How to Master Digital Body Language in the Hybrid Workplace

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For this week’s Workplace Intelligence Insider, I interviewed my good friend Erica Dhawan. Erica is a go-to thought leader on collaboration and a passionate communication junkie. In her latest book, Digital Body Language: How to Build Trust and Connection, No Matter the Distance , she combines cutting-edge research with engaging storytelling to decode the new signals and cues that have replaced traditional body language in our hybrid world.

What is digital body language, and why is it so important now that so many of us are in a hybrid work environment??

Digital Body Language serves the same purpose as traditional body language does in our face-to-face conversations and is important for all of the same reasons. We rely on non-verbal body language cues to connect and build trust with one another—and those skills are even harder to translate across a screen.?

We now infuse digital body language, which are the cues and signals that make up the subtext of our online messages. In the hybrid office, our digital communication tools—emails, text messaging, Zoom—have the potential of creating widespread misunderstanding and anxiety. Our word choices, response times, video meeting styles, punctuations, and email signatures form impressions that can either enhance or damage our work relationships with colleagues, bosses, and clients. In today’s digital world, building empathy and trust is no longer about what we say but how we say it with our digital body language.

Can you give us some examples of what good digital body language looks like, in practice?

As I describe in Digital Body Language, reading carefully is the new listening, and writing clearly is the new empathy. Before you send off that next email, pause and make sure that it is communicating the right message to the receiver. Every communication channel brings with it a set of underlying meanings and subtexts, so ask yourself if an email is the best way to convey the urgency and importance of the message or if a Slack or phone call would be a more efficient option.?

When we type, we move at lightning speed, which costs us accuracy, clarity, and respect. While brevity can make a person appear important, it can also hurt your team and your business. Getting an ambiguous email means the recipient has to spend time deciphering what it means, causing delays and potentially leading to costly mistakes. Proofreading emails before sending them to avoid making digital errors and if you don’t have time to give thoughtful attention to an email, send a quick reply acknowledging you received the message and that you plan to get back to it at greater length as soon as possible.

What does the future hold for digital communication and collaboration at work?

As the future becomes increasingly digital and even the most conservative, long-lasting fields and businesses look to reinvent themselves virtually, it’s more crucial than ever to master a common digital body language in order to enable clarity, speed, and efficiency. When I was writing my book, I learned that understanding the nuances of digital body language doesn’t merely solve problems, but it also opens up deeper, better ways for all of us to relate to one another and foster a sense of inclusion and belonging. In the work environment, this reduces friction, limits bureaucracy, and flattens the differences across genders, generations, and cultures. Alleviating a widespread source of professional confusion and pain, we can access a much broader diversity of perspectives and ideas. By establishing clear digital body language norms, we can succeed in the modern workplace and build stronger trust, connection, and authenticity among our teams in the future.

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