Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

Let’s get started. You’re probably sitting in a chair just like I am right now and what I want you to do is to think about this: Feelings and words matter. Body language accounts for 55% of the way humans communicate. 38% is in a tone so when I have a tone like that maybe it startles you for a second. Tone is very important, so when we’re communicating with people as managers, we need to think about our tone. The words that we’re using are 7%. 7%! words are powerful and words can cut so even though words are not used as much as body language and tone, your word choices matter as humans assign meaning and context to the words used in communication.

Your word choices matter, your tone matters, as well as your body language, so if you are closed off and crossing your arms and you’re very tense around people and you just exhibit a lot of stress, this is an opportunity to become more self-aware as a manager and as someone in a leadership role because we want to create a safe space for people. If we create a safe space for people, people typically tell us more. They tell us what’s going on and that’s a good thing in business because we want to know what’s going on with our people so we can manage different programs, different product rollouts, you name it. Humans do amazing work and the IP intellectual property is from our humans, so knowing how to communicate effectively matters.

ACTIVITY

The next thing we’re going to do is actual activity. What I want you to do right now is to think of an animal you want to act out for people to guess (or the imaginary person next to you if you are taking this course alone). Then, start acting out your craziest animal without saying anything. Don’t say a word. If you want to be this donkey on the slide over here you can be the donkey. If you want to be a zebra, if you want to be a giraffe, a cow, a pig whatever take five seconds right now and get up out of your chair. One, two, three, four, five and start acting like an animal. Go crazy. You could do it even if you’re in a cubicle watching this at work. You can do it. Nobody will care. Just literally five seconds act like an animal. Have fun. Let loose.

Here we go. One, two, three, four, five. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Be an animal. Be an animal.