Are you sending the right messages?

Communication is generally thought of as the words that are said to another person. In reality, there is another type that is used much more often called non-verbal communication. Albert Mehrabian did a study of verbal vs non-verbal communication in 1960. His work showed that non-verbal communication is broken up into two types and is shown to drive 93% of the messages that people receive when you are communicating. I was surprised to see that the percentage was so high, but after I thought about it, it made sense.

The first type of non-verbal communication is what you hear from the other person. Some examples would be the tone of voice that they use, how clear their voice is and how expressive that they are during conversations. Are they speaking really loudly or using an angry tone when they speak? You become so focused on what is causing them to sound that way that you can’t focus on what the person is actually saying. Do they repeat the same phrases throughout the presentation or use a tone that doesn’t connect with the audience? How a speaker delivers the information accounts for 38% of the messages that you receive.

The second type of non-verbal communication is what you see while the person is talking. What expressions are on their face, what are they wearing, how are they standing, what type of gestures do they make and do they make eye contact with you? What you see them doing as they speak accounts for 55% of messages that you receive. Are they crossing their arms, failing to make eye contact with the audience or making the same gesture repeatedly? If you are the speaker, the importance of what you are saying will be completely overshadowed if you are doing one of these things and don’t recognize it.

Being aware of the non-verbal messages that you are sending is very important. Some of these examples could affect your credibility and impact the perception that people have of you. Practice what you will say in front of a group of friends to get feedback from them. Practice where the presentation will be held to calm down your nerves. Video yourself to help identify the non-verbal cues that you may be sending without realizing it. What you have to say to others is important and you want to make sure that they see, hear and feel the message that you want to send to them.

Announcement on the ReVISION Program: We have had a great response to the program! Thank you to all who have expressed interest! We have been asked if we could offer it at different times to allow everyone the opportunity to be a part of it.

In order to do that we are moving the start date to February 20th where sessions will be available at Noon (CST) and 7:00pm (CST).

We will also offer an 8:00am on February 21st.

If you haven’t heard about the program yet or would like more information, you can click on this link!

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