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Nonverbal Communication is very important in a workplace. You are most likely speaking to your colleagues throughout the day, but think about your body language, posture, eye contact, and facial expressions. Nonverbal communication affects every interaction you have. This type of communication plays a role in every social setting. Some examples are lunch, office parties, and after-work activities. According to Albert Mehrabian, a psychologist at University of California, Los Angeles, approximately 93 percent of communication is nonverbal, while words account for only seven percent. There are many different types of effective nonverbal communication at work. Strong eye contact, appropriate facial expressions, confident handshake, commanding posture and presence, and purposeful gestures. Strong eye contact is your primary tool for beginning nonverbal communication with others. Eye contact shows interest, involvement, and emotions. People are more likely to trust those who speak while maintaining eye contact. You can show you are paying attention to colleagues while listening by nodding occasionally, maintaining good eye contact, and holding a slight smile. In business, the handshake is one of the most important things because it is the only expression of touch. Having a confident handshake is imperative. Commanding posture and presence is reflected in the way a person sits and stands. This creates a dynamic presence and an attitude of leadership. Employees show messages by their sitting posture, whether they are leaning back comfortable in their chair or sitting on the very edge of their seat. When standing, make sure you stand up tall and straight to send a message of self-assurance and energy. Lastly, hand gestures emphasize the spoken word and add meaning. Try to avoid distracting gestures such as finger pointing, tapping, playing with your hair, and twisting a ring. Employees and business leaders should be trained on nonverbal communication tactics for face-to-face interactions and even correspondence over the internet. Email has its own nonverbal cues that can be learned and mastered over time. We communicate as many messages verbally as we do nonverbally. There are four different kinds of nonverbal communication. They are kinesics, proxemics, paralanguage, and chronemics. Kinesicsis the study of body movements, including posture. Some characteristics of kinetics or body movements include body shape, posture, height, weight, hair, and skin color. A nonverbal cue that is important is mode of dress. For example, higher up people tend to dress more formally than lower-ranking working people. Proxemics is the way people perceive and use space, including seating arrangements, physical space, and conversational distance. For example, employees that are higher up have better offices than employees with lower status. Paralanguage consists of variations in speech such as voice quality, volume, and pitch. Intelligence is often judged by how people speak. Chronemics is concerned with the use of time, such as being late or early, keeping others waiting, and other relationships. For example, being late for a meeting may send different messages including carelessness, lack of involvement and ambition. Sometimes you can not read what a person is feeling by looking at their facial expressions. A smile usually indicates agreement and warmth, but it can also indicate nervousness and fear. Nonverbal messages are an affluent source of information. Your own nonverbal messages can be useful when responding to others, making stronger connection with others. Workplaces embody their own unique standards about what nonverbal displays are appropriate. Communication skills are among the most important skills for businesspeople. Using nonverbal cues can enhance communication. Even when you are communicating verbally, you are also using nonverbal messages by the facial expressions. This can help show how you are feeling, positive or negative, towards what your colleagues are saying. Positive nonverbal communication helps colleagues in the workplace build positive relationships. Negative nonverbal communication can cause conflicts and other negative disturbances in the workplace. The way individuals deliver nonverbal messages can be just as important as verbal messages. When used with verbal communication, nonverbal communication helps you communicate your messages in a clearer and more significant way. You can use nonverbal communication to strengthen or liven up your conversation with others. Nonverbal communication affects job performance too. It can directly affect emotions, positive or negative, and the way you feel towards a boss or employee. Imagine your co-worker storms into the office, she is red faced and tight lipped and will not speak to anyone. You ask if she is alright, and she yells back in an angry tone, “I’m fine!” Which message are you going to believe? Her nonverbal behavior and voice tone, or her verbal one with words. Most likely you should believe the nonverbal because that is how she truly feels. Nonverbal communication has been shown to carry between 65% and 95% more impact than with actual words spoken, especially when emotion is involved. Nonverbal cues include all the ways you present and express yourself without using any words. Forbes adds that this is very important at work and in business because perception is reality. Nonverbal cues can help businesspeople determine other motivations and look over business interactions with more depth and insight then just relying on what someone said or printed words. Responding other people’s nonverbal cues is very important. You should always pay close attention to other’s body language when leading a meeting, group or just interacting with someone one-on-one. Their nonverbal cues can tell you when someone has a question or if they agree or disagree. By responding appropriately to others nonverbal cues, you show confidence and build trust with the other person. Nonverbal communication is one of the most crucial things is the workplace. When working with a team, your facial expressions and body language could show that you like what they are saying or not. You always have to be careful with that because it could come off the wrong way. The most important things when coming to nonverbal communication are eye contact, confident handshake, good posture, nice facial expressions. All in all, nonverbal communication is more important in the workplace than verbal communication because you belter understand someone based on their expressions than what they are saying.

Smith, J. (2014, June 09). 10 Nonverbal Cues That Convey Confidence At Work. Retrieved December 09, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/03/11/10-nonverbal-cues-that-convey-confidence-at-work/?sh=4b2c32e55e13

Center, U. (2018, December 05). Why Nonverbal Communication Matters in the Workplace. Retrieved December 09, 2020, from https://ucpathjobs.org/working-at-uc/nonverbal-communication-matters-workplace/

Mayhew, R. (2017, November 21). How to Interpret Nonverbal Messages in the Workplace. Retrieved December 09, 2020, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/interpret-nonverbal-messages-workplace-33559.html

Kudesia, R. S., & Elfenbein, H. A. (n.d.). Nonverbal communication in the workplace. Retrieved December 08, 2020, from https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/44199531/Kudesia_and_Elfenbein_-_2013_-_Nonverbal_communication_in_the_workplace.pdf?1459311741=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3D26_Nonverbal_communication_in_the_workpl.pdf&Expires=1607469981&Signature=TnaiIM9M7IxiT2S45mNMg613~OL7V-qDaQT0ot1ROMuu7XC2xQSxpvGNO3vvLXXieV6GYBFgXaJVbANcXXrBoVwAb4yq5Qfu7BdZoSzeOk6nkebwixlQTDPB1PcL0Eo9Jztk10XISnKckR4FpbetcGqNUnG1Gp4V-ee0cOGzFz9bZ7PuXTAv1y2Jb~oN-Y-z1gN9qoNjLm1ducK57JWFEzeQgkbPwPtcLH3q6n4yzKQK8TaZOkiooCaGj2FOAk6ka0ftmtFVvB8cJteHVZl5M3MdSotJI7hXJCL90qcDR0YduFDNcc02hRtQw0eaxb7qjgklLZjY~5-24P8dEM6BzA__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA