Body language - more important topic than you might think!

Already back in the 1970’s Dr. Albert Mehrabian established the 7/38/55 rule which suggests that the receiver of a message interprets the general emotions of the communication only by 7% of what you are actually saying through your mouth while 38% derives from the tone of voice and the remaining 55% from your body language.

So why is this important? Well for one it is very important that you know your own habits and ensure you do not have developed some sort of bad habit, body language wise, that can be interpreted as contradicting to the message you are trying to convey. Let’s say for instance you are trying to convey a message of calm and confidence while frantically clicking your pen. Because without a doubt, a person sensing a discrepancy between what you say and your displayed body language will always choose to believe the body language.

Secondly, it is also difficult for a person to act - i.e. lie - convincingly both in the way something is said as well as in the displayed body language, one or the other tends to give an indication that not all is right. It’s not always easy to pinpoint exactly what it is but you just get that “gut feeling” that something is not right.

So, make sure you know your own body language and trust your gut feeling!