Sometimes, it's what someone doesn't say or the attitudes and beliefs they betray non-verbally that communicate more than words and which really mean the most.

Author and trainer, Linda R. Dominguez, a coach with the Executive Coaching and Resource Network and guest presenter for an exclusive ExecuNet webinar, says non-verbal communication constitutes as much as 65 percent of any conversation you may engage in as a business leader.

Whether this communication is translated through your posture, the tone and volume of your speech, the tempo of your language and/or the overall image you portray, we're telegraphing our needs, desires and intentions whether we use words to voice them or not.

"It reveals a person's true spots," Dominguez says. "It's a 'tell'", she adds. "Sort of like in poker — you use your knowledge to successfully decode this and to clarify what's really going on with the person you're speaking with so you can ask questions" as the conversation unfolds.

Failing to pick up on non-verbal cues can certainly leave you at a disadvantage, particularly when discussing a critical business challenge, interviewing for a new leadership role and/or negotiating a salary increase. Yet, investing too much stock in another person's non-verbal communication can lead you to misinterpret his or her true meaning or the intention of their spoken words.

"You have to see everything in context," Dominguez says, "especially in the context of that person's overall communications style."

Failing to register non-verbal signals in the course of any important discussion can leave you uninformed and out of touch. If you really want to connect, go beyond listening with your ears and start listening with your eyes. Start interacting with your own body language to help ensure your physical behaviors don't contrast with the language you use and the purpose that drives you.


Please share what you have learned and your experiences with body language!

Joseph Daniel McCool
Joseph Daniel McCool is senior contributing editor with ExecuNet and principal of management recruiting/succession advisory firm The McCool Group. He is also the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, recognized widely as "one of the best business books of 2008," and its Brazilian Portuguese translation, Escolhendo Líderes, published in June 2010.

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