Nonverbal messages are far more powerful than verbal and paying attention to details is the key when creating one’s image/brand as well as understanding other people.
Eye contact and facial expressions are very powerful tools for non-verbal communication. You can express happiness, sadness, confidence, fear, surprise, and a full range of emotions with your eyes, lips, and mouth.
Your posture and the way your walk speaks louder than words. People with good posture look powerful, graceful and confident. Bad posture is associated with old age and a low spirit.
In our book Get Rid of your Accent Part Two we talk about posture preparation as part of working on your voice power.
Gestures are an important part of non-verbal communication. Lack of gestures may be seen as stiffness of the body and show a lack of confidence. Scratching your head or any part of the body can look a bit simple and demonstrate a lack of upbringing. Touching and trying to improve your hair may show that you are not sure of your looks and feel you are not enough. Too many gestures and repetitive gestures may imply that you are trying too hard to compensate for a lack of confidence.
People can learn to use gestures to their advantage. Empathic gestures such as nodding your head show that you hear another person and understand them. This also can be added with the appropriate tone of voice and intonation. You can master it with the book Get Rid of your Accent Part Two, Advance Level.
Finally, clothes, shoes, hair, nails, jewelry and makeup are also part of non-verbal communication. When clothes look clean, expensive and tastefully put together they communicate wealth, culture and status, whilst dirty, smelly clothes with holes reveal the opposite picture.
It is vital that verbal messages and properly supported and enhanced by nonverbal clues to create a credible presence and powerful messages.