Your Body Language Matters
Suzanne Lucas
Keynote Speaking | Writing | Webinars | ChatGPT for HR | Improv Comedy | If you want to know how to be a better HR leader, you've come to the right place.
A couple of weeks ago, I saw Donat & Bj?rn from anundpfirsich gmbh alongside Djibril Traoré 's Improlab do a very funny Improv show.
In Swiss German.
Which I don't speak.
I do speak passable high German (I have a B2 certificate if that means anything to you), but I don't speak the local dialect. And Donat & Bj?rn speak the Zurich dialect, which I'm even less familiar with.
And I laughed myself silly.
But wait, you don't speak that language! What were you laughing at?
Now, as I said, I do speak passable high German, and both the Basel and Zurich dialects are based in German, so there is a lot of overlap. I figured I understood about 50 percent of the words, but I understood a good 90 percent of the show. How? I understood what they were doing through movement.
Their body language helped me follow the stories and allowed me to piece together what I understood from the spoken words. I wouldn't have understood nearly as well as if it had been an hour and a half of people standing on a stage and speaking robotically.
(Note: This is in a Swiss dialect, with subtitles in High German, but if you don't speak High German either, see how much you can figure out.)
I'm not going to leap around a conference room, or do big dramatic gestures, and everyone I work with speaks English, anyway. What is the point?
First, just think how much better life would be if you were leaping around a conference room and making big dramatic gestures. But, body movements, however slight, convey a lot of information.
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Most likely, you don't speak the same language as everyone you work with anyway. It all may be English (or whatever language you speak at work), but you all understand it differently.
How you use your hands, facial expressions
If you want people to understand your meaning, ensure your body language matches your message
When communicating a serious issue
Good communication
??Become the Obvious Hire in Medical Sales (w/o applying online) | Resumes | LinkedIn Profiles | Branding | LinkedIn Top Voice | ?? Biotech, ?? Med Tech, ?? Device, ?? Pharma → DM me to start ??
1 年Syya Yasotornrat this may be really interesting to you, as well!
Content Marketing Strategy & Creation | Fractional Content Mercenary | Eight-time Short Film Participant | Novelist | Marathoner | Dad
1 年Love the "she did not take his money" example. As a writer, this is huge for me when writing dialogue.
Fractional Operations Support 2nd Act Temp Emp/Retired Co- Founder Little River Trading Co. & Cycology Bicycles
1 年Humor is the best sense we all have in common. I agree, body language is critical. Eye contact being very important!
Thank you for this great article on the importance of body communication. In our performance skills training sessions - in the context of a meeting, a presentation or a conversation - we experience time and again how much we communicate non-verbally. Real authenticity is created when the body language and the content of what is being said match.
Human Resources Executive ? Organizational Design & Development ? Employee Relations ? Transforming Cultures
1 年I've always been accused of talking with my hands...but it helps me convey the message!