication can be best defined as the procedure of communicating with a person or party without using any form of speech to grab an audience attention or to exploit a message. Non verbal communication is often used to make an expression of a thought or thoughts and make your message more appealing and interesting to whom you are speaking.
Importance of using Nonverbal Communication
What is the importance of nonverbal communication? Have you ever been in a situation where you stall while trying to express a message or thought in any form of communication to a person or party, then found yourself with a poor response? Nonverbal messages can provide a crisper communication making your message be exploited with intensity.
Now imagine a world where all we where able to sense was hearing. Well without eyesight, you sure enough wouldn’t be able to build form of trust. We will lose most of the message transmitted between people; resulting to an incredible amount of confusion amongst peers, making conversation more difficult to interpret.
Also it’s not always what you say, but how you say it, which as a result proves to be a success when transferring a message from one to the other, by making gestures, which plays a big role in nonverbal communication. Without any movement or posture in communication it would be a dull conversation and would minimize all interest to what you’re saying. Also, not all people may hear for either x reason, and some people just simply find it more comfortable to read a message rather than to listen. Thus is important to have the presence of nonverbal communication in expressing a thought.
Types of Nonverbal Communication
What are the types of nonverbal communication? There are 5 types of nonverbal communication; the 5 types of nonverbal communication are the following:
• Eye contact
• Gestures
• Movement
• Posture
• Written Communication
Eye contact: Eye contact is one of the forms to nonverbal communication. Eye contact is most effective in the goal to gain someone’s trust, since it is a form of letting someone know that your are focused on them, thus gives a person a sign to either respond to a message or not.
Gestures: Gestures are important in nonverbal communication since it allows you to interest the person by showing the bigger picture to what you are saying. For instance, when your friends are present you tend use your hands and face when you are speaking and describing a thought, for example you may say “I went fishing last Sunday and I caught a big fish!” To explain the size you may show the size of the fish you caught with your hands.
Another example may be when you are describing an incident where you where upset such as, “My little brother destroyed my project, so then I was really mad!” to describe how mad you where you may show it with a face expression by frowning. These are just some of the examples of the use of gestures.
Movement: Movement is the key to obtain a less dull conversation that will eventually attract people to have more interest to your speech, since the person becomes more curious about what you have to say. The movement are not successful are movements you make when you are shaking of nervousness but is the movement that is used to obtain the audience attention. Movement naturally catches a person’s eyes, like for instance when you are focused watching a settled object and all of a sudden in the corner of your eye you see something move, your attention will rapidly turn to focus all attention to that object that moved.
Posture: Having good posture is very important not only because it is helps you breathe better, and calms your nerves, but it shows confidence trust and power in you.
Written Communication: Written communication is the communication with a person whom you wish to communicate with in a written format such as a business memo or business letter. Written communication is very important since there will be times where you will need to exploit a message but time is crucial, the business can’t sacrifice the time to gather together for a meeting, even though your message is important.
Since you need to express your message in some way, using written communication will indeed be your solution. In written communication you have the opportunity to explain the issue and solve problems by either explaining a new policy, an introduction of a new product, or simply to persuade to take upon a new action, such as to attend a meeting, and follow a new work procedure.
How to Perform with Nonverbal Communication
Remember that Communicating is an art form when used correctly, whether your speech is too formal, and or too lengthy, nonverbal communication can help manage what you want to express. First of all you will want to apply in non verbal communication good eye contact. In order to have good eye contact you will want to spread your attention through out the room (that is if you are speaking to an audience) by looking at one person for a few seconds and then move on by looking at another person, proceed with this process with every person in the room.
Try to have the presence of gestures to describe an action, the use of hands and face will certainly captivate the audience by having their focused attention to what you are saying. Third of all use movement in your speech, since it is natural for humans to be drawn to movement, and it is definitely what you want as for the audience to have all attention towards you. Have good posture for your own health as well as to show confidence, trust, and power. Remember your posture indicates that you are either confident or scared. To have good posture you will want to have your back straight, your shoulders back with out slouching them, make moderate distance between feet, and have your head high.
Finally when you apply written communication for a task, ask yourself, what type of written communication is suitable for the situation? If you are writing a letter to another organization, customer, client, or to other relevant parties you will find that a business letter will be more convenient form of communication. If you are writing a letter to your employees, managers, or any person within the organization, the most suitable form of written communication that will certainly be more convenient will be a business memo. When you have decided what type of written communication is more suitable for the task you will want to avoid using nicknames and poor grammar.
When using written communications either in form of letter or memo, include every important detail as possible; remember the more explanation the more the reader understands. Proof read your work to make sure everything is organized, neat, and is done correctly. In a business letter remember to include your address as well as the date and your printed name followed by a signature. When writing a business letter, don’t forget to be as specific as possible when typing the subject, this will allow you to give the reader an idea of what the memo is about. Finally it is up to your decision if you want to include your job title followed by your signature in a business letter.
